in hers, she fell back. I could not release. my hand to prop her up with pillows. A strange appearance, strange to me at least, for it was the first death I had witnessed-a strange appearance, I say, as of an unearthly brightness, passed slowly over her face, just as I have seen a sudden gleam of sunshine pass over a great expanse of country. This was immediately succeeded by the darkness of death; the grasp upon my hand was loosened; and then Jessie's spirit took its departure from this earth. They talk of lifelong sorrows. There are no such things; and yet there are such things in a certain sense. But they are sealed up in the depths of a man's soul. He knows that if he were to unseal them, they would spread over his whole soul, and enfeeble all his efforts. So he works on, knowing that if he looked into these sealed fountains of sorrow, he would lack the courage to work at all; and perhaps his husbandry is all the more profitable for the world, because there are no longer for him any poppies rising up amidst the corn. To speak in the lan guage of romantic persons, The Beautiful is dead; but The Useful abides, and is sufficient to occupy the few sad and sombre days which remain to a man who has experienced any great sorrowany stroke of the heart. I was again utterly alone in the world. Hard work it was for me to provide the necessary outlay for the poor funeral, followed only, as it was, by a single mourner. Some great poet should write a poem to show how much greater grief there often is at a funeral where there is only a single mourner, mayhap one who follows afar off, than at those funerals where there is all "the pomp of heraldry," and the largest concourse of funereal retinue. I remember, years and years after Jessie's death, being consulted as regarded some legal difficulty connected with the shutting up of that graveyard where Jessie lies buried. And I said to myself, "Yes; shut it up; and God only knows how much of my heart is shut up within it." When Thurston had ceased speaking there was a painful silence. I felt that the tears were very near my eyes; and even Sir Aubrey, an accomplished man of the world, looked a little embarrassed, He got out of this very well, however, I thought; for he took Thurston's hand in his, and pressed it. We said nothing about the story. What can one say when a man tells one the sad lifelong story of his love; and when the after-time moves with him, as it did with Sisyphus: : And weary, weary seem'd the languid days, Somehow or other, in an abrupt way, we began to talk about politics, and we discussed the question whether the House of Lords could, would, or should, reject a certain bill upon the second reading, or whether they should try to bleed it to death by amendments in committee. Thurston, as usual, talked well upon this subject, as he did upon most subjects; but Sir Aubrey 1 "The Lost Tales of Miletus," by Lord Lytton. and I were dull and depressed, and made talk instead of talking naturally. Independently of my thoughts of Jessie's death, and Thurston's life-long sorrow, I could not help thinking of Maggie's love, which I had perceived, and conjecturing what would be the end of it. I remembered now, that I had heard Thurston say, "I hold the theory that a man loves supremely, I would say, mortally, but once in his life; that there is for him but one grande passion, as the French would say; and that a man can no more love twice than he can be born twice, or die twice-with the overpowering and abiding love, at least, that I have known—in others." CHAPTER XXX. MR. THURSTON IS ENLIGHTENED. T need hardly be said that Mr. Thurston was totally unconscious of Maggie's growing affection for him—at any rate of the nature of that affection. But there was a person in his household who was not so unconscious, and who indeed was perfectly aware of what were Maggie's feelings in this matter. This was Mr. Thurston's housekeeper. The good old lady's sagacity in this respect was not sharpened by any feminine jealousy; for, as has been said before, she had come to regard Maggie, whom she had helped to clothe, as almost one of her own children. And Maggie dutifully repaid this affection. But |