tect them from the
storm, and yet shut them from the sun? Thou who, where thou givest
love, seekest, though meekly, for love in return; to be the soul's sweet
necessity, the life's household partner to him who receives all thy
faith and devotion,--canst thou influence the sources of joy and of
sorrow in the heart that does not heave at thy name? Hast thou the charm
and the force of the moon, that the tides of that wayward sea shall ebb
and flow at thy will? Yet who shall say, who conjecture how near two
hearts can become, when no guilt lies between them, and time brings the
ties all its own? Rarest of all things on earth is the union in which
both, by their contrasts, make harmonious their blending; each supplying
the defects of the helpmate, and completing, by fusion, one strong human
soul! Happiness enough, where even Peace does but seldom preside, when
each can bring to the altar, if not the flame, still the incense. Where
man's thoughts are all noble and generous, woman's feelings all gentle
and pure, love may follow if it does not precede; and if not, if the
roses be missed from the garland, one may sigh for the rose, but one is
safe from the thorn.

The morning was mild, yet somewhat overcast by the mist which announces
coming winter in London, and Helen walked musingly beneath the trees
that surrounded the garden of Lord Lansmere's house. Many leaves were
yet left on the boughs; but they were sere and withered. And the birds
chirped at times; but their note was mournful and complaining. All
within this house, until Harley's arrival, had been strange and
saddening to Helen's timid and subdued spirits. Lady Lansmere had
received her kindly, but with a certain restraint; and the loftiness of
manner, common to the countess with all but Harley, had awed and chilled
the diffident orphan. Lady Lansmere's very interest in Harley's choice,
her attempts to draw Helen out of her reserve, her watchful eyes
whenever Helen shyly spoke or shyly moved, frightened the poor child,
and made her unjust to herself.

The very servants, though staid, grave, and respectful, as suited a
dignified, old-fashioned household, painfully contrasted the bright
welcoming smiles and free talk of Italian domestics. Her recollections
of the happy, warm Continental manner, which so sets the bashful at
their ease, made the stately and cold precision of all around her doubly
awful and dispiriting. Lord Lansmere himself, who did not as yet know
the v