Solitary Island, Part Fourth, Chapters II-IV [pp. 185-212]

SOLITARY ISLAND.
cruel an insult on a woman so gentle and good as his promised
wife.
"For promised wife she is yet," thought the poet, "and not
at all deprived of her rights by his treachery. It would be a
deserved punishment to have him suffer at Merrion's hands what
she has suffered from him."
She came to the door in answer to his knock, and for a few
seconds there was a hush of astonishment as the two met face to
face. "Mr. Rossiter, or his ghost!" she exclaimed.
"And the substantial Miss Lynch," said he, offering his hand.
"I have engaged the garret for a long term, and am not likely to
lose it by any more misunderstandings."
" How can I ever-"
"Your mother has done it; don't say a word."
"And my poor father, that made all the disturbance-"
"I just came from him," said Paul, smiling, "so do not let
bygones trouble you. I know you have enough of unhappiness."
Her lip trembled and she could not trust herself to speak.
While talking the poet took a quick inventory of the changes
sorrow had made in her. She was still the gentle, sprightly girl
of a year past, but his practised eye noted the trembling lip,
the melancholy shadows around the mouth and eyes, and the
nervousness of her manner.
"I have seen him so late as yesterday," Paul said," and I
thought you ought to know. There have been so many strange
things happening in his life. Who has a better right than you to
know?"
" I gave up all my rights to him," she said bravely, while the
memory of his shame brought a flush to her cheek and an angry
sparkle to the poet's eye.
"But he had no-well, never mind. I was in Clayburg, and
he was there. He discovered his father in the person of an old
fisherman that he had known for years. Think of it-a prince of
royal blood, with a Yankee dialect and a Yankee look, leading a
solitary life on an island of the St. Lawrence!"
"I am so glad," said Frances; "his happiness will now be complete."
"I suppose," the poet said cynically, but recollected himself
in time. "Alas! Frank, there never was a more unhappy meeting of father and son. The father was dead, shot fatally by a
sneaking assassin, and it was only a corpse which death handed
to Florian."
[Nov.,
2IO