BLACK HALL.

Seest thou our home? 'tis where the woods are waving
In their dark richness to the autumn air;
Where yon blue stream its rocky banks are laving,
Leads down the hills a vein of light--'tis there.--HEMANS.

At the close of that second day, they stopped at a hamlet on the summit
of the Blue Ridge, from which they could view five counties. At the
little hotel they were entertained very much in the same manner as at
the inn of Underhill. Again Sybil's unspoken and unsuspected jealousy
was soothed by the caresses of her husband.

In the morning they resumed their journey in the early coach, that took
them across the beautiful valley that lies between the Blue Ridge and
the Allegheny Mountains. And again Lyon Berners' devotion to Rosa
Blondelle deeply distressed Sybil. At nightfall they reached Staunton,
where they slept.

On the morning of the fourth and last day of their journey, they took
the cross-country coach and changed their route, which now led them
towards the wildest, dreariest, and loneliest passes of the Alleghenies.

About mid-day the coach entered the dark defile known as the "Devils'
Descent." And, in fact, it needed all the noon sunshine to light up the
gloom of that fearful pass. Here the delight of the impressible young
foreigner deepened into awe.

"I have never seen anything like this in the old country," she breathed,
in a low, hushed tone.

And again Lyon Berners smiled most kindly and indulgently on her, and
again Sybil Berners sickened at heart. Every time Lyon so smiled on
Rosa, Sybil so sickened. She strove against this feeling, but she could
not overcome it.

As the day declined and the coach went on, wilder, drearier, and
lonelier became the road, until, at nightfall, it entered a pass so
gloomy, so savage, so terrific in its aspect, that the young stranger
involuntarily caught her breath and clung for protection to the arm of
Lyon Berners.

"I have never _dreamed_ of a place like this," she gasped.

"You think," he said indulgently, "that if the other pass was called the
'Devil's Descent,' this should be the 'Gates of Hell.' Yet to us, it is
the 'Gates of Heaven;' since it is the entrance to our Valley Home."

And this affectionate mention of their mutual home almost consoled the
wife for the smile he bestowed on their beautiful guest while speaking.

Then all the women except Sybil held their breath