is a purity of a still higher and finer kind. There was a peace of mind
which I had as an innocent boy, which I do not possess now; but I have
another and deeper peace. There was a childish courage; but it was the
courage of one who had never been exposed to danger. There is another
courage in my heart now, and it is the courage of the veteran who has
bared his bosom to the foe! I know not by what strange alchemy these
diverse elements of evil can have become absorbed and incorporated into
this newer and better life, but this I do know, and nothing can make me
doubt it--that while I am not so good, yet I am better; while I am not
so pure, yet I am purer. Yes, Pepeeta, I think we can go back on our
track. We can be born again! We can once more be little children. I
feel myself a little child to-night--I who, a few days ago, was like an
old man, bowed and crushed under a load of wretchedness and misery! God
seems near to me; life seems sweet to me. Let us begin again, Pepeeta.
We have traveled round a circle, and have come back to the old starting
point. Let us begin again."

"Oh! David," she said, kissing the hands she held; "how like your old
self you are to-night. Your words of hope have filled my soul with joy.
Is it your presence alone that has done it, or is it God's, or is it
both? A change has come over the very world around us. All is the same,
and yet all is different. The stars are brighter. The brook has a
sweeter music. There is something of heaven in this intoxicating cup you
have put to my lips! I seem to be enveloped by a spiritual presence!
Hush! Do you hear voices?"

The excitement had been too intense for this sensitive woman to endure
with tranquillity. Her heart, her conscience, her imagination had
suffered an almost unendurable strain. She flung herself into the arms
of her lover and trembled upon his breast, and he held her there until
she had regained her composure.

"Do you really love me yet?" she asked, at length, raising her face and
gazing up into his with an expression in which the simple affection of a
little child was strangely blended with the passionate love of an ardent
and adoring woman.

"Love you!" he cried; "your face has been the last vision upon which I
gazed when I fell into a restless slumber, and the first which greeted
returning consciousness, when I waked from my troubled dream. My life
has been but a fragment since we parted; a part of my individuality
seemed to have been