ROMANTIC STORY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 271, 10 April 1873, Page 7

ROMANTIC STORY.

The New York papers contain the following romantic story : — Captain Charles Vincent sailed from Boston for Calcutta in August, 1843. He left in a quiet town near Bangor, Maine, a young girl of 18, to vrhom he was bethrothed. Captain Vincent was but 25, when his ship, Laura Sheldon, stood out to sea. Nearly a year elapsed, and no tidings of neither ship, officers, or crew had been received at home. Years came and went, hundreds of East Indiamen sailed into American harbors, but never a word regarding the ship Laura Sheldon was received. In the meantime the young girl, faithful to the memory of her sailor lover, remained unmarried, refusing many advautageous offers from suitors her equals in social position and intellectual culture, for she is a lady of superior mind. Through all these 29 years of silence she has been hopeful, and indeed cheerful ; she has never despaired of the return of her lover. On the 15th of September last a letter was received by her aged mother post-marked " Liverpool." The writer was Captain Charles Vincent, now a man of 54s years. He asked her to inform him if her daughter was still unmarried, and said if the reply should not be to that effect he should sail at once for America. The mother immediately answered this letter, carefully concealing everything from her daughter. On the first day of this month Captain Vincent alighted at the door of his betrothed. Captain Vincent's story would fill a volume. The L.iura Sheldon was shipwrecked in* the Indian Ocean, and only the captain and one sailor survived. They were rescued from their perilous position on a raft; after two days by a brig bound to China. In one of the Chinese seaports Captain Vincent lived foi- years as a clerk in an English trading bouse. He wrote several letters home, but received no answers. He gradually became prosperous in business, and will return to China in a fews months with his bride.