her. She
was sitting on a low stool, bending forward a little, her head drooping,
her hands loosely clasped, and oh! so thin, so white, so lifeless, so
like a blighted, wilted flower! What semblance was there of the rosy,
smiling face that had so long brightened the old home?

Once she smiled, and then her lips moved as they do often. He shuddered
at the sight. "She mourns for her brother," said he. "I will go in and
speak to her some words of consolation."

"No, sir," said I. "What you see is not grief, but almost insanity.
Shall I tell you the cause?"

Then I drew him from the house to a wide field near by, and as we walked
talked to him mildly, but with some boldness.

I made known my love for her, and her own confession to Lucy. I made it
plain to him that, in striving against nature, her mind had become
unsettled, and so unable to bear that terrible shock. And, finally, I
implored him not to take away so frail a being to perish among
strangers.

I was surprised that he made no answer. He left me abruptly and walked
towards the minister's. Was he offended?

* * * * *

_January 11._--This morning a boy brought a note from Mr. Colman,
requesting me to come and see him. I went as soon as I could leave home.

He came down to the door and asked me up into his chamber. After handing
me a chair, he seated himself at the table, where he remained for some
minutes with his head bowed. When he looked up, I was startled at the
pale and sorrow-stricken look of his face.

"Young man," said he, "I have passed the night in self-examination, and
now I wish to confess that I have deceived myself, injured you, and
destroyed the peace of one precious to us both. In gaining a laborer for
Christ, I hoped also to gain comfort for my own heart. Still," he added,
earnestly, "I was not wholly selfish. I really believed that, under
God, she might become a mighty instrument for good. Who so fitted to
teach the Gospel as the pure-hearted? I hoped to gain her love. She
seemed--there was something in her manner that--but let it pass. I was
walking in a dream. 'T was surely a dream, or I should have known that
such happiness was not for me.

"Love met me once. It was in early youth. As fair, as lovely a being as
God ever made yielded up to me her young heart, and then drooped and
died. Years passed. I never thought to meet love again.

"It was while preaching here that I first saw Elinor. I was struck wi