ngs as these are Providential, I should
tremble to see you so happy! So I will not presume to congratulate! I
will pray for you!"

"Dear mother, you have suffered so much in your life that you are
incredulous of happiness! Be more hopeful and confiding! The Bible says,
'There remaineth now these three--Faith, Hope and Charity--but the
greatest of all is Charity.' You have Charity enough, dear mother; try
to have more Faith and Hope, and you will be happier! And look--there is
Clara coming this way! She does not know that we are here. I will call
her. Dear Clara, come in and convince my mother--she will not believe in
our happiness," said Traverse, going to the door and leading his
blushing and smiling betrothed into the room.

"It may be that Mrs. Rocke does not want me for a daughter-in-law," said
Clara, archly, as she approached and put her hand in that of Marah.

"Not want you, my own darling!" said Marah Rocke, putting her arm around
Clara's waist, and drawing her to her bosom, "not want you! You know I
am just as much in love with you as Traverse himself can be! And I have
longed for you, my sweet, longed for you as an unattainable blessing,
ever since that day when Traverse first left us, and you came and laid
your bright head on my bosom and wept with me!"

"And now if we must cry a little when Traverse leaves us, we can go and
take comfort in being miserable together, with a better understanding of
our relations!" said Clara with an arch smile.

"Where are you all? Where is everybody--that I am left wandering about
the lonely house like a poor ghost in Hades?" said the doctor's cheerful
voice in the passage without.

"Here, father--here we are--a family party, wanting only you to complete
it," answered his daughter, springing to meet him.

The doctor came in smiling, pressed his daughter to his bosom, shook
Traverse cordially by the hand, and kissed Marah Rocke's cheek. That was
his way of congratulating himself and all others on the betrothal.

The evening was passed in unalloyed happiness.

Let them enjoy it! It was their last of comfort--that bright evening!

Over that household was already gathering a cloud heavy and dark with
calamity--calamity that must have overwhelmed the stability of any faith
which was not as theirs was--stayed upon God.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A PANIC IN THE OUTLAW'S DEN.

Imagination frames events unknown,
In wild, fantastic shapes of hideous ruin,
And wha