e her eyes; and her soul withdrew itself from
the portal at which, a little while before, it hearkened into the world
of nature. At last there came a motion of the eyelids--a quivering
motion--then they closed, slowly, over the blue orbs beneath; and soon
after a tear trembled out to the light from behind the barriers that
sought to retain them. A deep, fluttering sigh succeeded to this sign
of feeling. Then her lips parted, and she spoke audibly to herself.

"Oh, that I knew how to win him back from the path of danger! He does
not love his home; and yet how have I striven to make it attractive!
How much have I denied myself! and how much yielded to and thought of
him! He is always kind to me; and he--yes--I know he loves me; but--ah!"

The low voice trembled back sighing into silence. Still, for a long
time, the unhappy wife sat almost as motionless as if in sleep. Then,
as some thought grew active towards a purpose in her mind, she arose,
and laying Ella on the bed, began busying herself in some household
duties.

The afternoon passed slowly away, yet not for a moment was the thought
of her husband absent from the mind of Mrs. Wilkinson.

"What ought I to do? How shall I make his home sufficiently attractive?"

This was her over and over again repeated question; and her thoughts
bent themselves eagerly for some answer upon which her heart might rest
with even a small degree of hope.

The prolonged, intense anxiety and alarm of the previous night, added
to bodily fatigue and loss of rest, were not without their effect upon
Mrs. Wilkinson. Early in the day she suffered from lassitude and a
sense of exhaustion; and, after dinner, a slight headache was added;
this increased hourly, and by four o'clock was almost blinding in its
violence. Still, she tried to forget herself, and what she suffered in
thinking about and devising some means of saving her husband from the
dangers that lay hidden from his own view about his footsteps.

"If I could only add some new attraction to his home!" she murmured to
herself, over and over again.

Sometimes she would hold her temples with both her hands, in the vain
effort to still, by pressure, the throbbing arteries within, while she
continued to think of her husband.

As tea-time drew near, Mrs. Wilkinson left Ella in the care of a
domestic, and went into the kitchen to prepare some delicacy for the
evening meal of which she knew her husband was fond; this engaged her
for half