rst time, the future presented
a dark spot to my view. I was poor! Laura was rich and her family
proud and aristocratic. Her father was a distinguished judge. And the
most high-born and haughty of the land would doubtless (if they had
not already) sigh at her feet! I sprang upright on my couch when this
discordant thought passed across my mind. But the next moment I was
consoled with the belief that I already possessed her heart. And with
a determination to have her, in spite of every obstacle, should this
be the case, I sank back through weariness, and was soon steeped in
deep, though unquiet slumber.

"The two next succeeding Sundays I attended Laura to church. The
evenings of both days, and nearly all the intervening ones, I was with
her at the mansion of Mrs. Arras. But the evening of the last Sunday
was to me a memorable one. That evening I opened all my heart to
Laura, and found that every pulsation met a responding throb in
hers--such, at least, I believed to be the case--and so she asserted.
During the short time she remained in New York, I was her accredited
lover, and ever, when together, the attachment she manifested was as
ardent as mine. Indeed, at times, her passion seemed unbounded, and I
was more than once tempted to propose a clandestine and immediate
union. I was the more inclined to this, inasmuch as her father (who
had now returned from a trip to Washington) began to regard my visits
with displeasure. But he soon passed on to Boston to attend to the
duties of his office, and again I had unrestrained access to Laura.
But I am dwelling too long on this part of my story.

"One day Henry Wold, my fellow-student, inquired the cause of the
palpable change in my bearing and disposition. Would that my lips had
been sealed to him forever! I knew that he was honest and generous by
nature, but I knew not to what extent his dissolute habits (gradually
acquired by having ample means, and yielding by degrees to the
temptations of vice) had perverted his good qualities. I told him of
my love, and while describing the charms of Laura, I was pleased to
attribute the interest he evinced at the recital to his disinterested
friendship for me, without the thought that _he_ could be captivated
himself with the bare description. He begged me to introduce him.
This, too, gratified my pride, for I knew he would admire her. The
perfect form, rare beauty, intelligence, and wealth of Wold did not
startle an apprehension in my