omething unspeakably
tranquillizing in the studded dome of heaven; there is also something
unspeakably sad. It bends over the struggling, yearning, aching human
heart, as a mother, who has attained that peace which is the outgrowth
of suffering, bends over the passion, the sobbing, and the despair of
her child.

"Hush, hush, it is all for the best."

"I cannot--will not bear it!"

"Hush, you know not what you say. God's hand is in it all."

"There is no God in this, or if there is, He hates me!"

"Ah, my child, He loves you with unutterable love, and pities with
unutterable pity. Yet a little while, and the day shall shine upon you;
then you will know--a little while."

I turned from the great vault above me, and looked out upon the restive
waters, and as I turned I saw a shadowy Mrs. Purblind sitting beside me
on the beach, and questioning with sad eyes and heart, the stars that
bent to listen.

"I have tried," she said; her face, usually so thoughtless,
tear-stained, and quivering.

"Yes, I know you have tried," I answered; "I have seen that!"

"But he is just the same."

"Yes, and will be for a long time, and you will have to go on trying for
years, if you want to carry him back to the old days," I said.

"That's one of the hardest things in all the world!" she cried
passionately, "if we stop doing right--the right stops with us, but if we
stop doing wrong and begin to do right, the wrong goes on."

"Not for always," I said, looking up to the stars.

"Oh, for so long!"

The great dome rich with gems, and deep with peace, bent over her, and
by and by her sobs ceased.

"You are trying, I know," I reiterated, "but you don't understand--you
can't, for you have only a woman's nature."

"What should I have, pray?"

"A woman's, and a man's, and a child's, to be a perfect wife and mother;
that is, you must be able to comprehend them all. Your husband came home
cross to-night."

"Yes, irritable toward us all, and I so hoped to have everything
pleasant this evening."

"He, too, had his hopes to-day, and they were flung to the ground, and
broken before his eyes."

"What do you mean?"

"The special agent of a company that he has for a year been working to
get, has been in town."

"Yes, I know."

"Yesterday this agent led him to suppose he was to be the favored one.
All to-day he has been working toward that end, and near night he heard
that this man had gone, without even saying good-by. You remem