94 FAITH AND LOVE. 



We were riding a sequestered road, where the branches of 

 the trees often caused us to bend to the saddle-bow, when 

 Gilbert after a long silence asked, 



" Did it ever occur to you, Ernest, that when one who is dear 

 to us, whose existence is indeed a part of our own, has ceased 

 to be a dweller upon the earth, we feel as it were a loosen- 

 ing of the senses, and the soul hears an utterance that saith 

 ' Arise, let us go hence V " 



At this moment a butterfly alighted upon his forehead, 

 paused an instant, and then floated lightly upward into the 

 thin air. Gilbert followed it with his eyes, and to my amaze- 

 ment turned deadly pale. 



" Blessed Psyche, one moment stay," he murmured, and but 

 for my arm would have fallen from his saddle. 



After this little incident we rode many hours in utter silence, 

 Gilbert was very pale, and mechanically reined his horse be- 

 side my own ; the most beautiful scenery, to which he was 

 ever so keenly susceptible, failed to awaken his attention, or 

 rouse him from an abstraction that seemed well nigh to sus- 

 pend the powers of vitality. 



At length we reached our inn, and I was giving orders to 

 the groom that we might be in readiness for an early start in 

 the morning, when Gilbert arrested me. 



