ight and all day she had tortured herself
with terrible fancies. Instead of calming her spirit with prayer, she
had kept it irritated with spiteful thoughts against what she deemed her
evil destiny.

There are certain natures to which every misfortune brings a blessing;
for, whatever it may take away, it is sure to leave that divine
influence which comes from resignation and a deepened sense of reliance
upon God. Such a nature was the old clergyman's. Every blow his heart
had received had softened it; and a softened heart is a well of interior
happiness; it is more precious to its possessor than all outward gifts
of friends and fortune. Such a nature, too, was Virginia's. She too,
through all things, kept warm in her bosom that holy instinct of faith,
that blessed babe named Love, ever humbly born, whose life within is a
light that transfigures the world. To such, despair cannot come; for
when the worst arrives, when all they cherished is gone, heaven is still
left to them; and they look up and smile. To them sorrow is but a
preparation for a diviner joy. All things indeed work together for their
good; since, whether fair fortune comes, or ill, they possess the
spiritual alchemy that transmutes it into blessing.

This love, this faith, Salina lacked. She fostered in their place that
selfishness and discontent which sour the soul. Every blow upon her
heart had hardened it. Every trial embittered and angered her. Hence the
swollen and flaming eyes, the impatient and scowling looks, with which
she met the returning Toby.

"Where is Virginia?"

"Dat I can't bery well say, Miss Salina," replied Toby, scratching his
woolly head. He would never sacrifice his family pride so far as to call
her Mrs. Sprowl.

"How dare you come back without her?" And she heaped upon him the
bitterest reproaches. It was he who, through his cowardice, had been the
cause of Virginia's night adventure. It was he who had ruined everything
by concealing her departure until it was too late. Then he might have
found her, if he had so resolved. But if he could not, why had he
remained absent all day?

Under this sharp fire of accusations Toby stood with ludicrous
indifference, grinning, and scratching his head. At length he scratched
out of it a little roll of paper that had been confided to his wool for
safe keeping, in case he should be seized and searched. It fell upon the
floor. He hastily snatched it up, and gave it, with obsequious alacrity,