From the collection of the 
 
 n 
 
 Prejinger 
 
 v JUibrary 
 t P 
 
 San Francisco, California 
 2006 
 
IDEAL ATTAINED; 
 
 The Story of Two Steadfast Souls, and how they 
 Won their Happiness and Lost it not. 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZA W. FARNHAM, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "WOMAX A S 1) HKK KRA," "KLIZA VTO O O K," K T . 
 
 We had experience of a blissful state, 
 
 In which our powers of thought stood separata. 
 Bach in its own high freedom hld apart, 
 Yet both close folded in one loving heart ; 
 So that we seemed, without conceit, to be 
 Both ont, and two, in our identity." - UILNM*. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 0. M. PLUMB .fc CO.. 
 
 274 CANAL STBEKT. 
 1865. 
 
F&55 
 
 n "i yr T A T T A T / if IT 
 
 r > 1 w I r JL w-I /xw. IA I 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 
 CHARLES H. FAENHAM, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern 
 District of New York. 
 
 'FRIEND OF PROGRESS" PRINT, 
 274 Canal St., New York. 
 
Bancroft Library 
 
 
 PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 
 
 { 
 
 
 One who gave her entire life so sacredly to philan- 
 thropic labor of hands or brain, as did Mrs. FARNHAM, would 
 be likely to regard the production of a work of fiction as 
 incidental and subordinate. 
 
 The manuscript of the volume here presented to the 
 public, was prepared some years since, in a surprisingly 
 brief time, and under peculiar circumstances. It was then, 
 evidently, laid aside for other, and, as the author believed, 
 more important work ; and only during her final illness 
 was it confided to the care of the Publishers. 
 
 Had it been submitted to other judgment, an earlier 
 publication would doubtless have been secured, when it 
 could have received the author's own supervision. The 
 want of this, and the slight revision which the manuscript 
 has undergone, will, it is hoped, palliate any inaccuracies 
 that may be discovered. 
 
 The pictures of natural scenery upon the Pacific shore, 
 and of social life during the early years of California, will 
 be recognized as eminently faithful. The chief interest 
 of the work, however, lies in the characters given to the 
 two leading personages, whose vivid portraitures constitute 
 noble embodiments of an exalted ideal, conveying a fresh 
 and striking reflection of the author's own rare and peculiar 
 genius. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 At the time when my story commences, we had 
 been at sea ninety days. Our ship was the Tempest, 
 one of the noblest vessels which, then, had ever sailed 
 from New York for San Francisco. She was called 
 clipper-built, and though far from equaling the later 
 structures of that sort, she had made some very quick 
 voyages across the Atlantic and in the China Seas. 
 She was a noble piece of water-craft clean, trim, and 
 resolute looking, though, to my eyes, her tall masts, 
 and slender yards, and innumerable lines of rope, 
 looked more like a fairy bridge between us and cloud- 
 land, than any substantial means of more material 
 progress. 
 
 The Tempest had changed owners and master lor 
 the California voyage, and our expectations of great 
 speed seemed likely to be sadly disappointed, through 
 lack of some quality in Captain Landon, which pre- 
 vented him from making the most of her sailing quali- 
 ties. In all other respects he was an admirable 
 commander. Good discipline, that was never cruel, 
 prevailed everywhere in his little kingdom, and when, 
 
6 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 in our eagerness, we questioned him, with spurring 
 intent, about our progress, he replied that he preferred 
 sailing upon the sea to going through it ; and that a 
 man who had doubled the Cape of Good Hope six 
 times, and the Horn four, would scarcely be in so 
 great a hurry to get around the fifth time, as younger 
 men who had had less experience. 
 
