return with him into his sightless gloom, after enriching a certain
extent of stuccoed wall with the most brilliant and lovely designs. And
what true votary of art would not purchase unrivalled excellence, even
at so vast a sacrifice!

Or, if her friends still solicited a soberer account, Miriam replied,
that, meeting the old infidel in one of the dismal passages of the
catacomb, she had entered into controversy with him, hoping to achieve
the glory and satisfaction of converting him to the Christian faith. For
the sake of so excellent a result; she had even staked her own salvation
against his, binding herself to accompany him back into his penal gloom,
if, within a twelvemonth's space, she should not have convinced him of
the errors through which he had so long groped and stumbled. But, alas!
up to the present time, the controversy had gone direfully in favor of
the man-demon; and Miriam (as she whispered in Hilda's ear) had awful
forebodings, that, in a few more months, she must take an eternal
farewell of the sun!

It was somewhat remarkable that all her romantic fantasies arrived at
this self-same dreary termination,--it appeared impossible for her even
to imagine any other than a disastrous result from her connection with
her ill-omened attendant.

This singularity might have meant nothing, however, had it not suggested
a despondent state of mind, which was likewise indicated by many other
tokens. Miriam's friends had no difficulty in perceiving that, in
one way or another, her happiness was very seriously compromised. Her
spirits were often depressed into deep melancholy. If ever she was gay,
it was seldom with a healthy cheerfulness. She grew moody, moreover, and
subject to fits of passionate ill temper; which usually wreaked itself