its tranquillizing influence felt.

Mary, as she walked homeward with this dreamy light around her, moved
with a slower step than when borne along by the vigorous arm and
determined motion of her young friend.

It is said that a musical sound uttered with decision by one instrument
always makes the corresponding chord of another vibrate; and Mary felt,
as she left her positive, but warm-hearted friend, a plaintive
vibration of something in her own self, in which she was conscious her
calm friendship for her future husband had no part. She fell into one
of those reveries which she thought she had forever forbidden to
herself, and there rose before her mind the picture of a
marriage-ceremony,--but the eyes of the bridegroom were dark, and his
curls were clustering in raven ringlets, and her hand throbbed in his
as it had never throbbed in any other.

It was just as she was coming out of a little grove of cedars, where
the high land overlooks the sea, and the dream which came to her
overcame her with a vague and yearning sense of pain. Suddenly she
heard footsteps behind her, and some one said, "Mary!" It was spoken in
a choked voice, as one speaks in the crisis of a great emotion; and she
turned and saw those very eyes, that very hair, yes, and the cold
little hand throbbed with that very throb in that strong, living, manly
hand; and, whether in the body or out of the body God knoweth, she felt
herself borne in those arms, and words that spoke themselves in her
inner heart, words profaned by being repeated, were on her ear.

"Oh! is this a dream? is this a dream? James! are we in heaven? Oh, I
have lived through such an agony! I have been so worn out! Oh, I