affection, his
excellence, am I improved, and feel myself happier every day. Love,
Sara, love changes sacrifice into pleasure, and makes renunciation
sweet! I thank God for my lot, and only wish that I were worthier of
it!"

"It may be!" said Sara, proudly; "every one has his own sphere. But the
tame happiness of the dove suits not the eagle!"

"Sara!" exclaimed the Judge, in a tone of severe displeasure.

The mother, unable longer to repress the outbreak of excited feeling,
left the room with her handkerchief to her eyes.

"For shame, Sara," said the Judge with severe gravity, and standing
before her with a reproving glance, "for shame! this arrogance goes too
far!"

She trembled now before his eye as she had done once before; a
remembrance from the days of her childhood awoke within her; her eyelids
sunk, and a burning crimson covered her face.

"You have forgotten yourself," continued he, calmly, but severely, "and
in your childish haughtiness have only shown how far you are below that
worth and excellence which you cannot understand, and which, in your
present state of mind, you never can emulate. Your own calm judgment
will make the sharpest reproaches on this last scene, and will, nay,
must lead you to throw yourself at the feet of your mother. All,
however, that I now ask from you is, that you think over your intentions
rationally. How is it possible, Sara, that you overlook your own
inconsistency? You argue zealously against domestic life--against the
duties of marriage, and yet, at the same time, wilfully determine to tie
those bonds with a man who will make them actual fetters for you."

"He will not fetter me," returned she; "he has promised it--he has sworn
it! I shall not subject myself to him as a wife, but I shall stand at
his side as an equal, as an artiste, and step with him into a world
beautiful and rich in honours, which he will open to me."

"Ah, mere talk!" exclaimed the Judge. "Folly, folly! How can you be so
foolish, and believe in such false show? The state gives your husband a
power over you which he will not fail to abuse--that I can promise you
from what I know of his character, and from what I now discover of
yours. No woman can withdraw from a connexion of this kind unpunished,
more especially under the circumstances in which you are placed. Sara,
you do not love the man to whom you are about to unite yourself, and it
is impossible that you can love him. No true esteem, no pure reg