Godey's Lady's Book 1846-07: Vol 33 Iss 1

The text was read from the page scans by machine (OCR), so it has mistakes and its columns may run together. See the pages · About this title · At the Internet Archive

Page 1

GODEY’S AIX’ S BOOK. PHILADELPHIA, JULY, 1846. THE DECLARATION. (See Plate.) Tue best manner of making this important de- claration has never been satisfactorily settled. Some eminent writers have counseled the viva voce fashion as the most sure of success; others advise the epistle, especially if the swain is at al] nerv- ous or the lady of his love inclined to coquetry. Dr. Johnson said the fervor of speech was more persuasive than any written profession of love. He was a good talker. Addison preferred that the pen should interpret. He wrote better than he spoke. After all, the settlement of this question is not material: circumstances often decide the manner, whatever may be the wish of the parties. But a gentleman, when he writes his proposal, must have made up his mind strongly on the subject, as our brave patriots did when they made their ** Decla- ration.’? No secret reservation must be in the heart of the lover, no waiting to receive a little more encouragement from the eye or the smile, or blush of his beloved, before he speaks out all his heart. ‘* Try and trust’? must be his motto; and if his chosen is like the fair lady of our picture, she is worth any risk he can run. ** What a long letter!*’ thought Aunt Julia, as she waited nearly an hour for her niece, Ellen Moore, to appear and communicate the contents ; so she stole on tiptoe to the room, and there sat Ellen stil] poring over the sheet, and Sir Isaac himself, while studying his theory of light, could not have been more abstracted from the outward circumstances around him. Was the letter so very VOL. XXxlI —! difficult to read or comprehend? It might have been in Sanscrit for all the curious aunt could dis- cover; she dared not step near enough to read it, and so the good nurse is creeping round to try her skill. They both fancied it was from Charles Wiley. And what would Ellen’s father say if his daughter should be wooed and won while he was absent? Would he not blame those who had charge of Ellen ? weighing every sentence and examining every They did not know that the fair girl was word, with the thought, ‘*‘ What will my father think of this, and this??? She read it over and over, now determined to send it that very evening to her father and ask him what she ehould say in re- turn; and then her heart would tremble with emo- tion lest he might not think of Charles as she de- sired. Still she never dreamed of concealing her attachment or the declaration of her lover from her father. A model of truthfulness she was, one of those pure-minded beings that seem always to live in the eye of heaven. Her portrait was thus taken by one who knew her well— “ Her heart was all humanity, Her soul al] God’s—in spirit and in form, Like fair. Her cheek had the pale, pearly pink Of sea-shells, the world’s sweetest tint, as though She lived, one half might deem, on roses sopped In silver dew; she spoke as with the voice Of spheral harmony. And then her dark, Long rolling locks were as a stream the slave Might search for gold, and searching find.”