Chapter XXVIII.
A HAPPY LOVER.
The lover is a king; the ground
He treads on is not ours;
His soul by other laws is bound,
Sustained by other powers.
Liver of a diviner life,
He turns a vacant gaze
Toward the theater of strife,
Where we consume our days.
—R. M. Milnes.
On that Monday morning Alden Lytton left Blue Cliff Hall with his heart full of joy and thankfulness.
He was the accepted lover of Emma Cavendish. And he was so somewhat to his own amazement, for he had not intended to propose to her so soon.
She was a very wealthy heiress, and he was a poor young lawyer, just about to begin the battle of life.
They were both still very young and could afford to wait a few years. And, ardently as he loved her, he wished to see his way clearly to fame and fortune by his profession before presuming to ask the beautiful heiress to share his life.
But the impulse of an ardent passion may, in some unguarded hour, overturn the firmest resolution of wisdom.