The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-11 00:00:00

THE DAWN OF LOVE.

" I am too happy," she murmured ; " just to be alivo:on
such a day, in such a world, would be enough. It is E 0
bautiful I so be tutiful I And to feel all this beauty
crowned with love I lam happy, so happy—too happy I
It seems as if all were love to-day—as if the sun loved to
shine—as if the earth
,smiled with love to feel it shine.
Just as my sun loves to shine on me, and I—l smile with
love to feel the shining. Gal hastens us with joy as well
as sorrow," she said. speaking lower yet. "Oh I how
can I ever be good enough to be fit for all this joy and
love ?"

With keenest intensity she was conscious of the exquisite
sweetness and beauty filling all her senses and all her soul,
touching her as with vague longing for a new sense or
soul to fill with that superfluous loveliness.
Never, as it seemed to her, had there been such an even-
ing. Never had the soft south wind seemed so full of frag•
rance—fragrance of flowers, and yet more of fresh opened
leaves touched by the evening dew—never had the song of
birds seemed to her so mystically wonderful, so utterly and
subtly, musical—never had her heart risen and fallen with
such delicious happiness, and been so full, over-full, of
love, love—love which brimmed over from her eyes, and
was shed on all they looked on.

Rest there, poor child, pause upon that happiness, drank
in that beauty. Dear, happy eyes, rain down your dew of
joy, and be ready for tho shedding of bitter, briny drops of
sorrow. In this world such exquisite moments aro but
moments.

In some of the other portraits the skill of the
artist's hand is very visible. Weak and erring
Mr Stonhurst, Alisoun's uncle, is very naturally
drawn. Mrs. Stonhurst is too hard for reality.
Her paragon daughter, Sara, is remarkable for
her "cold sweetness," " She had so often, when
she was much younger, heard it said that she
inherited her father's amiability, that she had, as it
were, grown up in the conscious odour of her
own sweetness." Nothing irritates, nothing
ra Ls, in outward appearance at least, the cairn
-aid complacent Sara. I-L.r peculiar character is
well preserved throughout the story, and contrasts
well with that of the loving, easily moved and
much enduring Alisoans. The other heroine, Geral-
dine Symt he (whose distorted nams is a perpetual
distinction!) is a more natural, and is, in her way
equally unlike her friend and rival Alisoun Geraldine
Smythe, is the th.ughter of a noble-hearted father and
ajweak and faulty mother. in her " two natures
are contending," and during the struggle the evil
nature, the weak, frail human nature, produces in-
calculable suffering not only to herself but to others.
Adelheid Sharps (the writer seems to take pleasure
in selecting names), is too perfect to excite much of
our sympathy or regard. We have no particular
predil: ction for paragons. Conway Stonhurst and
Gilbert Kaird, Alisoun's cousins, disappoint in the
latter instance, according to the old idiom, " agree-
ably disappoint" our expectations. Gilbert Kaird
improves greatly upon acquaintance, while
Conway degenerates into a mere nobody.
the authoress selects him at the close—we do not
know why—of the narrative as the mouthpiece of
her theory of lova, a theory very beautiful and
loveable, if rightly carried out. Bat the writer, like
all enthusiasts upon any subject, is carried by her
own ideas to the length of extravagance. Witness,
for example, the following exordium :