MORE BOUNTEOUS RUN RIVERS WHEN THE ICE THAT LOCKED THEIR FLOW MELTS
INTO THEIR WATERS. AND WHEN FINE NATURES RELENT, THEIR KINDNESS Is
SWELLED BY THE THAW.

Darrell escaped into the house; Fairthorn sunk upon the ground, and
resigned himself for some minutes to unmanly lamentations. Suddenly he
started up; a thought came into his brain--a hope into his breast. He
made a caper--launched himself into a precipitate zig-zag--gained the
hall-door-plunged into his own mysterious hiding-place--and in less than
an hour re-emerged, a letter in his hand, with which he had just time to
catch the postman, as that functionary was striding off from the back
yard with the official bag.

This exploit performed, Fairthorn shambled into his chair at the dinner-
table, as George Morley concluded the grace which preceded the meal that
in Fairthorn's estimation usually made the grand event of the passing
day. But the poor man's appetite was gone. As Sophy dined with Waife,
the Morleys alone shared, with host and secretary, the melancholy
entertainment. George was no less silent than Fairthorn; Darrell's
manner perplexed him. Mrs. Morley, not admitted into her husband's
confidence in secrets that concerned others, though in all his own he was
to her conjugal sight /pellucidior vitro/, was the chief talker; and
being the best woman in the world, ever wishing to say something
pleasant, she fell to praising the dear old family pictures that scowled
at her from the wall, and informed Fairthorn that she had made great
progress with her sketch of the old house as seen from the lake, and was
in doubt whether she should introduce in the foreground some figures of
the olden time, as in Nash's Views of Baronial Mansions. But not a word
could she coax out of Fairthorn; and when she turned to appeal to
Darrell, the host suddenly addressed to George a question as to the text