Year: 1870

biOu aud IuC u bpillbuallEOd oONt@i DONIu
of our times, an organization in which
muscle is lacking and nerve Overabun-
dant, she is capable Of an affection which
has wings of imagination which can soar
above the ordinary plane of belief, which
is more than was once human.


Consider for an instant what an elab-
grafton of culture the passion Of love
may have reached in this child. She
can invest the man whom she has ac-
cepted as monarch of her soul with the
perfections of the heroes of history and
of fiction. She can prophesy for him a
future which a hundred years since was
not realizable upon this continent. Out
of her own mind she can draw shining
raiment of success for him which shall
be visible across oceans, and crowns Of
fame which shall not be dimmed by GEN.
turiOs. She can love him for super
human loveliness which she has power
to impute to him, and for victories
which she is magician enough to strew
in anticipation beneath his feet. 1t is
not extraVagance, it is even nothing but
the simplest and most obvious truth, to
say that there has been periods in the
worlds history, without going back to
the cycles of the troglodyte and the
lake-dweller, when such love would
have been beyond the capabilities of hu-
manity.


1t must be understood, by the way,
that Bessie was not bred amid the
sparse, hard worked, and scantily cul-
tured population of Barham, and that,
until the death of her parents, two years
before the opening Of this story, she
had been a plant of the stimulating,
hothed life of city. Into this bucholic
land she had brought susceptibilities
which do not often exist there, and a
craving for excitements of sentiment
which does not often find qualification
there. Consequently the first youth
who in any wise resembled the ideal of
which she had set up in her
soul found her ready to fall into his
grasp, to believe in him as in a deity,
and to look to him for miracles of love
aud happiness.


Well, these two interesting idiots. as
the unsympathizing observer might call
them, have turned their backs on the
preCipice and are walking toward the
girls home. They had not gone far
before Bessie uttered a speech which
excited Harry's profound amazement,
and which will probably astonish every
young man who has not as yet made
his conquests. After looking at him
long and steadfastly, she said: Chow
is it possible that you can care for me I?
l don't see what you find in me to
make me worthy Of your admiration"


How often such sentiments have
been felt, and how often also they have
been spoken, by beings whose hearts
have been bowed by the humility Of
strong affection! Perhaps women are
less likely to give them speech than
mem but it is only because they are
more trammelled by an education of re-
serve, and by Unborn delicacy and tim
idity it is not because they feel them
less. This girl, however, was so frank
in nature, and so earnest and eager in
her feelings, that she could not but give
forth the aroma of loving meekness
that was in her soul.


"What do you meant" asked Fos-
ter, in his innocent surprise. "See
to admire in youP'


80, you are so much wiser than /,
and SO much nobler!" she replied.
at is just because you are good, be-
cause you have the best heart that ever
was, that you care for ME. You found
me lonely and unhappy, and so you
pitied me and took charge of me-"


30 MOI" he began but we will not
repeat his protestatlons; we will just
say that he, too, was properly humble.


"Have you really been lonely and
sad? he went on, curious to know ev-
cry item of her life, every beat of her
heart.


"Does that old house look like a par
adise to you7" she asked, pointing to
the dwelling of Squire Lauson.


at ism Mt very old, and it does MT
look very horrible" he replied, little
anxious as he thought of his future
housekeeping. "Perhaps ours will not
be 80 fine a one"


"I was not thinking of that" de-
cIarod Bessie. sour house will be
charming, even il it has but one story,
and that underground. But this one!
You don't see it with my eyes, you
have Mt lived in it,"


ais it haunted" inquired Foster
of whom we must say that he did not
believe 10 ghosts, and in fact scorned
them with all the scorn of philoso-
pher.


sz"Yes, and by people who are not yet
ed,-people who call themselves
alive"


The suhiect was a delicate one prob
ably, for Bessie said no more concern
ing it, and Foster considerably re-
Trained from further questions. There
was one thing on which this youth es-
pecialIy prided himself, and that was
on being a gentleman in every sense
possible to a republican. Because bis
father had been ajudge, and his grand
father and great grandfather clergy
men, he conceived that he belonged to
a patrician class, similar to that which
Englishmen style "tho untitled nobili-
ty," and that he was bound to exhibit
as many chivalrous virtues as if his