, grave and thoughtful, hemming his toyship sails,
while he cut the moulds for his anchors, or tried experiments on
pulleys; and in all these years he could not remember one selfish
action,--one unlovely word,--and he thought to himself, "I hoped to
possess this angel as a mortal wife! God forgive my presumption."

CHAPTER XL

THE MEETING

Sally found Mara sitting in an easy-chair that had been sent to her by
the provident love of Miss Emily. It was wheeled in front of her room
window, from whence she could look out upon the wide expanse of the
ocean. It was a gloriously bright, calm morning, and the water lay clear
and still, with scarce a ripple, to the far distant pearly horizon. She
seemed to be looking at it in a kind of calm ecstasy, and murmuring the
words of a hymn:--

"Nor wreck nor ruin there is seen,
There not a wave of trouble rolls,
But the bright rainbow round the throne
Peals endless peace to all their souls."

Sally came softly behind her on tiptoe to kiss her. "Good-morning, dear,
how do you find yourself?"

"Quite well," was the answer.

"Mara, is not there anything you want?"

"There might be many things; but His will is mine."

"You want to see Moses?"

"Very much; but I shall see him as soon as it is best for us both."

"Mara,--he is come."

The quick blood flushed over the pale, transparent face as a virgin
glacier flushes at sunrise, and she looked up eagerly. "Come!"

"Yes, he is below-stairs wanting to see you."

She seemed about to speak eagerly, and then checked herself and mused a
moment. "Poor, poor boy!" she said. "Yes, Sally, let him come at once."

There were a few dazzling, dreamy minutes when Moses first held that
frail form in his arms, which but for its tender, mortal warmth, might
have seemed to him a spirit. It was no spirit, but a woman whose heart
he could feel thrilling against his own; who seemed to him like some
frail, fluttering bird; but somehow, as he looked into her clear,
transparent face, and pressed her thin little hands in his, the
conviction stole over him overpoweringly that she was indeed fading away
and going from him,--drawn from him by that mysterious, irresistible
power against which human strength, even in the strongest, has no
chance.

It is dreadful to a strong man who has felt the influence of his
strength,--who has always been ready with a resource for every
emergency, and a weapon for every battle,--when fir