WILLIAM T. HAMILTON, Jr.
In the soft light of an afternoon sun, Clarinda sat in an old chair andread a thesis upon love, and she found set forth in this thesis thatwithout love the world would not go around. Further, without love lifewould be but dross and hideous calamity. She also found therein that menhave died from love, and women have languished in torments when it wasunrequited.
Even though she was filled with apprehension as she read, she did notwish to eschew love, but was glad she was suffering from its effects.
She imagined that her own particular love was different from the loveanybody had ever been consumed with, and she was glad in her heart shewas suffering from its effects. She perceived it affected the glint ofher hair, and she even thought it affected the beauty of her smile. Sheknew it affected her eyes, and gave an added color to her cheeks.
At times when she sat by herself, she was filled with fear that theobject of her love might fail her—that what she felt might be a dreamand not a real condition.
At times this trepidation was so overwhelming she became frightened. Itmight occur that she would awake from her blissful state and find it wasall a mistake. She even thought that it might not have happened—that theman she loved upon a certain night, at a certain place had whispered inher ear that without her love life would be a void.
Clarinda was young and believed in love, and she had not found out thatlove dies even as the body, and often becomes stale, that more thanoften it passed from the soul as the miasma from the fetid lake.
Nevertheless, from the time love awoke in her heart, and the man hadwhispered in her ear and held her close to his breast, day followed day.
Day followed day