e and Death of Jason 640

Morse on the Poem "Rock me to Sleep, Mother" 252

Norton's Translation of The New Life of Dante 638

Parsons's Deus Homo 512

Parsons's Translation of the Inferno 759

Paulding's The Bulls and the Jonathans 639

Purnell's Literature and its Professors 254

Richmond during the War 762

Ritter's Comparative Geography of Palestine 125

Samuels's Ornithology and Ooelogy of New England 761

Thackeray's Early and Late Papers 252

Tomes's Champagne Country 511

Webb's Liffith Lank, or Lunacy, and St. Twel'mo 123

THE

ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

_A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics._

VOL. XX.--JULY, 1867.--NO. CXVII.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by TICKNOR AND
FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.

CHAPTER XIX.

SUSAN'S YOUNG MAN.

There seems no reasonable doubt that Myrtle Hazard might have made a
safe thing of it with Gifted Hopkins, (if so inclined,) provided that
she had only been secured against interference. But the constant habit
of reading his verses to Susan Posey was not without its risk to so
excitable a nature as that of the young poet. Poets always were capable
of divided affections, and Cowley's "Chronicle" is a confession that
would fit the whole tribe of them. It is true that Gifted had no right
to regard Susan's heart as open to the wiles of any new-comer. He knew
that she considered herself, and was considered by another, as pledged
and plighted. Yet she was such a devoted listener, her sympathies were
so easily roused, her blue eyes glistened so tenderly at the least
poetical hint, such as "Never, O never," "My aching heart," "Go, let me
weep,"--any of those touching phrases out of the long catalogue which
readily suggests itself,--that her influence was getting to be such that
Myrtle (if really anxious to secure him) might look upon it with
apprehension, and the owner of Susan's heart (if of a jealous
disposition) might have thought it worth while to make a visit to Oxbow
Village to see after his property.

It may seem not impossible that some friend had suggested as much as
this to t