l
night, with no sound of human unrest to break the sleep of the world.
Sleep, solemn and profound, dwelt over the lonely islands--over Staffa,
with her resounding caves, and Fiadda, with her desolate rocks, and
Iona, with her fairy-white sands, and the distant Dutchman, and Coll,
and Tiree, all haunted by the wild sea-birds' cry; and a sleep as deep
dwelt over the silent hills, far up under the cold light of the skies.
Surely, if any poor suffering heart was vexed by the contentions of
crowded cities, here, if anywhere in the world, might rest and peace and
loving solace be found. He sat dreaming there; he had half forgotten the
letter.

He roused himself from his reverie, and returned to the light.

"And yet I would not complain of mere discomfort," she continued, "if
that were all. People who have to work for their living must not be too
particular. What pains me most of all is the effect that this sort of
work is having on myself. You would not believe--and I am almost ashamed
to confess--how I am worried by small and mean jealousies and anxieties,
and how I am tortured by the expression of opinions which, all the same,
I hold in contempt. I reason with myself to no purpose. It ought to be
no concern of mine if some girl in a burlesque makes the house roar, by
the manner in which she walks up and down the stage smoking a cigar; and
yet I feel angry at the audience for applauding such stuff, and I wince
when I see her praised in the papers. Oh! these papers! I have been
making minute inquiries of late; and I find that the usual way in these
towns is to let the young literary aspirant who has just joined the
office, or the clever compositor who has been promoted to the
sub-editor's room, try his hand first of all at reviewing books, and
then turn him on to dramatic and musical criticism! Occasionally a
reporter, who has been round the police courts to get notes of the night
charges, will drop into the theatre on his way to the office, and 'do a
par.,' as they call it. Will you believe it possible that the things
written of me by these persons--with their pretentious airs of
criticism, and their gross ignorance cropping up at every point--have
the power to vex and annoy me most terribly? I laugh at the time, but
the phrase rankles in my memory all the same. One learned young man said
of me the other day: 'It is really distressing to mark the want of unity
in her artistic characterizations when one regards the natural