that rifted gate of waters." He sketched his impressions of a book he had been reading, and of a play he attended in Buffalo. Then came the long reserved subject of our separation; and, after arguing coldly its advantages, and dwelling chiefly on the incompatability of our tastes and tempers, he told me to go to him, if ever I wanted a friend, (the word friend was in italics) and concluded the letter with a prayer that my life might be one of happiness, and death to me might be "The kind and gentle servant, who unlocks, With noiseless hand, life's flower-encircled door, The last letter might have wounded me more than the first, but all the woman was so roused in my soul, I bore it with a smile. For the former Derby I could mourn as for one buried in the grave, but for the present Derby, of course I felt by this time a very cool contempt, and rejoiced even at times of elevated feeling, that I had not been wedded to one so selfish and inconstant. XXXI. I WENT on my walks as usual, and thanked the blessed stars as I paced the old mill among my jocund looms, that I had not been lured away from them. Instead of attempting to hector me as one or two did, most of the girls expressed a silent sympathy which comforted me more than words. They hinted again and again the gladness they felt that I had never been vain of the prospect of a fortune which had relieved me of so false a friend. Julia Warden was more than ever my dearest friend now, and Celia and Agnes assured me in a dozen tender ways that recent events had raised me in their esteem, and redoubled the interest they had taken in my welfare. Man's Inconstancy,” She heard of all my 'Ah, Maircy, Maircy, and sober," cried she, Ye Soon after I spun my poem on I had a visit from Bessie Plympton. troubles, and came to comfort me. yer face is lookin a heap too pale after a dozen apologies for intruding on my grief. musn't take on in this way, girl, 'twont dew, and 't aint the way to git red o' trouble. I 'spose ye feel orful bad, and think yer heart 'll break, and all that, but la, there's trouble a sight harder'n this to git over. Ye'll be as chipper as a wren in a year, see'f ye don't; and wonder, then, what made ye take on so bad about a feller that thought he loved ye and didn't love ye none o' the time. Cheer up, Maircy, sich troubles is only a sort o' mumps or measles that most every buddy hes to hev. Cheer up, there's better fish in the sea than hes ever been ketched. "I know jist how ye feel. It seem's zef ye was lookin at the world through a smoked glass, now don't it? and everything was kivered with a kind o' yeller gloom. I know jist how ye feel; ye want to look at the moon and make vairses all the hull time. Ye think ye love him to death, and think ye don't love him; ye dream he's drefful lovin and then drefful false and hateful. I know jist how ye feel; ye want to read love stories all the hull time, and don't want to read 'em, they make ye feel so bad. Ye have a queer kind o' hard-and-tender, sick-and-wal, glad-and-sober, smart-and-foolish feelin all over; now don't ye, Maircy, and want to hear mournful tunes, and be by yerself? "I know jist how ye feel. I felt so myself when Solon Nuby (the slick tongue!) found out he didn't love me's he thought he did, and traipsed right straight away's he could go and hed Susan Dike. O I felt zef my heart was runnin out o' my eyes, then I did, Maircy. I could never git over it in this world, I said, and I'd run right away and live in the woods, or eat pounded glass, and die. Then how queer I felt all over, and how the vairses run through my poor head! Curis, how easy 'tis to make vairses when a body's been a little disappinted! But la, Maircy, 'twant a year afore I was glad the feller left me, fur he left Susan feelin wuss 'n I, and I b'lieve it's a sight better to hev 'em cool and quit afore than arter a body gits tied to 'em for ever. Cheer up, Maircy, and ye'll find that this little storm 'll only fetch a brighter sky and sweeten the air around yer heart. Ease yer heart a makin vairses; then, sure, it'll never break." Whilst I was absent visiting my brothers, Dr. Downs and his wife planned a journey to Philadelphia, and now they beset me to quit the mill for ten days at least and go and stay with Celia till they returned. I made strong objections at first, but when, to my surprise, I was informed that consent from the superintendent had been gained, and there was deposited to my credit in the bank more than the amount of my wages for that time, I was wounded a little in my pride at first, then a sense of their great goodness touched me, and I yielded to their wishes. They departed on their journey, and I went with Celia and remained a fortnight instead of ten days. I never can forget the time I spent with that dear girl. Selwyn was still engaged in the city mission, and boarded at home. Julia Warden was often over, a day and night, and they were all genial and happy as a flock of summer birds. I felt that none of them had acquainted me with half their goodness before. They treated me as if nothing at all had happened, and no Neal Derby had been born. And yet there was a tendernes in their most lively manner which touched me, and, had I been mourning for my mother, I should have tasted full and frequent cups of comfort with my sorrow. A finer season than that I never saw. The fields were still verdant as in May, for the after-grass in the hay fields was in full bloom, and the banks of our bright river, and the pastures on the hills "stood dressed in living green.' Bessie's group of sunflowers waved like stately palms in her little garden, and she sat and sang beneath them, and no doubt thought, if not of the palm-groves of her fathers in Africa, of the shade she expected to find in heaven on the banks of the river of life. The cardinal flower displayed its scarlet coronal, and the yellow foxglove gemmed the road-side and starred the fields. The pond-lily had just begun to whiten the bosoms of the lakes and nod above the waters, as if giving glances or gestures of encouragement or love to her less beautiful sister, the yellow water-lily that rose and waved in sight. The dahlias were all out, and the cones of the pine and cedar gave a "good smell as ever Solomon tasted in the gardens of Mount Zion. The air was pure and clear, and the mountains seemed to have come down near to us and cast their sympathies around us, while the sky would stoop and retire at different hours of the day, and display every tint and shade, from deep orange to a white and glowing silver, as the different hours went by. The fairest fruit and the finest books, and even lectures, that year, were in season. Selwyn had labored with unremitting exertions during the summer in the city mission and evening school, and he now took a fortnight and joined us in our recreations. I had not dreamed that a person so gracious in his looks, could be so genial in society as I then found him. He was even humorous and witty; and such a deference and tenderness for woman as he showed unconsciously, (while |