240 THE DREAMER'S MISSION. 



our feeble nature, — much to assure us that no human soul ever 

 passed through an earthly pilgrimage without leaving the trace 

 of its influence, either in the upspringing of some fresh way- 

 side flower, or in the blight and desolation of that which was 

 once green and beautiful. 



The father of Horace Lee was a plain farmer, perfectly 

 independent, because his farm supplied him with the means of 

 a comfortable subsistence, and content to tolerate the inertness 

 of his youngest child, partly because the boy had been his dead 

 mother's darling, and partly because he was the only drone in 

 that full hive of busy workers. But the old man had a brother 

 who, having entered early into commerce, had amassed a fortune, 

 and now figured among the wealthy citizens of New York, 

 while his only daughter, a creature of rare beauty, was the 

 ornament of its gayest circles of fashion. Katharine Lee was 

 one of those superb women, upon whom Heaven seems to have 

 lavished its best gifts, both of mind and person. Stately and 

 noble in the full proportions of her splendid figure, with features 

 of perfect symmetry, but moulded into Roman grandeur rather 

 than Grecian softness, she might have been the model of a 

 sculptor ; while the rich coloring of her delicate complexion, 

 the dark deep tint of her proud yet tender eyes, the shadows 

 flung over her cheek by the long lashes fringing the veined 

 lids, and the soft brown hue of her wavy hair might have made 

 a painter despair. She knew that she was beautiful, and dearly 

 did she prize the gift. Not alone for its ministry to vanity did 

 she value it, though she was woman enough to know and love 

 the power it gave her. But she had also a higher motive, 



