fearlessly in his eyes, and I could hear the little prayer proceeding,
yet in so low a whisper that I could not catch one word. She was
infinitely solemn at such times, the darling; and there was always
something in her low, clear tone, through all her prayings and
philosophizings, which was strangely like her mother's voice. Sometimes
she seemed to stop and ask a question, and at every answer I could see
her father's arm tighten, and the iron girdle grow more close.

The moments passed, the voices grew lower yet, the doll slid to the
ground. Marian had drifted away upon a vaster ocean than that whose
music lulled her from without,--upon that sea whose waves are dreams.
The night was wearing on, the lights gleamed from the anchored vessels,
the bay rippled serenely against the low sea-wall, the breeze blew
gently in. Marian's baby breathing grew deeper and more tranquil; and as
all the sorrows of the weary earth might be imagined to exhale
themselves in spring through the breath of violets, so it seemed as if
it might be with Kenmure's burdened heart. By degrees the strong man's
deeper respirations mingled with those of the child, and their two
separate beings seemed merged and solved into identity, as they
slumbered, breast to breast, beneath the golden and quiet stars. I
passed by without awaking them; I knew that the artist had attained his
dream.

THE RELIGIOUS SIDE OF THE ITALIAN QUESTION.

I.

I have of late frequently been asked by my English friends why it is
that I decline to return to my country, and to associate my own efforts
for the moral and political advancement of Italy with those of her
governing classes. "The amnesty has opened up a path for the _legal_
dissemination of your ideas," they tell me. "By taking the place already
repeatedly offered you among the representatives of the people, you
would secure to those who hold the helm of the state the support of the
whole Republican party. Do you not, by throwing the weight of your name
and influence on the side of the malcontents, increase the difficulties
of the government, and prolong the fatal want of moral and political
unity, without which the mere material fact of union is barren, and
unproductive of benefit to the people?"

The question is asked by serious men, who wish my country well, and is
therefore deserving of a serious answer.

Before treating the personal matter, however, let me say that, since
1859, the Republican party has