The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hand But Not the Heart, by T. S. Arthur

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Title: The Hand But Not the Heart
or, The Life-Trials of Jessie Loring

Author: T. S. Arthur

Posting Date: August 30, 2009 [EBook #4631]
Release Date: November, 2003
First Posted: February 20, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAND BUT NOT THE HEART ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines.

THE HAND BUT NOT THE HEART;

OR, THE LIFE-TRIALS OF JESSIE LORING.

BY

T. S. ARTHUR.

NEW YORK:

1858.

THE HAND BUT NOT THE HEART.

CHAPTER I.

"PAUL!" The young man started, and a delicate flush mantled his
handsome face, as he turned to the lady who had pronounced his name
in a tone slightly indicative of surprise.

"Ah! Mrs. Denison," was his simple response.

"You seem unusually absent-minded this evening," remarked the lady.

"Do I?"

"Yes."

"You have been observing me?"

"I could not help it; for every time my eyes have wandered in this
direction, they encountered you, standing in the same position, and
looking quite as much like a statue as a living man."

"How long is it since I first attracted your attention?" inquired
the person thus addressed, assuming an indifference of manner which
it was plain he did not feel.

"If I were to say half an hour, it would not be far wide of the
truth."

"Oh, no! It can't be five minutes since I came to this part of the
room," said the young man, whose name was Paul Hendrickson. He
seemed a little annoyed.

"Not a second less than twenty minutes," replied the lady. "Your
thoughts must have been very busy thus to have removed nearly all
ideas of time."

"They _were_ busy," was the simple reply. But the low tones were
full of meaning.

Mrs. Denison looked earnestly into her companion's face for several
moments before venturing to speak farther. She then said, in a
manner that showed her to be a privileged and warmly interested
friend--

"Busy on what subject, Paul?"

The young man offered Mrs. Denison his arm, remarking as he did so--

"The other parlor is less crowded."

Thr