of earth and heaven, is a
perfect accompaniment to the perfect happiness of the soul! To mingle
our careless talk with the song of the birds among the dewy leaves, to
smile at each other as we gazed on the sky, to turn our steps slowly
homewards at the sound of the bell that always rings too soon, to
admire together some little detail in the landscape, to watch the
fitful movements of an insect, to look closely at a gleaming demoiselle
fly--the delicate creature that resembles an innocent and loving girl;
in such ways as these are not one's thoughts drawn daily a little
higher? The memories of my forty days of happiness have in a manner
colored all the rest of my life, memories that are all the fairer and
fill the greater space in my thoughts because since then it has been my
fate never to be understood. To this day there are scenes of no special
interest for a casual observer, but full of bitter significance for a
broken heart, which recall those vanished days, and the love that is not
forgotten yet.

"I do not know whether you noticed the effect of the sunset light on the
cottage where little Jacques lives? Everything shone so brightly in the
fiery rays of the sun, and then all at once the whole landscape grew
dark and dreary. That sudden change was like the change in my own life
at this time. I received from her the first, the sole and sublime token
of love that an innocent girl may give; the more secretly it is given,
the closer is the bond it forms, the sweet promise of love, a fragment
of the language spoken in a fairer world than this. Sure, therefore, of
being beloved, I vowed that I would confess everything at once, that
I would have no secrets from her; I felt ashamed that I had so long
delayed to tell her about the sorrows that I had brought upon myself.

"Unluckily, with the morrow of this happy day a letter came from my
son's tutor, the life of the child so dear to me was in danger. I went
away without confiding my secret to Evelina, merely telling her family
that I was urgently required in Paris. Her parents took alarm during my
absence. They feared that there I was entangled in some way, and wrote
to Paris to make inquiries about me. It was scarcely consistent with
their religious principles; but they suspected me, and did not even give
me an opportunity of clearing myself.

"One of their friends, without my knowledge, gave them the whole history
of my youth, blackening my errors, laying stress upon th