Can I trust you faithfully
to perform this office of love?"
Tears filled her eyes; then her breast heaved with a great sob.
"As Heaven is my witness, madam," answered Jacob Perkins, "it shall
be done."
"Remember," she said, "that you are only to give this to John, and
not until his tenth year. Keep my gift sacred from the knowledge of
every one until that time, and then let the communication be to him
alone."
Jacob Perkins promised to do according to her wishes, and then left
her looking so pale, sad, and miserable, that, to use his own words,
"he never could recall her image as she stood looking, not at him,
but past him, as if trying to explore the future, without thinking
of some marble statue in a grave-yard."
She was never seen in S----again.
CHAPTER IV.
The excitement in the little town of S----, when Jacob returned from
Boston, and told his singular story, may well be imagined. The whole
community was in a buzz.
It was found that Mrs. Allen had so arranged matters, as to get all
the servants away from the house, on one pretence or another, for
that night, except an old negro woman, famous for her good sleeping
qualities; and she was in the land of forgetfulness long before the
hour appointed for flight.
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