Vassall Morton; A Novel (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856. Excerpt: ... the brink of the lake, at the foot of the garden. It was the spot which had been most sweet and most bitter in the latter's recollections. "Do you remember, Edith, when we last stood here?" "How could I ever forget?" "The years that have passed since are like a nightmare. I could believe them so; but that I feel their marks." "And I, as well; we were boy and girl then." "At least, I was a boy; and, do you know, I find you different from what I had pictured you." "Should I be sorry for it, or glad?" "I had pictured you as I saw you last, very calm, very resolute, very sad; but you are like the breaking of a long, dull storm. The sun shines again, and the world glows the brighter for past rain and darkness." "Could I have welcomed you home with a sad face? Could I be calm and cold, now that I have found what I thought was lost forever?--when the ashes of my life have kindled into flame again? Because I, and others, have known sorrow, should I turn my face into a homily, and be your lifelong memento mori 1" "It is a brave heart that can hide a deep thought under a smile." "And a weak one that is always crouching among the shadows." "There is an abounding spirit of faith in you; the essence which makes heroes, from Joan of Arc to Jeanie Deans." "I know no one with faith like yours, which could hold to you through all your years of living burial." "Mine it was wrenched to its uttermost roots. I thought the world was given over to the devil." "But that was only for the moment." "I consoled myself with imagining that I had come to the worst, and that any change must needs be for the better; but now I am lifted of a sudden to such a pitch of fortune, that I tremble at it. Many a man, my equal or superior, no weaker in heart or meaner in aim than I, has been fett...