ing their odor softly
around my couch. This rendered my happiness complete.

"The morning found me wakeful, but when it brightened into day, I closed
my eyes, and turned my head upon the pillow, ashamed that the broad
light should witness my happiness.

* * * * *

"How sudden this is. Mrs. Harrington has been fading away for a month.
Her physician recommends change of climate, and in ten days we all start
for Madeira, or perhaps, Spain. _He_ goes with us, and I am content.

"On shipboard at last! Here I sit in my little cabin and listen to the
heaving of the waves against the vessel, as it ploughs proudly along, as
if full of the consciousness of its own strength, and defying the very
elements to impede its progress.

"The past ten days have been one continued fever of excitement, and I
have scarcely opened my journal. This trip to Europe was finally decided
upon in such haste, that we have known hardly a moment of rest.

"We were on board this morning at ten o'clock, and two hours after, New
York lay stretched out behind us on the shore of its beautiful bay, like
some enchanted city asleep in the sunlight.

"All that was dear to me stood by my side, so I had no sorrow at my
departure, beyond the natural feeling of regret that all must feel on
quitting their native land. I could not understand Mrs. Harrington's
burst of grief, so unlike her usual quiet demeanor. She has not seemed
much in favor of this voyage, although she made no opposition when
certain how greatly her husband desired to go. There has been a strange
unrest about her for days, that I could not comprehend, but from a few
words she unthinkingly uttered this morning, I imagine her to be haunted
by one of those morbid fancies, which at times seize upon the strongest
mind, in the eve of a long journey--the idea that she will never again
behold the land she is leaving behind.

"She has been laying down in her cabin all day, for she suffers greatly,
and I spent several hours with her, but at sunset James called me on
deck. We stood side by side at the stern of the ship, and saw the sun go
down behind a mass of clouds more gorgeous than I ever beheld. The
western sky seemed alive with molten flame--great billows of crimson
rolled up against the amber waves of light the sun had left behind,
streaming down over the waters, like a torrent of rainbows, until one
could scarce tell which was sea and which sky.

"We stood there