idea of the
suffering itself. Only they who have known it--fortunately but few--can
comprehend the terror, the wan, wasting misery, endured by those whose
nerves have given way under some terrible stroke of misfortune. 'Tis
the story of a broken heart.

Byron has told us "the heart may break and brokenly live on." In this
her hour of unhappiness, Helen Armstrong would not and could not believe
him. It may seem strange that Jessie is still only a bride to be. But
no. She remembers the promise made to her father--to share with him a
home in Texas, however humble it might be. All the same, now that she
knows it will be splendid; knowing, too, it is to be shared by another--
her Louis. He is still but her _fiancee_; but his troth is plighted,
his truthfulness beyond suspicion. They are all but man and wife; which
they will be soon as the new home is reached.

The goal of their journey is to be the culminating point of Jessie's
joy--the climax of her life's happiness.

CHAPTER FORTY THREE.

THE HAND OF GOD.

Scarce any stream of South-Western Texas but runs between bluffs. There
is a valley or "bottom-land," only a little elevated above the water's
surface, and often submerged during inundations,--beyond this the
bluffs. The valley may be a mile or more in width, in some places ten,
at others contracted, till the opposing cliffs are scarce a pistol-shot
apart. And of these there are frequently two or three tiers, or
terraces, receding backward from the river, the crest of the last and
outmost being but the edge of an upland plain, which is often sterile
and treeless. Any timber upon it is stunted, and of those species to
which a dry soil is congenial. Mezquite, juniper, and "black-jack" oaks
grow in groves or spinneys; while standing apart may be observed the
arborescent jucca--the "dragon-tree" of the Western world, towering
above an underwood unlike any other, composed of _cactaceae_ in all the
varieties of cereus, cactus, and echinocactus. Altogether unlike is the
bottom-land bordering upon the river. There the vegetation is lush and
luxuriant, showing a growth of large forest timber--the trees set
thickly, and matted with many parasites, that look like cables coiling
around and keeping them together. These timbered tracts are not
continuous, but show stretches of open between,--here little glades
filled with flowers, there grand meadows overgrown with grass--so tall
that the horseman riding th