ieving herself unseen, had listened to the tale with an
interest that chained her to the spot where she stood. She unconsciously
identified herself with the cruel maiden, and in after years she
remembered the long, sweeping locks of the knight, and the maiden's
bleeding heart.

PART SECOND.

CHAPTER V.

"Thus with the year
Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or signs of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine.
But clouds instead, and ever-during dark
Surround me."

_Milton._

"Thou, to whom the world unknown,
With all its shadowy shapes is shown,
Who see'st appalled, th' unreal scene,
While Fancy lifts the veil between,
Ah, Fear! ah, frantic Fear!
I see, I see thee near!"

_Collins._

Six years gliding away, have converted the boy of twelve into the
collegian of eighteen years, the girl of nine into the boarding-school
Miss of fifteen, and the child of seven into the little maiden of
thirteen.

Let us give a hasty glance at the most prominent events of these six
gliding years, and then let the development of character that has gone
on during the period, be shown by the events which follow.

The young doctor did not forget to speak to his mother of the
interesting child, whom destiny seemed to have made a protege of his
own. In consequence, a pressing invitation was sent by Mrs. Hazleton,
the widowed mother of Arthur, to the young Helen, who, from that time
became an annual guest at the Parsonage--such was the name of the home
of the young doctor. It was about a day's ride from Mr. Gleason's, and
situated in one of the loveliest portions of the lovely valley of the
Connecticut. Helen soon ceased to consider herself a visitor, and to
look upon the Parsonage as another and dearer home; for though she
dearly loved her father and brother, she found a far lovelier and more
lovable sister in the sweet, blind Alice, than the heart-repelling
Mittie.

Miss Thusa, whose feelings towards Mittie had been in a kind of volcanic
state, since the destruction of her thread, always on the verge of an
eruption, determined, during the first absence of her favorite Helen to
resume her itinerant mode of existence; so, sending her wheel in
advance, the herald cry of "Miss Thusa's coming," once more resounded
through the neighborhood.

Louis entered college at