But soon, too
soon, this bosom's sovereign became the despot, and stung, goaded and
urged him to see again this living, breathing, glowing, most beautiful
original. To seek her? For what? He did not even try to answer the
question.
Thus passed one week.
And then, had he been disposed to forget the beautiful girl, he could
not have done so. For everywhere where the business of his grandfather
took him--around among the neighboring planters, to the villages of
B---- or of C----, everywhere he heard of Marian, and frequently he
saw her, though at a distance, or under circumstances that made it
impossible for him, without rudeness, to address her. He both saw and
heard of her in scenes and society where he could hardly have expected
to find a young girl of her insignificant position.
Marian was a regular attendant of the Protestant church at Benedict,
where, before the morning service, she taught in the Sunday-school, and
before the afternoon service she received a class of colored children.
And Thurston, who had been a very careless and desultory attendant,
sometimes upon the Catholic chapel, sometimes upon the Protestant
church, now became a very regular frequenter of the latter place of
worship; the object of his worship being not the Creator, but the
creature, whom, if he missed from her accustomed seat, the singing, and
praying, and preaching for him lost all of its meaning, power and
spirituality.
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