FAITH AND LOVE. 101 



once bereft as a penalty for my impious love. She revived, 

 and the music of her voice, the sweet eloquence of her 

 lips, the endearing pathos of her every word, and the subtle 

 winningness of her gentle air, ere long won me to her noble 

 creed, and made me her worshipper, devoted and spiritual. 



" She had been married in her early girlhood, before the 

 strength of her own nature had been revealed to her ; while 

 her heart was as a pearl, buried in its purity, sealed up, cold 

 and tranquil. She was a child careless of the morrow, and 

 unconscious of the fearful momentousness of the vows she 

 assumed ; and not till their weight pressed upon her as a 

 doom ; not till she found herself yearning wildly for com- 

 panionship and sympathy, did she realize how totally she 

 was forever bereft of these. Then came the long period of 

 depression and hopeless despondency — life without aim or joy, 

 existence borne as a dread necessity — days and months in 

 which gloom was only relieved by a deeper gloom, and but 

 for principle and duty, the thread of life might have been 

 voluntarily severed. 



" But she was trustful, dependent, spiritual, and soon these 

 affections destined to be idly wasted in this world, were 

 transferred to heaven. A depth of religious emotion soon 

 absorbed all others. Duty, self-sacrifice, constancy, and 

 devotion, filled up the waste places of life. 



" Gently and forbearingly she spoke of the blind selfishness 

 of Gordon — how the consciousness that he held a place in her 



