And the weary are at rest.”
“Thank Heaven!” sighed Mr. Rhodes as the last word quavered forth; and Mea—“She ought to apologize for being such an unconscionably long time in dying.”
XXXI
WEDDING BELLS—A BRIDAL TOUR—A DISCOVERED RELATIVE—A NOBLE LIFE
“Richmond, August 16th, 1856.
“My very dear Effie,—My long silence has seemed strange and may have appeared unkind to you, but there have been a thousand hindrances to my writing.
“A sudden fit of illness interrupted the health that had remained firm throughout the warm spring weather, and obliged me to make my visit to Goochland earlier than I intended. For a week or more after my arrival there I was worse than I had been at home. When I began to recover, the amendment was rapid.
“To cut short these details, I am most unromantically well and robust, am gaining flesh daily, and boast an appetite that would throw a sentimental young woman into convulsions were she to witness my gastronomic exploits. Yet I have delayed writing to you because I wished to arrange everything relating to the final ‘performances’ before notifying you of the same.
“There have been sundry alterations in the programme since you and I last consulted over these things, the principal of which is the change of the day and hour. We expect, now, to leave home on Tuesday fortnight (September 2d) in the morning, instead of (as was first spoken of) on the afternoon of Wednesday, the 3d. This will allow us two days in Philadelphia, and, being the plan most approved of by father and Mr. Terhune, of course I am submissive.