gives dark and distorted views of
God and man. Let them cut off the hand that offends and the foot that
errs, rather than entail on others evils, which all eternity cannot
remedy. Better transmit to posterity the blinded eye, the maimed and
halting foot, that knows the narrow path to eternal life, than the dark
passions that desolate earth, and unfit the soul for the joys of heaven.

CHAPTER XXX.

I have now arrived at a period in my life, at which the novelist would
pause,--believing the history of woman ceases to interest as soon as an
accepted lover and consenting friends appear ready to usher the heroine
into the temple of Hymen. But there is a _life within life_, which is
never revealed till it is intertwined with another's. In the depth of
the heart there is a lower deep, which is never sounded save by the hand
that wears the _wedding-ring_. There is a talisman in its golden circle,
more powerful than those worn by the genii of the East.

I love to linger among the beautiful shades of Grandison Place, to
wander over its velvet lawn, its gravel walks, its winding avenues, to
gaze on the lovely valley its height commanded whether in the intense
lights and strong shadows of downward day, or the paler splendor and
deeper shadows of moonlit night. I love those girdling mountains,--grand
winding stairs of heaven--on which my spirit has so often climbed, then
stepping to the clouds, looked through their "golden vistas" into the
mysteries of the upper world.

O thou charming home of my youth what associations cluster round thee!
Thy noble trees rustle their green leaves in the breezes of memory. Thy
moonlight walks are trodden by invisible footsteps. Would I had never
left thee, Paradise of my heart! Would I had never tasted the fruit of
the tree of knowledge, which, though golden to the eye, turns to ashes
on the lips!

* * * * *

When Ernest urged me to appoint a period for our marriage, I was
startled--alarmed. I thought not of hastening to my destiny quite so
soon. I was too young. I must wait at least two years before assuming
the responsibilities of a wife.

"Two years!--two centuries!" he exclaimed. "Why should we wait? I have
wealth, which woos you to enjoy it. I have arrived at the fulness of
manhood, and you are in the rosetime of your life. Why should we wait?
For circumstances to divide,--for time to chill,--or death to destroy?
No, no; when you gave me your heart