y we were both looked up to as persons who could not be
approached with familiarity; and that preserved us from the open
badinage to which others, in similar circumstances, might have been
subjected.

Alone, and liberated from this vexatious surveillance, we gave free vent
to our thoughts. The suddenness of our new confidence, and the rapidity
with which we already shaped its issues, bewildered us by the intensity
of the emotions that came crowding for speech and explanation. Astraea
sometimes had misgivings, although she never knew how to give them a
definite form. One day she said to me, "We are wrong in giving way to
this feeling. It is not a love likely to procure us peace. I say this to
you because I feel it--perhaps, because I know it; but I confess myself
unable to argue upon a question upon which my reason, my whole being is
held in suspense. I say so, simply because I ought to say so, and not
because I am prepared of myself to act, or even to advise. I am like a
leaf in a tempest, and can not guide myself. I yield to the irresistible
power that has swept me from the firm land, and deprived me of the
strength to regain it."

I fancied that this left me but one course to take, and I replied, "We
have pronounced our destiny, Astraea, for good or for evil. We ought to
have no choice but to abide by it. If you do not fail in your faith,
mine is irrevocable."

At these words she looked gravely at me, and answered,

"My faith dies with me. It is a part of my life. It was not taken up in
an hour, to be as lightly thrown aside. Without it, life would be
insupportable; with it, life in any shape of seclusion, privation,
banishment, contains all the blessings I covet upon earth. It was not
for that, or of that I spoke. Understand me clearly, and put no
construction on my words outside their plain and ordinary meaning. All I
ask, all that is necessary for me is your society; to hear you speak, to
drink in the words of kindness and power that flow from your lips, to
be ever near you, to tend, solace, and console you. I should be content
to enjoy the privilege of seeing that you were happy, without even
aspiring to the higher glory of creating happiness for you. That is my
nature--capable of a wider range, and a loftier flight, but happiest in
its devotion. In any capacity I will serve you--and feel that the
servitude of love is dominion!"

So firm and constant was the character of Astraea, tinged with a romantic
inspi