ociations that belong to them; and ever, and ever, the busy
moth darted to and fro among the flowers, or misled upwards by the stars
whose beam allured it, wandered, like Desire after Happiness, in search
of that light it might never reach. And those stars still, with their
soft, unspeakable eyes of love, looked down upon Godolphin as of old,
when, by the Italian lake, he roved with her for whom he had become
the world itself. No, not now, nor ever, could he gaze upon those wan,
mysterious orbs, and not feel the pang that reminded him of Lucilla!
Between them and her was an affinity which his imagination could not
sever. All whom we have loved have something in nature especially
devoted to their memory; a peculiar flower, a breath of air, a leaf, a
tone. What love is without some such association.

"Striking the electric chain wherewith we're bound"?

But the dim, and shadowy, and solemn stars were indeed meet
remembrancers of Volktman's wild daughter; and so intimately was their
light connected in Godolphin's breast with that one image, that their
very softness had, to his eyes, something fearful and menacing--although
as in sadness, not in anger.

CHAPTER LXVII

THE FULL RENEWAL OF LOVE.--HAPPINESS PRODUCES FEAR, "AND IN TO-DAY
ALREADY WALKS TOMORROW."

Oh, First Love! well sang the gay minstrel of France, that we return
again and again to thee. As the earth returns to its spring, and is
green once more, we go back to the life of life and forget the seasons
that have rolled between! Whether it was--perhaps so--that in the minds
of both was a feeling that their present state was not fated to endure;
whether they felt, in the deep calm they enjoyed, that the storm was
already at hand; whether this was the truth I know not; but certain
it is, that during the short time they remained at Godolphin Priory,
previous to their earthly separation, Constance and Godolphin were
rather like lovers for the first time united, than like those who have
dragged on the chain for years. Their perfect solitude, the absence of
all intrusion, so unlike the life they had long passed, renewed all that
charm, that rapture in each other's society, which belong to the first
youth of love. True, that this could not have endured long; but Fate
suffered it to endure to the last of that tether which remained to their
union. Constance was not again doomed to the severe and grating shock
which the sense of estrangement brings to a woma