ent,
and also a quality represented by the dove. When our Saviour said of
Herod, 'Go tell that fox,' he meant to designate the man as having
the quality of a fox."

"But how does this apply to dreams?" asked Fanny.

"He who sends his angels to watch over and protect us in sleep, may
permit them to bring before us, in dreaming images, the embodied
form of some predominating quality in those whose association may do
us harm. The low, subtle selfishness of the sensual principle will
then take its true form of a wily serpent."

Fanny caught her breath once or twice, as these words fell upon her
ears, and then said, in a deprecating voice--

"Oh, mother! Don't! don't!" And lifting her head from the bosom of
her parent, she turned her face away, and buried it in the pillow.
As she did not move for the space of several minutes, Mrs. Markland
thought it unwise to intrude other remarks upon her, believing that
the distinct image she had already presented would live in her
memory and do its work. Soon after, she retired to her own room.
Half an hour later, and both were sleeping, in quiet unconsciousness.

CHAPTER XI.

LATE on the following day, Mr. Markland arrived from New York. Eager
as all had been for his return, there was something of embarrassment
in the meeting. The light-hearted gladness with which every one
welcomed him, even after the briefest absence, was not apparent now.
In the deep, calm eyes of his wife, as he looked lovingly into them,
he saw the shadow of an unquiet spirit. And the tears which no
effort of self-control could keep back from Fanny's cheeks, as she
caught his hand eagerly, and hid her face on his breast, answered
too surely the question he most desired to ask. It was plain to him
that Mr. Lyon's letter had found its way into her hands.

"I wish it had not been so!" was the involuntary mental ejaculation.
A sigh parted his lips--a sigh that only the quick ears of his wife
perceived, and only her heart echoed.

During the short time the family were together that evening, Mr.
Markland noticed in Fanny something that gave him concern. Her eyes
always fell instantly when he looked at her, and she seemed
sedulously to avoid his gaze. If he spoke to her, the colour mounted
to her face, and she seemed strangely embarrassed. The fact of her
having received a letter from Mr. Lyon, the contents of which he
knew, as it came open in one received by himself from that
gentleman, was not a suffi