your gaze; see if, ever in my life, I
looked so happy'--and yet, even now, I was about to die!"

She spoke the truth. Agricola himself could not have hoped so prompt an
effect from his words. In spite of the deep traces which misery, grief,
and sickness had imprinted on the girl's features, they now shone with
radiant happiness and serenity, whilst her blue eyes, gentle and pure as
her soul, were fixed, without embarrassment, on those of Agricola.

"Oh! thanks, thanks!" cried the smith, in a rapture of delight: "when I
see you so calm, and so happy, Magdalen, I am indeed grateful."

"Yes, I am calm, I am happy," replied she; "and happy I shall be, for
I can now tell you my most secret thoughts. Yes, happy; for this day,
which began so fatally, ends like a divine dream. Far from being afraid,
I now look at you with hope and joy. I have again found my generous
benefactress, and I am tranquil as to the fate of my poor sister.
Oh! shall we not soon see her? I should like her to take part in this
happiness."

She seemed so happy, that the smith did not dare to inform her of the
death of Cephyse, and reserved himself to communicate the same at a
more fitting opportunity. Therefore he answered: "Cephyse, being the
stronger, has been the more shaken; it will not be prudent, I am told,
to see her to-day."

"I will wait then. I can repress my impatience, I have so much to say to
you."

"Dear, gentle Magdalen!"

"Oh, my friend!" cried the girl, interrupting Agricola, with tears of
joy: "I cannot tell you what I feel, when I hear you call me Magdalen.
It is so sweet, so soothing, that my heart expands with delight."

"Poor girl! how dreadfully she must have suffered!" cried the smith,
with inexpressible emotion, "when she displays so much happiness, so
much gratitude, at being called by her own poor name!"

"But consider, my friend; that word in your mouth contains a new life
for me. If you only knew what hopes, what pleasures I can now see
gleaming in the future! If you knew all the cherished longings of my
tenderness! Your wife, the charming Angela, with her angel face and
angel-soul--oh! in my turn, I can say to, you, 'Look at me, and see how
sweet that name is to my lips and heart!' Yes, your charming, your
good Angela will call me Magdalen--and your children, Agricola,
your children!--dear little creatures!--to them also I shall be
Magdalen--their good Magdalen--and the love I shall bear them will make
them mine, a