In 1587, a young couple dreams of crossing the Atlantic to the New World, where a colony of English settlers has vanished without a trace. Guy Wharton and Gertrude Wylde plan to join the expedition to Virginia, their futures tangled with the greatest mystery in early American history: the lost Roanoke colony, whose inhabitants simply disappeared, leaving behind only the cryptic word CROATOAN carved into a post. When tragedy strikes and Guy's father dies, their plans collapse, and the lovers face separation across an ocean they may never cross. Lathrop weaves historical tragedy with intimate human longing in this collection from 1884, capturing the particular melancholy of a world poised between the old and the new. The title story pulses with quiet devastation: what does it mean to keep faith when the world itself seems to be dissolving? These are stories about waiting, about promises made in youth, about the way time undoes even our most desperate hopes. For readers whoavor the gothic sweetness of Victorian prose and tales of love interrupted by history's cruelest uncertainties.
