false. Oh, no! she was too
single-hearted, too relying in her trust fora doubt so dreadful; but
her step grew heavier day by day--her cheek so very, very pale,
except at the post-man's hour, when it would burn with a feverish
brightness, and then fade to its former pallid hue again; her sweet
voice was heard no longer trilling forth those thrilling melodies
which had gladdened the heart of young and old to hear. The visits to
Dream-dell were less and less frequent, for now how each remembrance
so fondly connected with that spot, came fraught with pain; the works
of her favorite author's lay opened, but unread, upon her knee; and
the fastly-falling tears half-blotted out the impassioned words she
had once read with _him_ with so happy a heart-thrill.

The widow saw with anxiety and alarm this sudden change; but she was
an invalid--and the poor suffering one strove to hide her sickness of
the heart, and mother though she was, Mrs. Layton discovered not the
canker-worm which was nipping her bud of promise, but would whisper,
"You confine yourself too much to my room, my child, and must go out
into the bright sunshine, so that the smile may come back to your lip,
the roses to your cheek."

One day, now three months after Edward Morton's departure, Miss
Jerusha Simpkins was seen threading her way to Woodbine Cottage. She
held a newspaper carefully folded in her hand, and on her pinched and
withered face a mingled expression of caution and importance was
struggling.

Lifting the latch of the embowered door, the spinster walked into the
small parlor, where Fanny Layton was engaged in feeding her pet
canaries; poor things! they were looking strangely at the wan face
beside the cage, as if they wondered if it could be the same which
used to come with wild warblings as sweet and untutored as their own.
Fanny turned to welcome the intruder, but recognized Miss Simpkins
with a half-drawn sigh, and a shrinking of the heart, for she was ever
so minute in her inquiries for that "runaway Mr. Morton."

"A beautiful day, Miss Fanny," commenced the spinster, looking sharply
around, (she always made a point of doing two things i.e. entering the
houses of her neighbors without knocking, and then taking in at a
glance not only every thing the room contained, but the occupation,
dress, &c. of the inmates for after comment,) and then throwing back
her bonnet, and commencing to fan herself vigorously with the folded
paper, "I thought I mus