594 THE YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 



her life one of unmixed delight. This roused her energies, and 

 nature struggled to free herself from the pressure which had been so 

 long weighing her down. But the very excitement to which she was 

 subjected, although it counteracted for a time the mischief already 

 done, soon began to prey upon her small remains of strength ; and 

 again she grew feeble and drooping, and again the conviction rose 

 within her mind, that her removal from all she held dear was not 

 very remote. 



Meanwhile, the diminution of the curate's income had made itself 

 felt; but the privations necessarily arising from this had been borne 

 cheerfully, nay pleasantly. Mrs. Jennings's mite had been added to 

 the common stock ; and thus contented, religious, and fulfilling all 

 their duties, the curate's family was, what such families ought to be, 

 a model of Christian living. 



The first chill breezes of Autumn produced a very unfavourable 

 change in Mary's health, and rapid consumption was now fully de- 

 veloped. James saw the approaching bereavement with a heart torn 

 with anguish, grief, and remorse. He blamed himself for having 

 been the unconscious destroyer of his sainted wife ; and this feeling- 

 aggravated ten-fold his sorrow. For her, she bore her painless ill- 

 ness with a meek and cheerful spirit, that served only to increase the 

 love of those who were about to lose her. Day after day her cheek 

 became thinner and thinner, and her frame more attenuate : but still 

 her eye beamed brightly, and her low and soft voice seemed to be 

 more and more musical. For hours together would Edwards bend 

 over her, and, in impassioned accents of most pure and holy affec- 

 tion, lavish upon her the treasured horde of the love which had so 

 long been his anchor and his hope : and Mary loved him, perhaps, 

 even more intensely than in the height of her young imaginings; the 

 * waking bliss,' which she had briefly enjoyed, had served to show 

 her how worthy was the object of her regard : and though she knew 

 she must leave him, she gazed upon and caressed him, without a 

 murmur that this delight was fast fleeting. 



The ' poisoned arrow' had, indeed, too truly done its work ; and 

 Mary Edwards now presented one of the most painful, and yet one 

 of the most beautiful aspects under which humanity can be contem- 

 plated, a young and lovely bride, slowly dying of consumption. 

 The picture is not an unusual one; for to finely and delicately 

 organised systems, the expectations previous to and the excitement 

 following marriage, especially where the affections are deeply en- 

 grossed, often prove the grave of blooming womanhood. Mary had 

 long been pining; and, had her union with James taken place at an 

 earlier date, the * canker-worm ' might have been resisted. But it 

 was too late ; and her husband, when that 



" Food of the mind the sweet intercourse 

 Of looks and smiles," 



had still more closely woven his heart to her, had the agony of 

 watching her death-bed. He was a Christian, but he was also a 

 man ; and when he threw himself beside her lifeless body, he 

 deemed that he had made too great a sacrifice to his duties. 



P. G. 



