THE SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN HERALD. 117 



ivy, and all its exquisite innumerable combinations of 

 the simple and the elegant, that impressed me most 

 strongly. I found, too, that my companion, whose taste 

 had been much more highly cultivated than mine, was 

 quite as much delighted with it. You, who are yourself 

 so happy in your domestic relations, will not be dis- 

 pleased to learn that, after having enjoyed for full five 

 years all that a lover enjoys in courtship, I now possess 

 all that renders a husband happy in a wife. I have now 

 been rather more than eight months married, and am as 

 much in love as ever/ 



Pleasant as were Miller's relations with the Messrs 

 Chambers, he experienced the want of a literary vehicle, 

 in which the deepest feelings of his nature, his religious 

 feelings, might have free expression. He accordingly 

 offered his services as occasional contributor to the Scot- 

 tish Christian Herald, a periodical conducted chiefly by 

 clergymen of the Church of Scotland. He forwarded for 

 publication a sketch and a poem. Both were declined. 

 ' The narrative/ said the editor, ' though well written, is 

 scarcely of that description which accords with the design 

 of the Herald, our great anxiety having always been that 

 the interest of the periodical should rest, not on love 

 affairs or the operation of mere worldly motives, but on 

 the varied aspects in which Christianity presents itself 

 among men. From beginning to end, in short, we wish 

 not to be merely moral and entertaining, but decidedly 

 religious' He added that, if Miller pleased, he would 

 hand the piece to the Messrs Chambers for publication 

 in the Journal. 



Hugh was considerably pained. ' My story/ he 

 wrote in reply, ' turns on a case of conversion. Who- 

 ever heard of such a thing in one of our lighter period- 

 icals ? Not in Blackwood, I am sure, with all his zeal 



