this unhappy
woman, had told upon her severely. In a year, she seemed to have lived
ten. All the fine roundness of her face and person had given way, and
she presented the appearance of one who had come out of a long and
exhausting illness.

Constance made it a point of duty to visit her often. She found her
states of mind exceedingly variable. Sometimes she was in patient,
tranquil states, and sometimes she manifested great bitterness of
spirit, complaining of man's cruel selfishness, and God's injustice.
The marriage of Mr. Dewey disturbed her considerably. One day, not long
after this event, Constance called to see her. She was in one of her
darker moods; and all the comforting suggestions which my good wife
could make, seemed to go for nothing. They were sitting near a window,
overlooking the street, when Delia suddenly turned pale, and caught her
breath. A carriage went sweeping by at the moment, drawn by two spirited
horses.

"Is that the woman?" she exclaimed, as soon as she recovered herself.

"That is the woman," Constance replied.

Delia clutched her hands so tightly that her arms quivered, and grew
rigid; while her pale face darkened with an expression so like revenge,
that Constance felt a shudder of fear in her heart.

"If my prayers for her are answered," said the excited woman, speaking
through her closing teeth, "she will find that day the darkest in the
calendar of her life, when she stepped between me and my husband. I have
only curses for her in my heart. Only curses!"

Constance, startled, and almost frightened by this wild burst of
feeling, endeavored to soothe her; but the storm was too fierce to own
the power of her gentle persuasions, and raged on for its brief season.

"I thought her mind had given way," said my wife, on relating what she
had seen and heard. "It was fearful to look upon a human creature so
terribly moved."

"The trial to her feelings must have been very.... [Gap in original]

"But I thought the severe discipline through which she had passed, had
chastened and subdued her," answered Constance. "I saw, or believed that
I saw, the beginnings of a new and true life in her soul. But over all
this, passion has swept with its besom of destruction."

"The better states," I replied, "may not have been destroyed in this
evil whirlwind. Such states, when once formed, usually retire and hide
themselves until the storm has spent its fury."

"I pray that it may be so in this cas