"
He took the casket from his mother's hand, and caught her to his heart
in a long and last embrace. "Should Heaven bless my honest endeavors to
obtain a respectable independence, my heart and my home, beloved one,
shall ever be open to you."
And so they parted--the good mother and the disinherited son, to meet no
more on this side the grave.
"Poor mother!" sighed Algernon, as he turned his steps to the widow's
cottage, "how I pity you, having to live upon the charity of that churl!
It would seem that my father was determined to punish you for your
devoted love to me."
Before Algernon reached the humble abode that contained his earthly
treasure, his buoyant mind had decided upon the best course to pursue.
The sale of his mother's jewels would purchase a commission in the East
India Company's service. To India, therefore, he determined to go; and
he flattered himself that, before the expiration of ten years, he would
return with an independent fortune to claim his bride. It was a long
period in perspective, but Elinor was in the early bloom of youth, and
her charms would scarcely have reached maturity when he hoped again to
revisit his native land. The bitterest pang was yet to come. He must
inform her of his father's unjust bequeathment of all his property to
his brother, and of his own determination to seek his fortune in the
East.
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