She expressed a strong
desire to retain it; and to this I readily assented:
stipulating only to retain it until my next visit, in
order that I might take an exact copy for myself. With
a look of the fondest love, accompanied by a pressure on
mine of lips that distilled dewy fragrance where they
rested, she thanked me for a gift which she said would
remind her, in absence, of the fidelity with which her
features had been engraven on my heart. She admitted,
moreover, with a sweet blush, that she herself had not
been idle. Although her pencil could not call up my
image in the same manner, her pen had better repaid her
exertions; and, in return for the portrait, she would
give me a letter she had written to beguile her loneliness
on the preceding day. As she spoke she drew a sealed
packet from the bosom of her dress, and placing it in my
hand, desired me not to read it until I had returned to
my home. But there was an expression of sweet confusion
in her lovely countenance, and a trepidation in her
manner, that, half disclosing the truth, rendered me
utterly impatient of the delay imposed; and eagerly
breaking the seal, I devoured rather than read its
contents.
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