arth,
he would not have used so many words as I; he would only have looked at
you, and to leave Edwin would have seemed impossible."

Still she did not utter a word, but sat on the chair in the middle of
the room with both hands clasped in her lap, and her eyes streaming
with tears, fixed steadily upon the pale profile. He did not know
whether she even heard what he said. But his heart was full and
overflowed again.

"No, my friend," said he, "it was an error of your heart, a human
weakness, which cannot last in the presence of death--the end of all
human joys and sorrows. What, did you intend to leave him alone in the
hardest trial of his life? Can you really doubt that he will be truly
miserable for the first time, when he loses you? The old disease has
attacked him again, but would he have instantly placed himself in your
care, if he had not felt that he could only be cured with the aid and
under the protection of the old, sacred, eternal powers of true love
and faith? And must he now find an empty house, a cold hearth, darkness
around him, and the threshold from which hostile spectres are wont to
recoil, no longer guarded by good household spirits? And will she, who
is about to inflict this pain upon him, attempt to delude herself and
him with the fancy that she is making a sacrifice for his sake? For her
own sake, she ought to say, for the sake of her pride, her jealous,
offended heart, that cannot endure the thought of not making this
beloved husband forget every thing beside itself.

"Forgive these harsh words, dear Leah," he pleaded, approaching her and
trying to take her hand. "If you were not the woman, whom I have so
heartily rejoiced that he obtained for a wife, a woman as high-hearted
and brave as himself, perhaps you would be right in what you are doing.
One would scarcely dissuade a woman of the ordinary stamp, from making
the attempt to bring her husband back to her, by leaving him for a
time. But you, dear Leah, ought not to allow any petty arts, any
sensitive pouting and reserve, to come between yourself and him. If he
has caused you pain, has he not suffered most bitterly himself? Would
he have left you again now, if he had not felt how it must torture you
to see his condition? He--that I know--feels that he could not be cured
anywhere so quickly as near you. If you had heard how he talked to me
about you--oh! dear Leah, no man has ever struggled more honestly
against the powers of evil, and shall