d Elizabeth, it was given by this marriage.
The sting of remorse which had troubled them at times when they looked
at Percival's gloomy face was quite withdrawn. Percival's face was
seldom gloomy now. Angela seemed to have found the secret of soothing
his irritable nerves, of calming his impatience. Her sweet serenity was
never ruffled by his violence; and for her sake he learned to subdue his
temper, and to smooth his tongue as well as his brow. She led the lion
in a leash of silk, and he was actually proud to be so led.

They took a house in the unfashionable precincts of Russell-square,
where Percival could be near his work. They were not rich, by any manner
of means; but they were able to live in a very comfortable fashion, and
soon found themselves surrounded by a circle of friends, who were quite
as much attracted by Angela's tranquil grace and tenderness as by
Percival's fitful brilliancy. Percival would never be very popular; but
it was soon admitted on every hand that his intellect had seldom been so
clear, his insight so great, nor his wit so free from bitterness, as in
the days that succeeded his marriage with Angela. There is every reason
to suppose that he will yet be a thoroughly prosperous and successful
man.

The one drop of bitterness in their cup is the absence of children. No
little feet have come to patter up and down the wide staircase of that
roomy house in Russell-square, no little voices re-echo along the
passages and in the lofty rooms. But Angela's heart is perhaps only the
more ready to bestow its tenderness upon the many who come to her for
help--the weak, the sickly, the sinful and the weary, for whom she
spends herself and is not spent in vain.

* * * * *

Little more than two years after Brian's marriage, Mrs. Luttrell died.
She died with her hand fast clasped in that of the man who had been
indeed a son to her, she died with his name upon her lips. And when she
was laid to rest beside her husband and her eldest son, Brian and
Elizabeth were free to carry out a project which had been for some time
very near their hearts. They went together to San Stefano.

It was then that Elizabeth first heard the whole story of her husband's
sojourn at the monastery. She had never known more than the bare facts
before; and she listened with a new comprehension of his character, as
he told her of the days of listless anguish spent after his illness at
San Stefano, and o