I had been cheated; I had
planted a grape seed and a palm tree had sprung up in its place. I
was so taken aback, my salute lost something of the benevolent
condescension I had intended to infuse into it. She seemed to feel my
embarassment and a half smile fluttered to her lips. That smile
decided me. It was sweet but above all else it was appealing.
"How I won that woman to marry me in ten days time I care not to
state. Not by holding up my wealth and position before her.
Something restrained me from that. I was resolved, and perhaps it was
the only point of light in my conduct at that time, not to buy this
young girl. I never spoke of my expectations, I never alluded to my
present advantages yet I won her.
"We were married, there, in Troy in the quietest and most unpretending
manner. Why the fact has never transpired I cannot say. I certainly
took no especial pains to conceal it at the time, though I
acknowledge that after our separation I did resort to such measures as
I thought necessary, to suppress what had become gall and wormwood to
my pride.
"My first move after the ceremony was to bring her immediately to New
York and to this house. With perhaps a pardonable bitterness of
spirit, I had refrained from any notification of my intentions, and it
was as strangers might enter an unprepared dwelling, that we stepped
across the threshold of this house and passed immediately to my
father's room.
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