him terribly. Was she
of marble? Would nothing kindle affection in that proud heart? Had he
married a beautiful statue?

No wonder Elizabeth was proudly cold. She did not believe in the
necessity of this journey. His indifference had grown into dislike, she
thought, and, yielding to inevitable repulsion, he was going away to
avoid her.

But Elsie was loud in her expressions of grief. She had floods of tears
to give--protestations and caresses without end. Her sweet voice was
constantly reproaching Elizabeth for want of feeling. She was forever
hovering about her brother in atonement, as she said, for his wife's
coldness. But the roses on her cheek were always fresh, and her blue
eyes never lost a gleam of their brightness, while Elizabeth grew thin
and white beneath the withering ache of a famished heart.

"Oh, the desert of these months! Oh, my God, my God, I shall perish
without him! Alone here--all alone with this child--what will become of
me! How shall I endure, how resist this wild clamor of the heart?"

Elizabeth had flung herself upon the couch in her own room, her face was
buried in the purple cushion, and she strove to smother the words, which
sprang out of a terrible pain which had no business in that young heart.
As she lay, convulsed and sobbing, on the couch, the door opened, and
her husband came into the room. The thick carpet smothered his
footsteps, and he stood by the couch before she knew it--stood there a
moment, then fell upon his knees, and softly wound his arm around her.

"Elizabeth, my wife."

She started up with a cry; her face was wet with tears; her large grey
eyes wild with sorrow. He lifted her to his bosom, put back the thick
waves of hair that had fallen over her face, and kissed her forehead and
her lips with gentle violence.

The pride went out from her heart as she felt these passionate kisses
rained on her face. She clung to him, trembling from the new joy that
possessed her.

"Is it for me that you are weeping, sweet wife? are you sorry to part
with me?"

"Oh, yes, yes! you are my life, my salvation."

"Ah, how hard you make it for me to go!"

"And you must? you must?"

"It is inevitable; my duty to others demands it; but it shall not be for
long."

The door of Elsie's boudoir was opened, the curtains held back, and the
smiling young creature looked in. Elizabeth saw her, struggled out of
her husband's arms, and sat with the wet eyelashes sweeping her cheek,
which w