he
half-faded events of long years ago, and shape into more definite forms
their outlines, obscured by the mists of time.

At length he spoke.

"Thirty years ago, my child, I left here with my first wife, and moved
to Jamaica to carry on the linen business, for the Brothers had
established themselves in business in connection with the mission
there. We arrived in May, and were in a short time quite settled. The
country and climate are lovely at that time of the year, but during the
rainy season, when the wet ground sent forth its poisonous miasma, we
both were stricken down with the fever. I, being the stronger,
recovered from the attack pretty soon; but my wife, a small, delicate
woman, succumbed at once to the fell destroyer.

"For two years I remained a widower, and led a lonely life of hard
work. Gladly would I have returned home to Europe, but the business
once begun was not so easily given up; it would have been attended with
great losses. Therefore I wrote home, saying I needed a wife, and
would like one sent out to me. I named two Sisters of whom I had
thought, hoping that one or the other would come to me. One of them
was dead, the other married; so the lot was cast among the other
Sisters, and it fell on Sister Julie. When my new wife arrived, I was
greatly shocked. She was, not only homely of face, but deformed in
figure. In spite of my love for the beautiful, I conquered myself, and
hoped she would be so much the more lovely in disposition. But hers
was a narrow, severe nature, from which no congeniality could be
expected. She prayed zealously and worked diligently carrying out with
the greatest precision the rules prescribed for us; but she had not a
single idea beyond that; and when she was not praying, was peevish,
suspicious, and avaricious. For nearly eight years I lived with her,
my aversion daily increasing. About that time, as misfortune would
have it, a friend, who was living in Jamaica, died, owing me a large
sum of money. His affairs were left in such confusion that I was
obliged to receive the plantation as payment for my debt. I found the
place in a wretched condition, and, in order to oversee its management
to any advantage, I resolved to transfer my business in the mission to
an agent, and move on the place with my wife. Then came a fatal hour
for me. Into my darkened soul, into the comfortless, emptiness of my
life, entered the power of a great passion.

"A slave belong