valley of death. The heart of stone was quite broken in her. The fiery
life fallen from flame to coal. When her strength was a little restored,
she had all her companions summoned, and said to them; "I deserved to
die, but a generous trust has called me back to life. I will be worthy
of it, nor ever betray the truth, or resent injury more. Can you forgive
the past?"

And they not only forgave, but, with love and earnest tears, clasped in
their arms the returning sister. They vied with one another in offices
of humble love to the humbled one; and, let it be recorded as an
instance of the pure honor of which young hearts are capable, that these
facts, known to forty persons, never, so far as I know, transpired
beyond those walls.

It was not long after this that Mariana was summoned home. She went
thither a wonderfully instructed being, though in ways those who had
sent her forth to learn little dreamed of.

Never was forgotten the vow of the returning prodigal. Mariana could not
resent, could not play false. The terrible crisis, which she so early
passed through, probably prevented the world from hearing much of her. A
wild fire was tamed in that hour of penitence at the boarding school,
such as has oftentimes wrapped court and camp in its destructive glow.

But great were the perils she had yet to undergo, for she was one of
those barks which easily get beyond soundings, and ride not lightly on
the plunging billow.

Her return to her native climate seconded the effects of inward
revolutions. The cool airs of the north had exasperated nerves too