Rosamond; or, The Youthful Error

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Rosamond

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Title: Rosamond or, The Youthful Error
Author: Mary J. Holmes

Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5990] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 9, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
ROSAMOND ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

ROSAMOND
OR
THE YOUTHFUL ERROR
A Tale of Riverside
AND OTHER STORIES
BY
MRS. MARY J. HOLMES Author of "Tempest And Sunshine," "Lena
Rivers," "Meadowbrook," Etc., Etc.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
The Owner of Riverside

CHAPTER II.
Rosamond Leyton
CHAPTER III.
Ben's Visit
CHAPTER IV.
Rosamond's Education
CHAPTER V.
Brother and Sister
CHAPTER VI.
Marie Porter
CHAPTER VII.
Making Love
CHAPTER VIII.
News
CHAPTER IX.
The Guest at Riverside
CHAPTER X.
The Story
CHAPTER XI.

The End
-----
DIAMONDS
BAD SPELLING
MAGGIE LEE
THE ANSWERED PRAYER

ROSAMOND;
OR
THE YOUTHFUL ERROR. A TALE OF RIVERSIDE.
CHAPTER I.
THE OWNER OF RIVERSIDE.
All the day long the September rain had fallen, and when the night
closed in it showed no sign of weariness, but with the same
monotonous patter dropped upon the roof, or beat against the windows
of the pleasantly lighted room where a young man sat gazing at the
glowing grate, and listening apparently to the noise of the storm
without. But neither the winds, nor yet the rain, had a part of that young
man's thoughts, for they were with the past, and the chain which linked
them to that past was the open letter which lay on the table beside him.
For that letter he had waited long and anxiously, wondering what it
would contain, and if his overtures for reconciliation with one who had
erred far more than himself, would be accepted. It had come at last, and
with a gathering coldness at his heart he had read the decision,--"she
would not be reconciled," and she bade him "go his way alone and
leave her to herself."

"It is well," he said; "I shall never trouble her again,"--and with a
feeling of relief, as if a heavy load, a dread of coming evil, had been
taken from his mind, he threw the letter upon the table, and leaning
back in his cushioned chair, tried to fancy that the last few years of his
life were blotted out.
"Could it be so, Ralph Browning would be a different man." he said
aloud; then, as he glanced round the richly furnished room, he
continued--"People call me happy, and so perhaps I might be, but for
this haunting memory. Why was it suffered to be, and must I make a
life-long atonement for that early sin?"
In his excitement he arose, and crushing the letter for a moment in his
hand, hurled it into the fire; then, going to his private drawer, he took
out and opened a neatly folded package, containing a long tress of jet
black hair. Shudderingly he wound it around his fingers, laid it over the
back of his hand, held it up to the light, and then with a hard, dark look
upon his face, threw it, too upon the grate, saying aloud, "Thus
perisheth every memento of the past, and I am free again--free as air!"
He walked to the window, and pressing his burning forehead against
the cool, damp pane, looked out upon the night. He could not see
through the darkness, but had it been day, his eye would have rested on
broad acres all his own; for Ralph Browning was a wealthy man, and
the house in which he lived was his by right of inheritance from a
bachelor uncle for whom he had been named, and who, two years
before