e grave, the chief and almost only mourner.

"I returned and shut myself up in the mansion, bewildered and
stupefied. I was now the possessor of immense wealth. But I was
unhappy. I knew not what to do to enjoy life. Gradually the pestilence
abated and disappeared, and by degrees the gloom that oppressed me
subsided. At the end of a few months, I was informed by my young
Virginian friend that Wold had entirely recovered. I likewise received
a letter from Mrs. Arras, stating that Judge ____ had sought out
Laura, (who had been enticed to an obscure part of the city,) and, as
her misfortune had been kept a profound secret among the few, he
forgave the offence, and once more extended to her a father's love and
a father's protection. I need not say that a blissful thrill bounded
through my veins. Wold was living, and Laura not irrecoverably lost.
Yet I did not then deem it possible that I could, under such
circumstances, ever desire to possess the once adored, but since truly
fallen, Laura. But I experienced a sweet gratification to be thus
informed of the prospect of her being reinstated in society. My love
was not yet wholly extinguished!

"When it was generally known that I possessed great riches, a crowd of
flatterers and sycophants hovered around me. I was a distinguished
guest at the mansions of the fashionable and great, and had in turn
many brilliant parties at my residence. But among the tinsel and
glitter of the gay world I sought in vain for peace and happiness.
Many beautiful and bewitching belles lavished their sweetest smiles
upon me, but they could not re-ignite the smothered flame in my bosom.
Wine could only exhilarate for a moment, to be succeeded by a gnawing
nausea. Cards could only excite while I lost, to be succeeded by
irritability and disgust.

"Thus my time was spent for twelve months, when I suddenly conceived
the resolution to seek a union with the ill-fated Laura,
notwithstanding all the obloquy the world might attach to the act. I
still loved her in spite of myself. I could not live in peace without
her, and I determined without delay to offer her my hand, heart, and
fortune. I set out for Boston, and on my arrival instantly proceeded
to the residence of Judge ____. Again my evil star was in the
ascendant. Desolation and death presided in Judge ____'s family. The
ominous badge of mourning greeted me at the threshold; Laura's mother
had just been consigned, broken-hearted, to the cold grave. Th