striven to restore her shaken balance. Nor did this bright
cheerfulness of the morning desert him when he was fully awake, and was
forced to admit that matters stood no better with him to-day than on
the day before. A feeling of courage made the blood course warmly
through his veins: a secret delight in life, and a quiet confidence
which he could not altogether destroy, and which was very different
from the boastful courage of the previous day. He opened the window and
stood for a long time breathings in the fresh fragrance of the firs.
Then he stepped before the easel, on which stood Kohle's cartoon
representing the first scene of his legend of Venus, a plan of which,
sketched in hasty outlines on a long roll of paper, lay near by. Felix
was enough of an artist to appreciate this singular conception, even
without an explanation; and, in his present romantic and excited state,
it attracted him wonderfully. He seated himself on the wooden stool
before the easel, and became absorbed in the contemplation of this
first sheet, which was now almost completed. The beautiful goddess,
leading her boy by the hand, had stepped half out of the shadow of a
wild and overgrown gorge, and was gazing wonderingly toward a city
which could be seen perched on a distant height, with Gothic
battlements and towers. A river, which wound around the base of the
hill, was spanned by a quaint old bridge, over which moved a long train
of merchants with heavily-laden wagons, accompanied by a few travelers.
A little further in the background was a shepherd-boy, stretched out on
the grass by the side of his flock, playing a reed pipe and gazing
dreamily up at the fleecy summer clouds. The figures were sharply and
almost harshly outlined, but there was a certain dignity in the whole,
that aided in heightening the fantastic charm of the conception, and
in holding the thoughts of the observer aloof from the realities of
every-day life.

Felix was still lost--as if in a second morning dream--in the
contemplation of this fairy world, when he heard a cautious step creep
up the narrow stairway, and stop at his door. He cried "come in," and
could not help laughing when he caught sight of Kohle's honest face
peering in with an expression as if he feared to find a man in the last
stages of illness. Upon his informing his amazed friend that he was in
excellent health, and that the picture of the goddess had probably
worked this miracle, the artist's features li