 We all liked Captain Landon heartily. He was 
 social and kind, and in his relations to all on board 
 his vessel he was uniformly and unexceptionably the 
 conscientious, high-minded gentleman. Nevertheless, 
 and it perhaps proves the ingratitude and hardness of 
 our hearts, there were words sometimes coupled with 
 his name, in our deck and state-room chats, which 
 showed that, to the speakers, all his virtues did not 
 atone for the one capital lack of swiftness. Beware, 
 O ye who conduct the vehicular progress of sovereign 
 Americans, how you suffer the winds of heaven to out- 
 strip you ! 
 
 Ninety days, I told you, we had been out, yet the 
 Captain would not talk of less than twenty-five more 
 it was more likely, he said, to be thirty-five. The 
 truth was, that, having a hint, without specific direc- 
 tions for following Maury's proposed theory of navi- 
 gating the Pacific, he was making an attempt thereto 
 by running very much farther west than he ever had 
 before ; and we were naturally more impatient of every 
 day's delay, which seemed to our ignorance possibly 
 attributable to this experiment, than we should have 
 been to any occurring in the legitimate routes. Cap- 
 tain Landon spoke little of our position at this time, 
 and we thought would much have preferred finding 
 himself a few degrees eastward of this undesirable spot. 
 For we were in an ocean of dead calm, glassy, shining, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 7 
 
 unrippled by breath of air or swell of wave the sails 
 depending like idle rags from the spars, and the steady 
 sun pouring his glare and heat mercilessly upon us, 
 from the hour of rising till the last level rays smote 
 us across the western sea. What could we do but 
 suffer? 
 
 Our company in the cabin was small, numbering only 
 nine beside the Captain three ladies, four gentlemen, 
 and two children. I will introduce the least important 
 personages to you first, and we shall then be at rest 
 about them, for it is not their experience I am going to 
 give you. There were two of them to whom I believed 
 no experience ever had come, or ever would come, 
 which could by any possible stretching be made to fit 
 and clothe a human soul. 
 
 There was Mr. Wilkes, an invalid schoolmaster, 
 whose only relaxation, beside drinking peppermint- 
 water, between breakfast and luncheon, and between 
 luncheon and dinner, was singing psalms, accompany- 
 ing himself on a tuning-fork. Mr. Wilkes was slight 
 and small in person, with large eyes that had apparent- 
 ly faded with his waning vitality, for around the rims 
 of the irids there was yet visible a lingering tint of 
 yellowish gray, while within it had all vanished, and 
 given place to a dingy buttermilk hue ; the dreariest 
 eyes especially when the peppermint-water was in 
 hand, which was the great part of every day that 
 were ever seen. Mr. Wilkes was going to California 
 for his health and recreation, he sometimes added. 
 Truth to tell, I think the poor man had little of the 
 ruling motive, in his travel, which was then filling that 
 devoted State with the adventurous, the avaricious, 
 the ambitious, the dishonest, and the criminal of the 
 whole earth. There was scarcely nature enough in his 
 
8 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 little weazen body and respectable soul, for so much 
 rugged purpose to find lodgment. His stated 
 pleasantry in regard to worldly prospects in that 
 wicked, thriving country, was, that, "if they gave 
 him nothing, they would not get much out of him, 
 either," for he had only taken enough to pay his 
 expenses back; and he seemed to consider that, in 
 this acuteness, he had over-reached the Californians in 
 the most unprecedented and triumphant manner. 
 
 " I can teach singing there, Miss Warren," he 
 would say he was disposed to be rather confidential 
 at times with me, or, more strictly speaking, to avail 
 himself of the only patient ears he could ever command 
 among us ladies " I can teach singing, but I should 
 not like to undertake a school till my health is im- 
 proved. It is very laborious, Miss Warren, to teach a 
 school. I have taught fourteen years in one house, 
 and I always found it very laborious. It injures a 
 man's health in time, and mine is so much impaired, 
 that I thought a voyage would do me good. If I 
 don't gain, I shall not lose anything, because, as I told 
 you before, I took good care not to bring any more 
 money with me than would take me home again, and 
 I left my wife and daughter very comfortably settled 
 in our own house in Millville." 
 
