The String of Pearls (1850), p. 9

his uncle, Mr. Grant, and you will understand, father, that Mark Ingestrie was not to blame, because—"
"Well, well, my dear, you needn't say anything more upon that point. Girls very seldom admit their lovers are to blame, but there are two ways, you know, Johanna, of telling a story."
"Yes; but, father, why should Mr. Grant seek to force him to the study of a profession he so much disliked?"
"My dear, one would have thought that if Mark Ingestrie really loved you, and found that he might make you his wife, and acquire an honourable subsistence for you and himself—it seems a very wonderful thing to me that he did not do so. You see, my dear, he should have liked you well enough to do something else that he did not like."
"Yes, but father, you know it is hard, when disagreements once arise, for a young ardent spirit to give in entirely; and so from one word, poor Mark, in his disputes with his uncle, got to another, when perhaps one touch of kindness or conciliation from Mr. Grant would have made him quite pliant in his hands."
"Yes, that's the way," said Mr. Oakley; "there is no end of excuses: but go on, my dear, go on, and tell me exactly how this affair now stands."
"I will, father. It was this day two years ago then that we met, and he told me that he and his uncle had at last quarrelled irreconcilably, and that nothing could possibly now patch up the difference between them. We had a long talk."
"Ah! no doubt of that."
"And at length he told me that he must go and seek his fortune—that fortune which he hoped to share with me. He said that he had an opportunity of under- taking a voyage to India, and that if he were successful he should have sufficient to return with, and commence some pursuit in London more congenial to his
thoughts and habits than the law."
"Ah, well! what next?"
"He told me that he loved me."
"And you believed him."
"Father, you would have believed him had you heard him speak. His tones were those of such deep sincerity that no actor who ever charmed an audience with an unreal existence could have reached them. There are times and seasons when we know that we are listening to the majestic voice of truth, and there are tones which sink at once into the heart, carrying with them a conviction of their sincerity, which neither time nor circumstance can alter; and such were the tones in which Mark Ingestrie spoke to me."
"And so you suppose, Johanna, that it is easy for a young man who has not patience or energy enough to be respectable at home, to go abroad and make his fortune. Is idleness so much in request in other countries, that it receives such a rich reward, my dear?"
"You judge him harshly, father; you do not know him."
"Heaven forbid that I should judge any one harshly! and I will freely admit that you may know more of his real character than I can, who of course have only seen its surface; but go on, my dear, and tell me all."
"We made an agreement, father, that on that day two years he was to come to
me or send me some news of his whereabouts ; if I heard nothing of him I was to
conclude he was no more, and I cannot help so concluding now."
"But the day has not yet passed."
"I know it has not, and yet I rest upon but a slender hope, father. Do you believe that dreams ever really shadow forth coming events?"
"I cannot say, my child; I am not disposed to yield credence to any supposed fact because I have dreamt it, but I must confess to having heard some strange instances where these visions of the night have come strictly true."
"Heaven knows but this may be one of them ! I had a dream last night. I thought that I was sitting upon the sea-shore, and that all before me was nothing but a fathomless waste of waters. I heard the roar and the dash of the waves dis-