AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.



"Ah! the true rule is--a true wife in her husband's house is his
servant; it is in his heart that she is queen. Whatever of the best
he can conceive, it is her part to be; whatever of the highest he
can hope, it is hers to promise; all that is dark in him she must
purge into purity; all that is failing in him she must strengthen
into truth; from her, through all the world's clamor, he must win
his praise; in her, through all the world's warfare, he must find
his peace."
--JOHN RUSKIN.






ST. ELMO.

CHAPTER I.


"He stood and measured the earth: and the everlasting mountains were
scattered, the perpetual hills did bow."

These words of the prophet upon Shigionoth were sung by a sweet,
happy, childish voice, and to a strange, wild, anomalous tune--
solemn as the Hebrew chant of Deborah, and fully as triumphant.