profounder sense of her cousin's misfortune. By ten she was plunged in
a most pleasing melancholy.



II.

She was of those who are by nature morbid; who deceive themselves if
they imagine they have enjoyment from the recreations that provoke
lightness of heart in the majority. Only the surface of their spirits
ripples under such breezes; to stir the whole, to produce the
counterpart of a hearty laugh in your vigorous animal, a feast on
melancholy must be provided. This is a quality that is common among
the lower classes who find their greatest happiness in funerals. The
sombre trappings; white handkerchiefs against black dresses; tears;
the mystery of gloom--these trickle with a warm glow through all their
senses. They are as aroused by grief, unpleasant to the majority, as
the drunkard is quickened by wine, to many abhorrent.

Thus it was with Margaret, and to her the shroud of melancholy in
which she was now wrapped brought an added boon--arrayed in it she was
best able to make her verses. Not of necessity sad little verses; many
of her brightest were conceived in profoundest gloom. With a pang at
the heart she could be most merry--tinkling out her laughing little
lines just as martyrs could breathe a calm because, rather than spite
of, they were devilishly racked.



III.