her I could not have succored her, for I did not know where to find her.
Her countenance illumined my wall, but her fair young self lay for all I
knew sheltered within the darkness and silence of the tomb.

"At length my morbid broodings worked out their natural result. A dull
melancholy settled upon me which nothing could break. Even the news that
my cousin who had lost her husband a month after marriage, had returned
to America with expectation to remain, scarcely caused a ripple in my
apathy. Was I sinking into a hypochrondriac? or was my passion for the
beautiful brunette dead? I determined to solve the doubt.

"Seeking her where I knew she would be found, I gazed again upon her
beauty. It was absolutely nothing to me. A fair young face with high
thoughts in every glance floated like sunshine between us and I left the
haughty Countess, with the knowledge burned deep into my brain, that the
love I had considered slain was alive and demanding, but that the object
of it past recall, was my lost young wife.

"Once assured of this, my apathy vanished like mist before a kindled
torch. Henceforth the future held a hope, and life a purpose. I would
seek my wife throughout the world and bring her back if I found her
in prison between the men whose existence was a curse to my pride. But
where should I turn my steps? What golden thread had she left in my hand
by which to trace her through the labyrinth of this world? I could think
of but one, and that was the love which would restrain her from going
away from me too far. The Luttra of old would not leave the city where
her husband lived. If she was not changed, I ought to be able to find
her somewhere within this great Babylon of ours. Wisdom told me to
set the police upon her track, but pride bade me try every other means
first. So with the feverish energy of one leading a forlorn hope, I
began to pace the streets if haply I might see her face shine upon me
from the crowd of passers by; a foolish fancy, unproductive of result! I
not only failed to see her, but anyone like her.

"In the midst of the despair occasioned by this failure a thought flashed
across me or rather a remembrance. One night not long since, being
uncommonly restless, I had risen from my bed, dressed me and gone out
into the yard back of my house for a little air. It was an unusual thing
for me to do but I seemed to be suffocating where I was, and nothing
else would satisfy me. As you already surmise, it