lted
these flowers of loveliness and faded their bright hues. Their uncurled
ringlets hung dangling down their cheeks, whose roses were heightened to
an unbecoming crimson, or withered to a sickly pallor; their gossamer
drapery, deprived of its delicate stiffening, flapped like the loose
sails of a vessel wet by the spray. Here and there was a blooming
maiden, still as fair and cool as if sprinkled with dew, round whom the
atmosphere seemed refreshed as by the sparkling of a _jet d'eau_. These,
like myself, were novices, who had brought with them the dewy innocence
of life's morning hours; but they had not, like me, heard the hissing of
the adder among their roses.

"Be calm,--be courageous," said Ernest, in a scarcely audible tone, as
bending down he gave the fan into my hand; "the arrow rebounds from an
impenetrable surface."

As we turned to leave the church, I felt my hand drawn round the arm of
Richard Clyde. How he had cleft the living mass so quickly I could not
tell; but he had made his way where an arrow could hardly penetrate. I
looked round for Edith,--but Ernest watched over her, like an earthly
providence. My backward glance to her prevented my seeing the faces of
those who were seated behind me. But what mattered it? They were
strangers, and heaven grant that they would ever remain so.

"Are you entirely recovered?" asked Richard, in an anxious tone. "I
never saw any one's countenance change so instantaneously as yours. You
were as white as your cambric handkerchief. You are not accustomed to
such stifling crowds, where we seem plunged in an exhausted receiver."

"I never wish to be in such another," I answered, with emphasis. "I
never care to leave home again."

"I am sorry your first impressions should have been so
disagreeable,--but I hope you have been interested in some small degree.
You do not know what inspiration there was in your presence. At first, I
thought I would rather be shot from the cannon's mouth than speak in
your hearing; but after the first shock, you were like a fountain of
living waters playing on my soul."

Poor Richard! how could I tell him that I had not heard understandingly
one sentence that he uttered? or how could I explain the cause of my
mental distraction? He had cast his pearls to the wind; his diamonds to
the sand.

Mrs. Linwood was a guest of the president, who was an intimate and
valued friend. I would have given worlds for a little solitary nook,
where I could