lawsuit went on less slowly than lawsuits usually do, and the final
decision was very speedily to be given.

We said the autumn and the winter were gone; and it was in one of those
latter days in March, when, like a hoyden girl subsiding into dawning
womanhood, the rude weather mellows into a softer and tenderer month,
that, by the side of a stream, overshadowed by many a brake and tree,
sat two persons.

"I know not, dearest Algernon," said one, who was a female, "if this is
not almost the sweetest month in the year, because it is the month of
Hope."

"Ay, Isabel; and they did it wrong who called it harsh, and dedicated it
to Mars. I exult even in the fresh winds which hardier frames than mine
shrink from, and I love feeling their wild breath fan my cheek as I ride
against it. I remember," continued Algernon, musingly, "that on this
very day three years ago, I was travelling through Germany, alone and on
horseback, and I paused, not far from Ens, on the banks of the Danube;
the waters of the river were disturbed and fierce, and the winds came
loud and angry against my face, dashing the spray of the waves upon me,
and filling my spirit with a buoyant and glad delight; and at that time
I had been indulging old dreams of poetry, and had laid my philosophy
aside; and, in the inspiration of the moment, I lifted up my hand
towards the quarter whence the winds came, and questioned them audibly
of their birthplace and their bourne; and, as the enthusiasm increased,
I compared them to our human life, which a moment is, and then is not;
and, proceeding from folly to folly, I asked them, as if they were the
interpreters of heaven, for a type and sign of my future lot."

"And what said they?" inquired Isabel, smiling, yet smiling timidly.

"They answered not," replied Mordaunt; "but a voice within me seemed
to say, 'Look above!' and I raised my eyes,--but I did not see thee,
love,--so the Book of Fate lied."

"Nay, Algernon, what did you see?" asked Isabel, more earnestly than the
question deserved.

"I saw a thin cloud, alone amidst many dense and dark ones scattered
around; and as I gazed it seemed to take the likeness of a funeral
procession--coffin, bearers, priests, all--as clear in the cloud as I
have seen them on the earth: and I shuddered as I saw; but the winds
blew the vapour onwards, and it mingled with the broader masses of
cloud; and then, Isabel, the sun shone forth for a moment, and I
mistook, love, when I