that they fail to impress with any meaning--are well aware that in the
peaceful calm of spirit thus acquired there is a sense of happiness,
which is not the less real that it wears the semblance of seriousness,
almost of sadness.

In all that pertained to a sombre monotony, Kellett's Court was a
convent. The tall mountains to the back, the deep woods to the front,
seemed barriers against the world without; and there was a silence and
a stillness about the spot as though it were some lone island in a vast
sea, where no voyagers ever touched, no traveller ever landed. This same
isolation, strong in its own sense of security, was the charm of the
place, investing it with a kind of romance, and imparting to Sybella's
own life a something of storied interest. The very few books the house
contained she had read and re-read till she knew them almost by heart.
They were lives of voyagers,--hardy men of enterprise and daring, who
had pushed their fortunes in far-away lands,--or else sketches of life
and adventure in distant countries.

The annals of these sea-rovers were full of all the fascination of which
gorgeous scenery and stirring incident form the charm. There were lands
such as no painter's genius ever fancied, verdure and flowers of more
than fairy brilliancy, gold and gems of splendor that rivalled Aladdin's
cave, strange customs, and curious observances mingled with deeds of
wildest daring, making up a succession of pictures wherein the mind
alternated between the voluptuous repose of tropical enjoyment and the
hair-breadth 'scapes of buccaneering existence. The great men whose
genius planned, and whose courage achieved, these enterprises, formed
for her a sort of hero-worship. Their rough virtues, their splendid
hospitality, their lion-hearted defiance of danger, were strong appeals
to her sympathy, while in their devoted loyalty she found a species of
chivalry that elevated them in her esteem. Woman-like, too, she inclined
to make success the true test of greatness, and glorified to herself
those bold spirits who never halted nor turned aside when on their
road to victory. The splendid self-dependence of such men as Drake and
Dampier struck her as the noblest attribute of mankind; that resolute
trust in their own stout hearts imparted to them a degree of interest
almost devotional; and over and over did she bethink her what a glorious
destiny it would have been to have had a life associated and bound up
with some s