e me when he told me that James
Harrington was plighted to another. I spoke of it to-day trembling as
the words left my mouth. My husband laughed pleasantly, and answered
'oh, child, that was a love ruse. I had a vague fancy that the young
fellow might be in my way, and so disposed of him poetically. There was
nothing in it. The fellow has not spirit enough to win a beautiful
woman.'

"Great Heaven! did he know how faint and cold those words left me--how I
almost loathed him for this awful fraud. God help me--God help me to
forgive him! It seems now as if I never could. How this portion of my
life has passed I hardly know; seldom have I made a record of its
secrets. Much of the time has been spent in the gay world, for my
husband--how strangely the word husband sounds even now--seems to grow
every day fonder of its pleasures. The months thus spent have been most
wearisome to me; I like better the calm retreat where I have spent my
summers, with only a few servants to disturb the quiet of the house, and
faithful Ben Benson, who has never left us, to gratify, as if by magic,
every wish of his capricious mistress. But there is to be a
change--henceforth we are to reside wholly at the North, and _he_ is
coming home to live with us.

"A new blessing has been granted to me! Forgive me my God, that I have
dared thus to repine and forget that Thy protecting care was over me! I
am a mother! My baby sleeps in his cradle by my side, and one glance at
his face makes me forget all the misery I have endured. James returned
during my illness. My heart was too full of its new bliss for any other
feeling. With my child folded over my heart, I could meet him without
one of its pulses being stirred--there is a sacredness in the duties God
has now given me, which I should not have dared profane by one human
regret.

"He looks ill and careworn--would that I might speak of his affairs, but
I can do nothing, though it is fearful to see him thus; to know that he
suffers and feel that I have no power to relieve him. He seems to love
my baby. Heaven bless him for that! The General's indifference has
pained me, but the nurse says men never like children--when he grows
older and his father sees him all that is noble and good he will love
him; how could he do otherwise?--my precious, precious child.

"This little girl, poor, forsaken, young, innocent, she seems to have
been sent to be the companion of my boy. How he loves her already;
bending