 You will understand, now, that it was a great merit 
 in me to stop and hear, every two or three days, such 
 a statement of his personal affairs and prospects 
 sometimes prolonged much beyond this, without the 
 addition, however, of another idea, and always ending 
 in the pleasant consolation of the wife and daughter 
 and the little house at Millville. If these talks lacked 
 interest and originality to me, they did not to him ; 
 and in the tedium of a voyage one is so thoroughly 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 9 
 
 put down to what one can bear, that you are uncon- 
 scious how very trivial the things often are which 
 serve to occupy you, and make you believe you are 
 being entertained, or even interested. 
 
 Mr. Pedes was one of the traveling members of a 
 New England Scientific Association, and was going to 
 California and Mexico as entomologist and taxidermist 
 for that body. He had the full measure of indifference 
 to personal appearance that was requisite in a scien- 
 tific man ; wore often soiled linen, the membranes, by 
 all outward indications, being in a state of adaptation 
 thereto ; lingered obstinately over his text-books and 
 treatises affirmed by Agassiz ; and plainly enough 
 hinted, when he did talk, that American science would 
 be largely indebted, a few years hence, to the Society 
 which was devoting men and means to exploration and 
 harvest on the Pacific coast, in the face of all the diffi- 
 culties which the scientific man had then to meet 
 there. Mr. Pedes was, perhaps, not a churlish man. 
 I think he was really devoted to his pursuits, with an 
 absorbing interest in them, and a substantial gratitude 
 that he was thereby segregated from the men and 
 women in the world who were not so blest. He was 
 my vis-a-vis at table, and I remember the leading idea 
 in my mind, for many of our first days, in meeting 
 him there, bore reference to the personal traits referred 
 to. After I became accustomed to him, the import- 
 ance of toilet measures did somewhat fall off; and 
 when, occasionally, he talked to us, in the lecture-room 
 style, on the vertebrata and the invertebrata, the vim- 
 para and the ovipara, I even became so reconciled to 
 him, that I used, sometimes, in the dreariest dullness, 
 to wish he had the same necessities for communicating 
 and receiving that other human beings feel. Because, 
 
10 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 you see, our circle was small, and every accessible soul 
 was so much resource to each of us. 
 
 Our third man, going upward, was Mr. Garth, the 
 youngest of them all a native of New York and 
 graduate of Yale. Since that venerable mother had sent 
 him into the world, he had traveled over his own coun- 
 try and visited Europe, and he seemed to have ques- 
 tioned men and things to some purpose, for he had 
 clear and ready ideas, when the way of expression was 
 opened to him ; could relate much that he had seen 
 and remembered, always in choice and easy terms; 
 and was, altogether, an agreeable, accomplished per- 
 son. But there was a fragility in his physical and 
 mental being. He lacked, as so many of our young 
 men do, the sturdiness of body that is indispensable to 
 an enduring, complete, and full life. His chest was 
 narrow and thin, and his muscular system light, so 
 that I always felt, in thinking of his future, that if one 
 of the heavy strokes of experience should fall upon him, 
 he would be unable to sustain himself against it. He 
 was not only fragile, but had that peculiarly clear, pale 
 blue eye, which indicates the most perishable or unre- 
 sisting fragility. Yet Mr. Garth had tolerable health, 
 and like a sensible man, set a high value upon it, with- 
 out possessing, however, much practical knowledge of 
 the laws by which it could be preserved or increased. 
 His Alma Mater had instructed him in the conjuga- 
 tions and inflections of the Greek, Hebrew and Latin 
 verbs ; had stored his mind with the poetry of Homel- 
 and Yirgil the wisdom of Plato and Socrates ; she 
 had given him much useful and dignified knowledge 
 of the sciences external to himself, but had not taught 
 him one physiological law by which the life, thus en- 
 nobled, could be made stronger and more efficient. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 11 
 
