Year: 1875

| never entirely removed. w nen nTst CANT
here was happy-not ecstatically happy
but grateful and content; this feeling has
grown on me since. I think I am morbid
the influence of past care and trouble still
weighs upon me 1 have been used to the
burden so long, that I cannot yet shake it off
All! if I could get the old healthful, buoyant
spirit back.


To-day have seen Edna's youngest sister
She is the most angelically beautiful being ]
have ever beheld.


II must stop writing; it is growing late
Perhaps good nights rest will refresh me
and exercise this vexing spirit which torments
me-"


His nights rest was not sound. Me woke
frequently, prey to uneasy thoughts; but
when he slept, visions of golden.haired maid
ems embellished his dreams, smiling on him
with deep.blue, soulful eyes, yet floating CON
stantly beyond his reach Alas Edna's fig
ure had no place beside them.


Hugh was waking to the revelation of
startling truth-one which had begun family
very family, to dawn on him before, but now
suddenly assumed proportions which made it
too evident for him to overlook.


What was it which had so abruptly opened
his eyes to the fact he could not now conceal
from himself-that he no longer loved as he
was beloved?


In his selfcommuning, he shrank from the
thought of fa]seness or treachery; but the i'm
pulse of his heart had been too swift, toe
mighty for him to resist-and that heart had
gone out wholly, entirely to Claribel. Like q
blind, absorbing flash of light,this new passion
had sprung forth from the inmost recesses Of
his being, kindling an emotion more intense
than he had ever experienced; an ardent
flame, before which his old love "paled its in
effectual 6res," as the rays of moonlight van
ish at the coming of the dawn.


He struggled bravely, desperately at first
against the truth. He was bound, he told
himself, by every tie of honor, to Edmonia
It was true, they we're not betrothed, but was
it not all the same as if they were? Oh il
this knowledge had only come to him sooner
1t would have been no treachery to love an
other, after their long separation, if he had
not, himself, voluntarily renewed the bond
between them, on his return home-nay, even
before his return. 1t might have cost her.
perhaps pang, but he would have merited
no reproach, at least; though his fckleness
might be condemned, his honor would have
been left unstained. But now it was too late
He had shown her, by thousand signs that
the memory of former days were fresh within
him, and that he meant their unspoken com
pact to be fulfilled. And she had revealed to
him, in many sweet womanly ways, that the
knowledge of this was joy to her heart, and
that she had never wavered in her faithfulness
to him. How could he tell her now that he
had made fatal mistake? How could he
say to her, 4 fancied my heart was yours, but
another has claimed it I love her as / have
never loved before? How could he reject
the true, tender affection of so many long and
patient years?


These thoughts tossed, at first, like the
waves of storm-ruffied sea through his brain
plunging confusedly one upon another, chaot
ic and underlined. He would not suffer him
self to examine his own feelings yet. Per
haps he was mistaken, was laboring under 8
delusion, folly, which time would clear
away. So he argued, and shaped his course
in the same old track, though each hour, as
it passed, wove its tolls more fatally about
him, and made his duty harder to perform.


When he could no longer temporize with
himself-when it became impossible for him
to shut out the contemplation of the facts be-
fore him-he made mighty resolve. He
would crush and quell, with an iron hand
this new emotion, this vain yearning. Other
men had been forced to do the same, and yet
survived the pang. He would not be untrue
to Edna-he would not wed her, loving anoth
er, but would cease to love that other first
Boastful resolve! He had set himself hard
er task than he was aware of. Love like his
might be baffled and driven into ambush, but
not conquered 1t would lie in wait, to spring
up and confront him at every turn.


The reader may smile at the idea of a man
over whose head more than half Of the allotted
threescore and ten years had already passed,
thus rushing madly into love after the fashion
of an impetuous youth-and, still worse, love
at first sight! A few smiles, graciously be-
stowed-a few commonplace words, winningly
spoken-and 10 the charm was wrought as il
by magic. Was it her beauty that enthralled
him? He could not tell. He only knew
that by some swift, mysterious agency, his
whole being seemed to have become centred in
hers. There are few men, save Of the coldest
sort, who are not swayed by some such head
long impulse once in lifetime-the man ol
thirty-seven is no more exempt from it than
the STRIPPING of seventeen.


One thing Hugh could and did do-avoid
as far as practicable, the society of Claribel
During his visits to Briefly Farm, he strove
to make his conversation, when in the family
circle, as general as possible; and he always
went at those hours when he was least likely
to meet Clarbel alone. Unconsciously, how
ever Edna made the accomplishment of his
designs very difficult, for she was always de-
vising little plans for throwing them together
and making them fond of each other as she
expressed it-little dreaming that she was
herself sharpening the arrows that were to
pierce her heart. Sometimes when Hugh
asked her to drive with him, she would reply,
! uOh I toLo Hlo rio nctoad Hnyh. 7 have CON, o.