to welcome him with no forced smile.

And as he came in with a pleased exclamation, his voice had no longer
the thin, worn sound, as if only resolute resignation prevented
peevishness; there was a cheerfulness and solidity in the tone, as he
came fondly to her side, regretted having missed her first appearance,
and feared she had been long alone.

'Oh, no; but I was afraid you would be so tired! Carrying Kitty all
the way, too! But you look so much brighter.'

'I am brighter,' said James. 'Two things have happened for which I
ought to be very thankful. My dear, can you bear to be wife to the
chaplain of the Union at fifty pounds a-year!'

'Oh! have you something to do? cried Isabel; 'I am so glad! Now we
shall be a little more off your mind. And you will do so much good! I
have heard Miss Mercy say how much she wished there were some one to
put those poor people in the right way.'

'Yes; I hope that concentrated earnestness of attention may do
something to make up for my deficiency in almost every other
qualification,' said James. 'At least, I feel some of the importance
of the charge, and never was anything more welcome.'

'And how did it happen?'

'People are more forgiving than I could have hoped. Mr. Calcott has
offered me this, in the kindest way; and as if that were not enough,
see what poor little Clara says.'

'Poor little Clara!' said Isabel, reading the letter; 'you don't mean
to disappoint her!'

'I should be a brute if I did. No; I wrote to her this morning to thank
her for her pardoning spirit.'

'You should have told me; I should like to send her my love. I am glad
she has not quite forgotten us, though she mistook the way to her own
happiness.'

'Isabel! unless I were to transport you to Cheveleigh a year ago,
nothing would persuade you of my utter wrong-headedness.'

'Nor that, perhaps,' said Isabel, with a calm smile.

'Not my having brought you to be grateful for the Union chaplaincy?'

'Not if you had brought me to the Union literally,' said Isabel,
smiling. 'Indeed, dear James, I think we have both been so much the
better and happier for this last year, that I would not have been
without it for any consideration; and if any mistakes on your part led
to it, they were mistakes on the right side. Don't shake your head,
for you know they were what only a good man could have made.'

'That may be all very well for a wife to believe!'

And the rest of the little dispute was c