FAITH AND LOVE. 99 



" I need not tell where nor how we first met, for I will not 

 dwell upon the common-placisms of events, momentous although 

 to ourselves, and involving rare contingencies, yet apparently 

 natural and of every-day occurrence. Neither will I dwell 

 upon the progress of a love that soon absorbed the soul of 

 each, for neither of us could tell when nor how it grew 

 between us. It was as if two spirits, each with a single wing 

 had met, and folding their arms together became one, and 

 perfect in their power of flight heavenward. 



" When I first told my love Agnes listened with a sweet 

 down-cast look, and then her clear eyes met mine, like soul 

 answering to soul; her gentle lips trembled, and her cheek 

 was pale, but so holy, so loving, was the whole expression of 

 her child-like face, that I started as at a new and sublime 

 revelation. 



" She placed her two hands within mine own, and I called 

 her < Wife.' 



" Agnes looked earnestly in my face, and burst into tears. 



" ' Thine, Gilbert, one with thee, like unto the Angels of 

 God,' she replied ; and then she spoke of those mysterious 

 affinities of soul, by which two beings are imperceptibly 

 blended into one ; how love between such is a necessity of 

 their being, an ordainment, a fact. They are conjoined by 

 God although often put asunder by men. She told of that 

 yearning for companionship felt by every human being, a 



