The Lady of the Ice | Page 2

few Parting Words with O'Halloran.--His touching Parental Tenderness, High Chivalric Sentiment, and lofty sense of Honor.--Pistols for Two.--Pleasant and Harmonious Arrangement.--"Me Boy, Ye're and Honor to Yer Sex!"
XXVII. Sensational!--Terrific!--Tremendous!--I leave the house in Strange Whirl.--A Storm.--The Driving Sleet.--I Wander About.--The voices of the Storm, and of the River.--The clangor of the Bells.--The Shadow in the Doorway.--The Mysterious Companion.--A Terrible Walk.--Familiar Voices.--Sinking into Senselessness.--The Lady of the Ice is Revealed At Last amid the Storm!
XXVIII. My Lady of the Ice.--Snow and Sleet.--Reawakening.--A Desperate Situation.--Saved a Second Time.--Snatched from a Worse Fate.--Borne in My Arms Once More.--The Open Door.
XXIX. Puzzling Questions which cannot be Answered as yet.--A Step toward Reconcilation.--Reunion of a Broken Friendship.--Pieces all Collected and Joined.--Joy of Jack.--Solemn Debates over the Great Puzzle of the period.--Friendly Conferences and Confidences.--An Important Communication.
XXX. A Letter!--Strange Hesitation.--Gloomy Forebodings.--Jack down deep in the Dumps.--Fresh Confessions.--Why he Missed the Tryst.--Remorse and Revenge.--Jack's Vows of Vengeance.--A very Singular and Unaccountable Character.--Jack's Gloomy Menaces.
XXXI. A Friendly Call.--Preliminaries of the Duel Neatly Arranged.--A Damp Journey, and Depressed Spirits.--A Secluded Spot.--Difficulties which attend a Duel in a Canadian Spring.--A Masterly Decision. --Debates about the niceties of the Code of Honor.--Who shall have the First Shot, Struggle for Precedence.--A very Singular and Obstinate Dispute.--I save O'Halloran from Death by Rheumatism.
XXXII. Home again.--The Growls of a Confirmed Growler.--Hospitality.--The well-known Room.--Vision of a Lady.--Alone with Marion.--Interchange of Thought and Sentiment.--Two Beautiful Women.--An Evening to be Remembered.--The Conviviality of O'Halloran.--The Humors of O'Halloran, and his Bacchic Joy.
XXXIII. From April to June.--Tempora Mutantur, et nos Mutamur in Illis. --Startling Change in Marion!--And Why?--Jack and his Woes.--The Vengeance of Miss Phillips.--Ladies who refuse to allow their Hearts to be Broken.--Noble Attitude of the Widow.--Consolations of Louie.
XXXIV. Jack's Tribulations.--They Rise Up in the very face of the Most Astonishing Good Fortunes.--For, what is like a Legacy?--And this comes to Jack!--Seven Thousand Pounds Sterling per Annum!--But what's the use of it all?--Jack comes to Grief!--Woe! Sorrow! Despair! All the Widow! --Infatuation.--A mad proposal.--A Madman, a Lunatic, an Idiot, a March Hare, and a Hatter, all rolled into one, an that one the Lucky yet Unfortunate Jack.
XXXV. "Louis!"--Platonic Friendship.--Its results.--Advice may be given too Freely, and Consolation may be sought for too Eagerly.--Two Inflammable Hearts should not be allowed to Come Together.--The Old, Old Story.--A Breakdown, and the results all around.--The Condemned Criminal.--The slow yet sure approach of the Hour of Execution.
XXXVI. A Friend's Apology for a Friend.--Jack down at the bottom of Deep Abyss of Woe.--His Despair.--The Hour and the Man!--Where is the Woman!--A Sacred Spot.--Old Fletcher.--The Toll of the Bell.--Meditations on each Successive Stroke.--A wild search.--The Pretty Servant-maid, and her Pretty Story.--Throwing Gold About.
XXXVII. My own affairs.--A Drive and how it came off.--Varying Moods.--The Excited, the Gloomy, and the Gentlemanly.--Straying about Montmorency.--Revisiting a memorable Scene.--Effect of said Scene.--A Mute Appeal and an Appeal in Words.--Result of the Appeals.--"Will You Turn Away?"--Grand Result.--Climax.--Finale.--A General Understanding all round, and a Universal Explanation of Numerous Puzzles.
XXXVIII. Grand Conclusion.--Wedding-rings and Ball-rings.--St. Malachi's. --Old Fletcher in his glory.--No Humbug this time.--Messages sent everywhere.--All the town Agog.--Quebec on the Rampage.--St. Malachi's Crammed.--Galleries Crowded.--White Favors Everywhere.--The Widow happy with the Chaplain.--The Double Wedding.--First couple--JACK AND LOUIE! --Second ditto--MACRORIE AND MARION!--Colonel Berton and O'Halloran giving away the brides.--Strange Association of the British Officer and the Fenian.--Jack and Macrorie, Louie and Marion.--Brides and Bridegrooms.--Epithalamicm.--Wedding in high life.--Six Officiating Clergymen.--All the elite of Quebec take part.--All the Clergy, all the Military, and Everybody who amounts to any thing.--The Band of the Bobtails Discourse Sweet Music, and all that sort of thing, You Know.

THE LADY OF THE ICE.
CHAPTER I.
CONSISTING MERELY OF INTRODUCTORY MATTER.
This is a story of Quebec. Quebec is a wonderful city.
I am given to understand that the ridge on which the city is built is Laurentian; and the river that flows past it is the same. On this (not the river, you know) are strata of schist, shale, old red sand-stone, trap, granite, clay, and mud. The upper stratum is ligneous, and is found to be very convenient for pavements.
It must not be supposed from this introduction that I am a geologist. I am not. I am a lieutenant in her Majesty's 129th Bobtails. The Bobtails are a gay and gallant set, and I have reason to know that we are well remembered in every place we have been quartered.
Into the vortex of Quebeccian society I threw myself with all the generous ardor of youth, and was keenly alive to those charms which the Canadian ladies possess and use so fatally. It is a singular fact, for which I will not attempt to account, that in Quebeccian society one comes in contact with ladies only. Where the male element is I never could imagine. I never saw a civilian. There are no young men in Quebec; if there are any, we officers are not aware