inding her, retreated, saying to herself, "Law! dear sakes
alive! I wish she only had eyes now, to see how like a picter she
looks!"

A low, quick bark from the house-dog attracted her attention, and steps
were heard crossing the piazza. Before they had gained the door, Emily
was standing upright, straining her ear to catch the sound of every
footfall; and, when Gertrude and Mr. Amory entered, she looked more like
a statue than a living figure, as with clasped hands, parted lips, and
one foot slightly advanced, she silently awaited their approach. One
glance at Emily's face, another at that of her agitated father, and
Gertrude was gone. She saw the completeness of their mutual recognition,
and with instinctive delicacy, forbore to mar by her presence the
sacredness of so holy an interview. As the door closed upon her
retreating figure, Emily parted her clasped hands, stretched them forth
into the dim vacancy, and murmured, "Philip!"

He seized them between both of his, and with one step forward, fell upon
his knees. As he did so, the half-fainting Emily dropped upon the seat.
Mr. Amory bowed his head upon the hands which, still held tightly
between his own, now rested on her lap, and, hiding his face upon her
slender fingers, tremblingly uttered her name.

"The grave has given up its dead!" exclaimed Emily. "My God, I thank
thee!" and she flung her arms around his neck, rested her head upon his
bosom, and whispered, in a voice half choked with emotion,
"Philip!--dear, dear Philip! am I dreaming, or have you come back
again?"

She and Philip had loved each other in their childhood; before that
childhood was passed they had parted; and as children they met again.
During the lapse of many years she had lived among the cherished
memories of the past, she had been safe from worldly contagion, and had
retained all the guileless simplicity of girlhood--all the freshness of
her spring-time; and Philip, who had never willingly bound himself by
any ties save those imposed upon him by necessity, felt his boyhood come
rushing upon him, as, with Emily's soft hand resting on his head, she
blessed Heaven for his safe return. She could not see how time had
silvered his hair and sobered and shaded the face that she loved.

And to him, as he beheld the face he had half dreaded to encounter
beaming with the holy light of sympathy and love, the blind girl's
countenance seemed encircled with a halo not of earth. And, therefore,
this u