then Bridget found me out. O gracious! then there was a great to
do: even my good father said, this shewed how the human heart from its
very infancy is so corrupt and wicked as to give itself up to the
idolatry of worthless and contemptible things. I cannot understand
even now what he meant by these words. Whenever one loves anything, is
it not very beautiful and perfectly right that one does not pry into
it and finger it too closely? What is a rose, when I pull it to
pieces? It is so perishable, and therefore so dear. Was it my poor
Clary's fault, that she was only a leather doll? Last week I was
looking at her again one day, and could not make out myself how I came
to be so fond of her formerly; and yet I could almost have cried to
think that none of the feelings of those days will ever come back to
me again. But surely this cannot be fickleness in me now, any more
than my love ten years ago was idolatry and wickedness."

"Dear angel," said Edward tenderly, "our heart is trained by the love
of visible perishable objects for the love of the invisible and
eternal. When I see a child playing thus fondly and innocently with
puppets of its own making, and crying for love and delight over the
lifeless toy, I could fancy that at such hours angels gather about the
little creature and sport lovingly around it."

"Ah," exclaimed Rose, "that is a beautiful notion!"

"When however," continued Edward, "heart truly bends to heart, when
two souls meet and give up themselves to each other in love, this
faith and feeling of theirs invests the invisible with a palpable
reality, and brings it for all eternity before them."

"That again I don't understand," said the maiden pondering; "but if
you mean that sort of love which is necessary for a wedding, and to
make a truly happy marriage, I think very differently on that score."

"How so?" asked the young man.

"That is a hard matter to explain," answered the girl, putting on a
look of deep thought.

"Supposing now," said Edward, forcing himself to laugh, that he might
hide his emotion, "you had to marry tomorrow, whom would you choose?
Which of all the men you have hitherto met with, do you like the best?
Have you enough confidence in me to answer me this question honestly?"

"Why should not I?" she replied: "for I need not even spend a moment
in considering the point."

"And ... and the man you have already chosen?"

"Is of course our Eleazar."

Edward started back in utter