"That is all tedious--is it not? An old story, which every country
neighborhood knows. You laugh, perhaps, at hearing it told of A and
B,--but you do not laugh when you are one of the actors. Well, not to
lengthen my history unduly, an open rivalry and enmity at last arose
between myself and poor George. We had been spurred on to hate each
other, and narrowly escaped having an 'affair' together--appealing to
the pistol as the arbiter.
"It never came to that, however. I saw, ere long, that the young lady
had made up her mind. George was in every way a more attractive and
lovable person than myself; and after drawing me on, encouraging me,
and inducing me to offer her my hand, she turned her back on me, and
married George!
"Such was the result of the campaign. George had won,--and I am obliged
to say that I hated him cordially. I should never have done so, from
the simple fact of his success. I am not so ignoble as that, my dear
colonel. Bitter as was my disappointment, I could have bowed to the
fiat--pardoned the young lady--and offered my hand to dear George; but
there were our 'friends,' the busy-bodies and talebearers. They were
unresting in their exertions--took the whole affair under their
personal supervision, and invented a hundred fables to sting and arouse
me.
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