Need I tell you how this pains me? I have in vain besieged the
house that has held you; in vain made a thousand inquiries, a thousand
efforts to discover your retreat and to reach your side, that I might
once more see your face and take your hand ere I went from the sight and
touch of both, perchance forever. This I find may not be. The hour
strikes, and in a little space I shall march away from the city to which
my heart clings with infinite fondness, since it is filled with
associations of you. I have again and again striven to write that which
will be worthy the eyes that are to read, and striven in vain. 'Tis a
fine art to which I do not pretend. Then, in homely phrase, good by.
Give me thy spiritual hand, and keep me, if thou wilt, in thy gentle
remembrance. Adieu! a kind adieu, my friend; may the brighter stars
smile on thee, and the better angels guard thy footsteps wherever thou
mayst wander, keep thy heart and spirit bright, and let thy thoughts
turn kindly back to me, I pray very, very often. And so, once more,
farewell."
Remembering all this, thinking what he would do and say were the doing
and saying yet possible in an untried future, the time sped by. He
waited and waited in vain. He looked, yet was gratified by no sight for
which his eyes longed. He hoped, till hope gave place to despondency and
almost despair: not a word came to him, not a line of answer or
remembrance.
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