isillusion showed to her
now as of no larger consequence than the wind blowing upon her shadow or
the dew and the storm falling upon the flower. Then as the minutes
passed and her gaze did not waver from the blue petals filled with
sunshine, she was aware gradually, as if between dream and waking, of a
peculiar deepening of her mental vision, until there was revealed to
her, while she looked, not only the outward semblance, but the essence
of the flower which was its soul. And this essence of the flower came
suddenly in contact with the dead soul within her bosom, while she felt
again the energy which is life flowing through her body. At this
instant, by that divine miracle of resurrection she began to live
anew--to live not her old life alone, but a life that was larger and
fuller than the one which had been hers. She began to live anew in
herself as well as in the sky and in humanity and in the songs of birds;
and in this ecstasy of recovered life, she felt her soul to be of one
substance, not only with God and the stars, but with the flower and the
child in the street as well. For that love which had recoiled from its
individual object overflowed her heart again until she felt that it had
touched the boundaries of the world.

When Adams saw her in the autumn, he discovered the change almost with
the first touch of her hand. Not only the outward form, but the
indwelling intellect was alive again, and all that reminded him of her
past anguish were a deeper earnestness in her smile and a faint
powdering of silver on the dark wing-like waves of her hair. That veiled
joy which is the expression of the soul that has found peace shone in
her face with a radiance which if less bright was to him more beautiful
than the sparkling energy she had lost. For the life and the passion of
her womanhood were still there, mellowed and ennobled by that shadow of
experience without which mere beauty of feature had always seemed to him
a meaningless and empty shape. His belief was justified forever in that
instant, and he recognised in her then one of those nobler spirits who
in passing through the tragedy of disillusionment drain from it the
strength without the bitterness that is its portion.

"I want to work, to help," she said eagerly, almost with her first
breath, and while he listened with a tenderness tinged with amusement,
she described to him the elaborate plans she had made for going among
the poor. "It isn't that the poor need