adows of evening fell around them,
and it was dark when they reached their homes.

It was midnight--dark, dreary midnight. Black clouds hung in huge,
portentous masses over, the vault of heaven. The forky lightning
flashed, and the deep toned thunder reverberated peal on peal, while
the shrieking winds rocked the tree tops, and poured their wild melody
upon the ear. It was nature arrayed in awful sublimity, displaying the
majesty of God.

Seated on a low chair, in the simple little parlor of Annie, sat
Edward, with a pillow upon his breast, supporting the head of the poor
girl, whose breathing was laborious, and her cheeks flushed with an
unusual glow, as she leaned against him for support. This was the only
situation in which she could breathe, as there was an abscess forming
in her throat. Her physician said she must sit bending forward, as
there was great danger of its producing strangulation, should it break
when she was in any other position, which he thought probably it might
do before morning. Edward, therefore, could not think of leaving her;
but kept his patient watch by her side during the night, alleviating
her sufferings by every means in his power, speaking tender words of
constancy and love, and picturing long years of connubial felicity
after he had won a fortune in the distant city.

Suddenly there came a brighter flash, a deeper crash, and it seemed
for the moment that the house was immersed in a lurid glare of light.
Annie, screaming, started to her feet, then fell back, fainting, and
black in the face with suffocation.

Edward thought, as he caught her falling form, that all was over; but
after a short struggle she recovered, and the crisis of her disease
had past, and she could now breathe easier than she done for several
days.

She had taken cold during their stay on the Island, and had been sick
from that time. The storm had spent its fury, and the clouds had
passed away, leaving the blue canopy of heaven studded with golden
stars, and all nature was refreshed by the rain that had fallen during
the shower.

Annie dropped into a sweet slumber, the first that had visited her
eyes for several nights; and Edward revolved many things in his mind,
as he held her to his heart. Would she remain constant during his
absence, and meet him with the same affectionate greeting? What would
be the changes that would take place in that time? for he felt there
must be changes. And, last of all, would his fee