THE TEXAN HUNTRESS. 335 



from her, exclaim : — " It is all over ! The struggle is closed 

 for me ! Se will finish the work alone !" 



I reached her side as soon as possible. She was most pain- 

 fully hagga.rd, and her eyes were distended to a degree which 

 made their expression seem peculiarly ghastly. She recog- 

 nized me with a smile of such genial sweetness, as for the 

 first time showed me directly the infinite depth and tenderness 

 of that strong heart. She had never revealed herself to me 

 before, so that I felt her recognition ; she had kept all her 

 sympathies with an austere exclusiveness for her husband, 

 and those she had given to me were merely general, such as 

 she would have given to any other member of the human 

 family. She beckoned me to come to her. I came and 

 threw myself on my knees by the side of her couch, she 

 placed her hand upon my head, saying, in a low, solemn 

 voice : — 



" My son, while I am yet strong enough, I wish to explain 

 much to you that you neither have nor could have compre- 

 hended. I seem to you, no doubt, a wild and incomprehen- 

 sible fanatic — ^my husband a dreamer ! Neither idea is the 

 true one. We are both enthusiasts — and love our common 

 purpose more than we love each other — for a great thought 

 is, and should be, far more sacred than any passion. Love 

 is only spiritualized in reality when two souls meet in the 

 same idea ! Animals have passions, even stronger than ours 

 — ^but have they a purpose ? They have the purpose of living. 

 We have, or ought to have, a higher ! We have something 

 more to do than to ' live, and move, and have a being' — we 

 have to worh ! Work for what ? For its men and women — 

 its animals, its birds, its insects, its fishes, its reptiles, its 

 monsters, anthropophagi, and all ! — Work to elevate, enlarge, 

 expand — ^to beautify — to glorify ! Work to make the flowers 

 like those we know in dreams — the trees express our thoughts 

 of overshadowing strength and love — the rocks, of grandeur 



