on could long blind me to the misery of my real
position. Chance, inclination, and, I think I may honestly add,
principle, had kept my affections disengaged and, my heart whole,
without any reasonable expectation of ever realising my life's
desire, and now I had stumbled upon it, only to find it inexorably
withheld from me, and every avenue to its attainment closed. Could
I have gone on to the end without actually meeting with Margaret,
I could have borne it with the silent endurance which had supported
me so far, and had, in large measure, become a habit; but now every
regret, every passionate longing, every haunting memory which time
had lulled into seeming slumber, awoke to wring my heart at the
very moment when I believed the bitterness to have passed forever.

The first to welcome me at the convent was my son Kit. Heavens!
how tall and well-looking the boy had grown, and with what feeling
did I take him in my arms. He returned my embrace with equal
affection, and when we settled down, spake of his mother's death
with much natural feeling.

Poor Lucy! She had had a narrow life of it with the exception of
the year we had lived together. What a light-hearted, merry little
soul she then was! She had no education in the general sense, but
was possessed of so lively a sympathy that she entered into all
that appealed to me with an enjoyment and an appreciation that no
mere learning could have supplied. She may have lacked the bearing
and carriage of a great lady, but what stateliness of manner can
rival the pretty softnesses of a gentle girl wholly in love. She
was not strictly beautiful, but she had the charm of constant
liveliness, and her unfailing content and merriment more than made
up for any irregularity in feature. This was the woman I had left,
and I have already told what she was when I returned. It was not
so much her nature that was at fault, poor thing! as the atrophy
of soul resulting from an ungenerous form of religion.

I cannot but think it safer for both man and woman to continue in
those religions which have received the sanction of authority, than
take up with any new ventures, no matter what superior offers of
salvation they may hold out. And the first step towards this
dangerous ground I believe to be that pernicious habit of idle
speculation on subjects too sacred for open discussion, which might
well be left to their ordained guardians, and not to the curious
guessings of simple and unsophistic