o it a charm, addressed at once to sense and
sentiment, of which it is impossible by description to give an
adequate idea. A dimpled cheek--an arm, hand, and foot, that might
have served the statuary as a model, completed a person which,
without exaggeration, might be deemed almost, if not wholly,
faultless.

For some minutes, as the party rode along the road bordering on
the serpentine branch of the Chicago leading to Hardscrabble, Mrs.
Ronayne, apprehensive that her husband might attribute any appearance
of depression of spirits to physical illness, and insist on postponing
her ride to some future occasion, fell, as most people do who are
sensible that for the first time in their lives they are acting
with insincerity, into the very opposite extreme. With a
consciousness of wrong at her heart--with a soul distracted with
uncertainty and hesitancy as to the result of the course she was
pursuing--she indulged in a gaiety that, in her, was wholly unnatural.
She rattled, talked, laughed with ill-timed volubility--offered to
make wagers with the surgeon and Ronayne that she would take her
horse over the highest fallen log, or, if they preferred it, swim
with either of them across the river, and lastly proposed that they
should start together and see who would first reach the farm-house.
All this time the deepest scarlet was on her cheek, her manner
betrayed the most feverish excitement, and there was unwonted
brilliancy in her eye.

Ronayne looked at her earnestly. Suddenly a change came over her,
for she had remarked, and felt confused under the penetrating glance
which seemed to tell her that she did not feel that lightness of
heart with the semblance of which she was seeking to deceive him.
For the first time since his marriage--nay, for the first time
since his acquaintance with her--and this had been of more than
two years' date--he felt pain--pain inflicted by _her_. There was
evidently some secret thought at her heart which she withheld; and
she who had never before concealed a passing emotion of her soul,
was now wrapped up in an unaccountable mystery.

In proportion with her husband's increasing gravity, Mrs. Ronayne's
spirits became depressed, until in reality enfeebled by her strong
previous excitement, she looked pale as death itself, and expressed
a desire for a glass of water.

Deeply touched and alarmed by the sudden change which had taken
place in his wife's appearance and manner, Ronayne threw himsel