nd the
sweet, spicy odor of the Belgian honeysuckle that she had planted and
twined around the mossy columns that supported the gallery; and with a
sigh he closed his eyes, shut out the anatomy of flesh, and began the
dissection of emotions.

Could Salome's radiant face brighten his home, and win his heart from
its devouring regret? Would it be possible for him to give her the
place whence he had ejected Mrs. Carlyle? Could he ever persuade
himself to call that fair, passionate young thing, that capricious,
obstinate, maliciously perverse girl,--his wife?

Involuntarily he frowned, for while pity pleaded for the refugee from
home and happiness, the man's honest nature scouted all shams, and he
acknowledged to himself that he could never feel the need of her lips
or hands,--could never insult her womanhood, or degrade his own
nature, by folding to his heart one whose touch possessed no
magnetism, whose presence exerted no spell over his home.

Salome, his friend, his adopted sister, he wished to discover, to
claim, and restore to the household; but Salome, his wife,--was a
monstrous imaginary incubus that appalled and repelled him.

The difficulties that presented themselves at the outset of his search
would have discouraged a less resolute temperament, but it was part of
his wise philosophy, that--

"We overstate the ills of life. We walk upon
The shadow of hills across a level thrown,
And pant like climbers."

As a pitying older brother, he thought of Salome's many foibles,--of
her noble intentions and ignoble executions,--of her few feeble
triumphs, her numerous egregious failures in the line of duty; and
loving Christian charity pleaded eloquently for her, whispering to his
generous soul, "We know the ships that come with streaming pennons
into the immortal ports; but we know little of the ships that have
taken fire on the way thither,--that have gone down at sea."

What pure friendship could accomplish he would not withhold, and life
at the farm was not so attractive now that he felt regret at the
prospect of temporary absence.

The disappointment that had so rudely smitten to the earth the one
precious hope born of his acquaintance with "Solitude," had no power
to embitter his nature,--to drape the world in drab, or to shroud the
future with gloom; and though his noble face was sadder and paler,
Christian faith and resignation rang blessed chimes of peace in heart
and soul, and made his life a hall