, with the venerable device which wives, from earliest
history, have used to palliate their own sins.

Nevertheless he felt almost as miserable as his wife, when, wrapped in
cloaks and rugs, they left their bright dining room and shuffled down
the steps into the outside darkness to their carriage. He expressed
opinions about lovers which would have put a quick end to the human race
had they been laws of nature. He wished the church would take them all
and consign them to its own favorite place of punishment. He had a
disagreeable trick of gibing at his wife's orthodoxy on this point, and
when she remonstrated at his profanity, he smiled contentedly and said:
"There is nothing profane about it. It is sound church doctrine, and I
envy you for being able to believe it. You can hope to see them with
your own eyes getting their reward, confound them!"

Consoling himself with this pleasing hope, they started off, and in five
minutes were at Esther's door. After taking the two girls into the
carriage, Mr. Murray became more affable and even gay. By the time the
party was established in their sleeping car, he had begun to enjoy
himself. He had too often made such journeys, and was too familiar with
every thing on the road to be long out of humor, and for once it was
amusing to have a pair of pretty girls to take with him. Commonly his
best society was some member of the Albany Legislature, and his only
conversation was about city charters and railroad legislation. The
variety had its charm. Esther was as good as her word. She made a
desperate battle to recover her gayety, and the little excitement of a
night journey helped the triumph of her pride. Determined that she would
not be an object of pity, she made the most of all her chances,
pretended to take in earnest her uncle's humorous instructions as to the
art of arranging a sleeping berth, and horrified her aunt by letting him
induce Catherine and herself to eat hot doughnuts and mince pies on the
train. It was outwardly a gay little party which rattled along the bank
of the snowy river on their way northward.

The gayety, it is true, was forced. For the first ten minutes Esther
felt excited by the sense of flight and the rapid motion which was
carrying her she knew not where,--away into the infinite and unknown.
What lay before her, beyond the darkness of the moment, she hardly
cared. Never again could she go back to the old life, but like a young
bird that has lost its m