passing pain,
of checked aspiration, of the ruthless storms that lay waste the Edens
of men, and dissolve the high triumph of their rainbows. He had yet to
learn that through "the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that
flesh is heir to," man becomes capable of the blessedness to which all
the legends of a golden age point. Not finding, when he most needed it,
such a theory even in the New Testament--for he had been diligently
taught to read it awry--Mr Cupples took to jesting and toddy; but,
haunting the doors of Humour, never got further than the lobby.

With regard to Patrick Beauchamp, as far as Alec could see, his dignity
had succeeded in consoling itself for the humiliation it had undergone,
by an absolute and eternal renunciation of all knowledge of Alec
Forbes's existence.

CHAPTER XL.

Winter had begun to withdraw his ghostly troops, and Glamerton began to
grow warmer. Not half so many cold feet dangled from the cold legs of
little children in the torturing churches; not half so many coughs tore
the chests of the poor old men and women as they stooped over their
little fires, with the blasts from door and window-sill in their ankles
and the backs of their necks. Annie, who had been very happy all the
time, began to be aware of something more at hand. A flutter scarcely
recognizable, as of the wings of awaking delight, would stir her little
heart with a sensation of physical presence and motion; she would find
herself giving an involuntary skip as she walked along, and now and
then humming a bit of a psalm tune. A hidden well was throbbing in the
child's bosom. Its waters had been frozen by the winter; and the
spring, which sets all things springing, had made it flow and swell
afresh, soon to break bubbling forth. But her joy was gentle, for even
when she was merriest, it was in a sobor, _douce_, and maidenly
fashion, testifying that she had already walked with Sorrow, and was
not afraid of her.

Robert Bruce's last strategical move against the community had been
tolerably successful, even in his own eyes; and he was consequently so
far satisfied with himself, that he could afford to be in good humour
with other people. Annie came in for a share of this humour; and
although she knew him too well to have any regard for him, it was yet a
comfort to her to be on such terms with him as not to have to dread a
bitter word every time she chanced to meet him. This comfort, however,
stood on a san