" This was
barbarous as it was senseless. Strange that a country that has produced
the Scotch Novels and Gertrude of Wyoming should want sentiment!
The postman's double-knock at the door the next morning is "more
germain to the matter." How that knock often goes to the heart!
We distinguish to a nicety the arrival of the Two-penny or the General
Post. The summons of the latter is louder and heavier, as bringing
news from a greater distance, and as, the longer it has been delayed,
fraught with a deeper interest. We catch the sound of what is to be
paid--eightpence, ninepence, a shilling--and our hopes generally rise
with the postage. How we are provoked at the delay in getting change--at
the servant who does not hear the door! Then if the postman passes, and
we do not hear the expected knock, what a pang is there! It is like the
silence of death--of hope! We think he does it on purpose, and enjoys
all the misery of our suspense. I have sometimes walked out to see the
Mail-Coach pass, by which I had sent a letter, or to meet it when I
expected one. I never see a Mail-Coach, for this reason, but I look
at it as the bearer of glad tidings--the messenger of fate.
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