Year: 1874




her ayes looked without over the sun
ny green landscape and ssw nothing
of what they gazed upon She was
lost in deep thought, searching with
q purpose into her own soul as If to
feel sure that no germ there lying had
escaped her scrutiny, 50 that no fu-
ture blossom or fruit should surprise
her, springing from some undevelop-
ed and ignored possibility in her ma
ture. It is 3 rare thing for any Of rs
to undertake, and rarer to accomplish;
most of us shrink from the attempt tc
fathom our depths to their bottom, to
weigh our own powers exactly, TO
know surely what we can or cannot
do; we like better to have q terra in
cogI1itd lying without our everyday
nature, shadowy land of possibili-
ties vague and vast, in which we may
be stronger, clearer, wiser, nobler
than we have ever proved our
selves. It is our link with the in
finite, this border land about our
souls, which is not mapped out and
traversed by beaten, dusty, trampled
tracks Of commonplace travel; and we
feel in dim way that even If we force
ourselves to the task of self-measure-
ment and self knowledge, our success
can be but q partial one we may
know what we are, but we know not
what we may be, as poor Ophelia
says with the strange wisdom OF mad.
ness.


But these were not Eleanor's
thoughts on that June afternoon. The
truth and limpidity of her soul, as she
gazed into 1t, gave her q sense OF sure
ness and strength and repose that
comes only to a consciously true soul,
and comes only from its innate pow
er. She was thinking over the words
she mad spoken but the day before to
Walter Gordon when he had told her
that be loved her and asked her to
marry him. She had said: az have
always known I could love and would
love but once. Words are not mine
as they are yours, to do with as I
will, but I love you and / am your
very Own.n These words or words
similar to them she had said,
and now she thought them over and
knew that they were simply true.
She knew, with deep conviction past
all doubling, girl Of eighteen as she
was, that she loved this man, and
that whatever her future might hold
for her, it could contain no influence
strong enough to unseat her love for
him from its throne in her heart.
That heart was one Of those rare flow
ers that bloom once in their lifetime
and then shed forth 3 concentrated
century Of fragrance and odor. She
had no capacity for superficial feel.
ings, such as form all that most. of us
know of love, compounded of senti-
ment, fancy, and passion; but love,
when it came to her, formed part and
parcel of her heart, did not float shout
her in golden exhalations, exquisite
but ephemeral SO it had been with
the one or two natural affections of
her life. She had been early left
alone in the world, and yet the ties of
love which had bound her young
heart even then had seemed closer
than they are wont to be. When she
first met Walter Gordon her heart
was untouched the simplicity and
reality of her nature had guarded her
from those grazes of feeling. those en-
tanglements of fancy that come to
some women once and again before
their hearts are possessed by q con-
trolling passion. In her there seemed
to be no power of playing fast and
loose with her own feelings or with
those of others. By the law OF her
being she was to love without hesita-
tion or imperfection, without flaw or
fear. faithfully and utterly. She met
him and she loved him it was the
perfection of the love of which We all
know somewhat, and the love that
we gid with every lustre but endur-
ingness, and which lacks nothing to
perfect It save steadfastness-first
love; but with her these were added,
and she loved him at eighteen and for
her life.


They had known each other but q
short time when they became betroth-
ed to one another. Her extreme beau
ty, q beauty at once radiant and Sc.
we're in the perfection of its lines, her
nobility and simplicity Of nature,
seemed to place her on a pedestal
above other women; and whatever
were Walter Gordon's faults and
weakness, he never failed to feel and
respond to the Sttraction of q nature
higher than his own. He was q crea-
ture with noble qualities and great
gifts, sweet to the core, tender-heart-
ed and generous, with thirst for love
and q great power of winning it. he
had every gift that Eleanor lacked.
And yet the two or three grand things
which made up her character into its
simple massive grandeur, were things
that he craved and needed, not only
because he had them not within him
self, but because he had a natural
1.s rff fhnrr a0 M a
together and seemed the counterparts
of one another. A mutual trahsfor-
nation seemed wrought, and he was
alb that she was, while she seemed
possessed of all his gifts through love.


His words of love still seemed to
sound in her ears as she sat by the
window where we found her at the
beginning of our story; he had not
been long away. It was almost the
first moment she had had to herself
since bis love had declared itself, and
in that solitary hour of musing she
had gathered all the past days as in q
sheaf and bound them in one, and
searching deep into her soul had found
that its depths and shadows alike re-
flected his image. She felt strong,
serene, and calm, as she sat there with
the consciousness of her great love up
on her. Strange as it may seem TO
some women, it was her own love
that gave her q sense of strength, not
his. Not that his seemed in any way
inadequate or weak; to herit was like
3 gift Of God, good and perfect but
still, with the prescience of instinct,
she stayed herself on her own heart /;
she loved him, and she knew that all
things were possible to her. They
were much together in those days.
She was was staying in the country
with her friends, the Kingsleys, and
bis OWE little place was near by; so
in that June they were together as
lovers are in an idyl or q dream-to-
gether In the delicious freshness of the
early morning, together through the
long, hot MONDAY, he reading to heI
or drawing while she worked, but
every instant being bound one to the
other by a new link, every day hold
| ing in its calendar of hours a myriad
Of little uneventful events, of Incl.
dents unmarked, unnoteworthy, save
TO them, of words and actions never
to be forgotten, but treasured up and
connsd over, striking roots into theil
hearts.


The eve came OF the day when she
was leave the Kingsleys and go to heI
home in the city Of =, whittier he
was to follow her in 3 few more
| weeks.


They had been all talking together,
/ q large party of young people, and
then as the evening wore on Walter
had managed to draw Eleanor aside
from the others and secure tete-d.
tete with her. They had been sitting
in silence q few moments in the
moonlight, her eyes fixed on the
heavens, his on her, when he spoke
abruptly:


"Do you know" be said, ''some
times am afraid of you?"


"How can that be ?'' she said, smil-


Ing and turning her clear blue eye
on him.


"I don't mean of you, but of wha
you are. am so human that to b
so near q divinity, I suppose, inspirel
me with dread. I want to take of


my shoes sometimes; as now, for in