youthful feeling into the stern, rigorous channel of intellectual problems, soon induced a morbid state of mind. All former amusements and employments were dropped, her books neglected, and every incident associated with the past studiously avoided. Her companions gradually forsook her, youth being of too buoyant a nature to dwell long in the presence of sadness, for which she cared not.
All that a mother's unwearying love could invent, and a brother's untiring devotion devise, were powerless to divert her from her mournful reverie, but they did not despair. Trusting the inherent strength of her character to win the victory in time over present faults and inconsistencies, with a sweet, tender patience they waited.
Still she neither murmured nor made any outward display of the keen shaft that had wrenched every fibre of her being. It was a silent, tearless grief. The elastic step was gone, the merry laugh was hushed, and the lustrous beauty of her eyes had faded. In their stead came a listless indifference even in minor details to which she had been wont to bring as much of the activity of her mind as in the more important ones, while the serious decision with which she inflexibly resisted every attempt to interest her in any of the pursuits congenial to her tastes, contrasted painfully with her former enthusiasm.
There was no more kindling rapture in that face, as the hour of sunset drew nigh, and the silent majesty of the heavens awakened fresh emotions of the divine Omnipresence.
The stars looked down with a mournful light, the
