The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1847-08-21
CHAPTER VII.
$50 not 0way--yct all, dark shades see
Obscure thy brow-thou gocst! but give

FREDERrKA BnEMER.
Stella awokc from that thunder stricken
trance unto darkness that no human power
tould hGnccto!li sweep away---thoSe sweet
eyes were now blind forever. Mccily, tbs
became her nntrIrc, did she bow beneath the
stroke, but Philip wriihcd under it in unsup-
portable agony. Stclla's health slowly re
covered, and she rose up from her bed Of
sickness, and once more wandered about the
!iouSc, pale, pcnsive, but still calm. Then
burst forth her husbands wild despair. His
frantic words sometimes reached almost to
ImprCcuOns. He wished that the terrible
lightning flash had struck him dead, rather
lhan that he should live TO see this wreck of
his happiness. Ills whole nature seemed
changed; the, gentle, upright, pious hearted
Philip ArmyIage was all but IL maniac in his
wild despair.
But Stella seemed to have gained all the
Ignness which he had lost. Patient, unrc-
pining, she was to him like guardian angel,
soothing and cheering him, as if hc had been
the stricken one, and she the CONSIDER. lie
would take her away, 10 try all that mctropo-
li!an skill could effect, and to nmusc her, us
SIC thought, with every enjoyment that Lon
don could furnish. But Stella knew it was
hopeless, aud though. she submttcd,.o please
her husband, still it was not long before her
NcaItl failed in tho close air of the city, and
Philip bore her again to her native home.
There the soft spring brcczcS once more
brought faint roses to the check ofthe blind
wife, and hope, almost joy stole back again
TO her heart, for she knew that heart would
soon throb with the pulses Of mothers love.
Again life became sweet to her, and u little
other cheeriulness communicated itself to
Philips melancholy spirit. In his wiie's
presence he grew more calm, and for her
sake Ire returned to those pursuits which, in
iIlc first burst of wild agony, he had vowed
20 reIinquish forever. lie read to her, as Of
old; he wrote poetry, because it pleased her;
he no longer shrank from the pleasant sun
sine, because she could behold it no more;
but spent whole days in guiding her steps
through the forest, describing everything he
saw with the cloquence of love.
"D) you remember once when you said,
81 will be Your eyes, dearosi%' Stella one
day whispered to him; :'and now you are so,
any Philip; you make me sec with your eyes
Philip groaned, "Hush, hush, cannot bear
IL
NAY, nay, look at me- am not sad; in
deed, Philip, you do not know how happy /
am. If were now, as once was--loncIy,
helpless, with you my husband, ever with
Snc, giving up all for me, with the knowl-
edge that my infrmity only proves how
strong is your love, how can murmur? My
own Philip; you are tho light OF my eyes;
iharo is no darkness for me when you are
by"
And Philip could only press her to his
heart, and weep.
Sat though when her husband was by,
Stella appeared contented and cheerful and
ineecd was so, yet there were times when
she felt bitterly the deprivation of all those
pleasures which had become so dear to her.
She longed to behold that beautiful world
which had been revealed to her sight, only
to he shut. cut again forever; and more than
all did sic yearn 10 look once more upon the
race of her husband-to watch it kndling
into genius, until it became to her ut least, us
the face of an angel. She knew, by the tones
ofhis voice, when it wore that look and then
her heart sank to think that she must see II
no more forever. At times, too, when in hel
darkness she was auiring herself. or arrang-
ing her long auburn hair, Il natural slgf
would escape her at the memory OF the days
III which her unsealed eyes first discovered
that she was beautiful; and throb Of pleas
are came to her heart at the thought that she
was thereby more worthy of the long absent
nut well-heloved one. Then, too, Stella
would turn from the past to the dim future
and sometimes even weep that she would
never behold the face of her child-that tic
blind mother would not trace, in its opening
beauty a likeness to the features more dear
10 her And then, with these mother
thoughts, came memories of her own lost pa
.Ecn,, in solemn sweetness leading her to
heaven.
Thus the time wore on; Philips anguish
was lued by happy hopes for the future, aud
Stella,s brow wore a holy calInuess. One
only, an aged woman, who had nursed her
N infancy shook her head as she looked
mournfuliy on the changing cheek and
transparent hands; she knew well that the
ly,ysfprjeS of the coming birth aloOn kent n
way the dread phantom, whose shadow al
l., hli,,I ,,,n,l,n,.