FEBRUARY 311 



rooks is not all unhappiness or envy. Who knows 

 that they do not take pleasure in the plenty of other 

 birds more fortunate than themselves? Why should 

 the best virtues be attributed only to the human, 

 and denied to the lower animal creation ? Happi- 

 ness must always be beautiful to look on, wherever 

 it may be. 



Yet the happiness of those we love is so sacred 

 that it may hardly be dwelt upon. Since yesterday 

 it has been my part to dwell beneath the same roof 

 with a man who indeed says nothing, or almost 

 nothing, about a great felicity that is his after many 

 days of anxious fear and hope, but whose joy-lit 

 eyes betray his happiness. And Magdalen comes 

 and whispers in a broken voice, and tells me how 

 she loved him but feared that he would never 

 speak, until a chance word, a touch unlocked for, 

 swept away pride's barrier and loosed his tongue, 

 and in a moment came paradise. Even one of 

 life's onlookers may feel strangely moved at the 

 sight of such happiness as theirs. 



