ht."

The hours of the afternoon passed away, and still Magdalen remained shut
up in her own room. No restless footsteps pattered on the stairs; no
nimble tongue was heard chattering here, there, and everywhere, from the
garret to the kitchen--the house seemed hardly like itself, with the one
ever-disturbing element in the family serenity suddenly withdrawn from
it. Anxious to witness with her own eyes the reality of a transformation
in which past experience still inclined her to disbelieve, Miss Garth
ascended to Magdalen's room, knocked twice at the door, received no
answer, opened it and looked in.

There sat Magdalen, in an arm-chair before the long looking-glass, with
all her hair let down over her shoulders; absorbed in the study of her
part and comfortably arrayed in her morning wrapper, until it was time
to dress for dinner. And there behind her sat the lady's-maid, slowly
combing out the long heavy locks of her young mistress's hair, with the
sleepy resignation of a woman who had been engaged in that employment
for some hours past. The sun was shining; and the green shutters outside
the window were closed. The dim light fell tenderly on the two quiet
seated figures; on the little white bed, with the knots of rose-colored
ribbon which looped up its curtains, and the bright dress for dinner
laid ready across it; on the gayly painted bath, with its pure lining
of white enamel; on the toilet-table with its sparkling trinkets, its
crystal bottles, its silver bell with Cupid for a handle, its litter
of little luxuries that adorn the shrine of a woman's bed-chamber. The
luxurious tranquillity of the scene; the cool fragrance of flowers and
perfumes in the atmosphere; the rapt attitude of Magdalen, absorbed over
her reading; the monotonous regularity of movement in the maid's
hand and arm, as she drew the comb smoothly through and through her
mistress's hair--all conveyed the same soothing impression of drowsy,
delicious quiet. On one side of the door were the broad daylight and the
familiar realities of life. On the other was the dream-land of Elysian
serenity--the sanctuary of unruffled repose.

Miss Garth paused on the threshold, and looked into the room in silence.

Magdalen's curious fancy for having her hair combed at all times
and seasons was among the peculiarities of her character which were
notorious to everybody in the house. It was one of her father's favorite
jokes that she reminded him, on such occasio