At the Risk of Life

by A. M.

They met together for the last time, and the meeting was a sad one. Poor Amy wept as if her little heart would break, and I am certain that a tear glistened in Robby Bertrand’s eye, although he was a man. They had met to part. 
 
Amy Raymond was the daughter of a wealthy merchant in a large town in one of the Western States, and Robby Bertrand was the son of a Scotch gentleman. His father had owned a large estate north of the Tweed, but by some means it had been for many years in that peculiar condition which, in England, is called “being in Chancery,” or, in other words, the claimants to the estate got nothing from it, but the lawyers did.  
 
Robby’s father had been dead about a year, and almost hopeless of regaining the paternal acres, his son had come to this country, and about a month after his arrival had had the good luck to fall in with Amy Raymond, who had now for some time acknowledged artlessly her affection for him. 
 
So far all was well; but their future did not depend upon the wishes of the lovers alone. 
 
Mr. Raymond was a very wealthy man, and he naturally expected that his only daughter, Amy, should make “a good match.” Robby Bertrand had entered into an engagement from which he hoped, but very vaguely, to realize as large a fortune as that which he laid claim to in his own country— “bonnie Scotland,” as her loving sons call her. How all his plans were frustrated we shall see presently. 
 
This was to be his last meeting with Amy, at least for a long time, for Mr. Raymond had sternly pronounced against the lover, whom he had never seen, and whose name even he did not know, directly he learned that he was poor. But fate had other things in store… Read More