Washington Irving's Love

He liad foraied a deep and tender passion tbr Ma tilda Hoft'man, In whose l'aniily lio had long heen on a footing of the most perfect hitiioocy; and liia iinlont love was i'ully rociprooatcd. Irving wüs restlessly casting about tbr somo assurod nieaiis oí' Hveiiliood, whieh wou ld enable liim to marry, w ben, alniost without warning, Miss Hollinan died in the 18th year of her age. Without heilig a dazzling boauty, shc was lovely in person andmiiid, wiih most engaging mauners, a reflnod 8ensibility and a delicate and playful humor. The loss was i crtialiing blow to Ii-vinj-, tVom the otl'ects of which he never recovered, altUough time sot'tcned the bitterness of liis grief into a ler.iicr and sacred mcinory. Ho could never bew any al lusion to lier, even trom hie most intímate friends. After lus deutli, in a private repository of whk-.li ie always kept the key, was found a lovely mini, uure, a braid of fair hair and i strip of paper, on whicli was writteu, in his.ovvu hand, "Matilda Hoffman" ; and with these treasnres were severa! pages of a moinorandum in ink long since faded. llo kept through liie her Biblc and Jior prayor-boek : they wero placed nightly luider liis pillow in the iirst daya ofanguish that followed her losa, and ever aller tliey were the inseparable companions of his wandering. Tliis memorandum, it subsequently appeared, Va.s a copy of a letter to Mra. Fostor, a maiTied lady, ín which the story of his early love was related as a reason why he had never married. It vas in 1823, while he sojourned in Drcsden, that he beoame intímate with an Kngli.sh family residina Utere, iiamed Foter, and conceived for tlio daughter, Miss E mil y Foster, a deep atlachinciit. That this would have resnUed in marriage if tho lady's af['ections had not been preoccupied, the Foaters believod. An English Dewspapcr has an advertiseiniMit calling tol" "an organist wlio can also take the villago blacksmith business." Whon the Czarina of Bussia alighted from the railway car which took her to St. Petersburg, on her return from lier laat journey to Italv, she exclaimed, "Alas! I have dono with traveliag. Farewell railroads; farewell coaches and locomotivos. My uext couvoyauco will be tho hearso."