ter loneliness and despair. Think not of me as what I was, but as
what I am! There were days when you were an infant, when I had no
thought but how to cherish and delight you, and now those days have
come again. You shall read no gloomy task-books; you shall never be
separated from me more; you shall play sweet music on the lute; you
shall be all garlanded with flowers which I will provide for you! We
will find friends and glad companions; we will bring happiness with us
wherever we are seen. God's blessing goes forth from children like
you--it has fallen upon me--it has raised me from the dead! My
Antonina shall teach me to worship, as I once taught her. She shall
pray for me in the morning, and pray for me at night; and when she
thinks not of it, when she sleeps, I shall come softly to her bedside,
and wait and watch over her, so that when she opens her eyes they shall
open on me--they are the eyes of my child who has been restored to
me--there is nothing on earth that can speak to me like them of
happiness and peace!'

He paused for a moment, and looked rapturously on her face as it was
turned towards him. His features partially saddened while he gazed,
and taking her long hair, still wet and dishevelled from the rain, in
his hands, he pressed it over his lips, over his face, over his neck.
Then, when he saw that she was endeavouring to speak, when he beheld
the tears that were now filling her eyes, he drew her closer to him,
and hurriedly continued in lower tones--

'Hush! hush! No more grief, no more tears! Tell me not whither you
have wandered--speak not of what you have suffered; for would not every
word be a reproach to me? And you have come to pardon and not to
reproach! Let not the recollection that it was I who cast you off be
forced on me from your lips; let us remember only that we are restored
to each other; let us think that God has accepted my penitence and
forgiven me my sin, in suffering my child to return! Or, if we must
speak of the days of separation that are past, speak to me of the days
that found you tranquil and secure; rejoice me by telling me that it
was not all danger and woe in the bitter destiny which my guilty anger
prepared for my own child! Say to me that you met protectors as well
as enemies in the hour of your flight--that all were not harsh to you
as I was--that those of whom you asked shelter and safety looked on
your face as on a petition for charity and kindness from