 Nay, she had, in all probability, weakened it by her 
 own neglect of these in the treatment she had bestowed 
 on him. Thus, Mr. Garth did not understand the 
 value of daily bathing. The comfort of it in warm 
 climates led him to practice it, but off Cape Horn we 
 'never had to wait for him to vacate the bath-room. 
 He was ignorant that the very strong tea and coffee, 
 served at our breakfast- and dinner-tables, were like 
 fire or poison to his unshielded nervous system ; he did 
 not know that the hot bread he ate every morning 
 made a direct attack upon his digestive energies, which 
 had scarcely power to accomplish their function upon 
 it ; and he would not have believed, if any one had 
 told him, that it was better his lungs should be sup- 
 plied with pure air while asleep, even though, to accom- 
 plish it, a cold current should have to be admitted 
 directly to his room. 
 
 Alma Mater had not descended to trivial and mod- 
 ern instruction like this, and as none of the schools 
 had given it to him before he went to her, and his 
 father and mother were, in all probability, as ignorant 
 of it as himself, or as any learned professor of mathe- 
 matics or languages, he was now in a state of blessed 
 unconsciousness that, instead of fortifying and strength- 
 ening his health and manhood by his daily habits, he 
 was slowly and steadily undermining them. If he had 
 an Ideal of manhood, it was of the spiritual, apart 
 from and almost ignoring the physical. He was now 
 in quest both of adventure and fortune, and, with a 
 few thousand dollars in hand, was going, in this not 
 greedy, hasty manner, to California, with the hope of 
 multiplying it, in some honorable and just way, to 
 many thousands, and, at the same time, of seeing some 
 phases of life that were not offered to him elsewhere. 
 
12 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Our remaining gentleman was Colonel Anderson. 
 He was a Briton by birth, but of Danish-English ex- 
 traction ; and in his person were combined the phy- 
 sical perfection and elegance of both these finely 
 developed nations. His stature exceeded six feet, but 
 every line of the hight and breadth which made up his 
 Herculean form was cased in Nature's royal mold of 
 masculine beauty. His chest was deep, and the voice 
 that flowed from it, like the joyous west wind for full- 
 ness ; his shoulders were broad and square, but grace- 
 fully set above the clean lines which narrowed steadily 
 downward to the thin flank ; and while his muscular 
 figure had barely that roundness which is compatible 
 with manly elegance, his motions were as lithe and 
 supple as a leopard's. Colonel Anderson's head would 
 have delighted the eyes of the most enthusiastic disci- 
 ple of Gall or Spurzheim, the active brain manifestly 
 filling all the space allotted to it ; and his features had 
 the clear cut, promptly defined lines of the English 
 face, with the frankness and spirit of the northern 
 countenance. His large dark-blue eye gleamed occa- 
 sionally with the true fire of the old Norse soul, and 
 at such moments there seemed to flash upon us the 
 likeness of some ancient Jaol or Viking, whose motto 
 might have been, "No obstacle to my purpose but 
 death." 
 
 He was accomplished, social and spontaneous to 
 a degree that was very un-American, and un-Eng- 
 lish, too, indeed ; yet there ran through this warm, 
 impulsive, piquant character, a vein of steadiness, that 
 was thoroughly English, and that was capable, upon 
 provocation, of becoming reserve as proud and freezing 
 to unwarranted familiarity, as the purest British blood 
 could feel. Externally, he was all Dane, and it was 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 13 
 
 an apology which at once extenuated and character- 
 ized his little social offenses when he said, " The wind 
 was from the north at that moment," or, " Then spoke 
 that blessed father of mine." Colonel Anderson's 
 paternity was his great pride though he had been 
 born in England, and all his life identified with Brit- 
 ish institutions and power. He had been in the East 
 Indies and South Africa ; afterward on the Grand Canal, 
 with Mehemit Ali, and roaming about the Mediterra- 
 nean, especially the Italian States ; had leapt headlong 
 into the arms of Mazzini and the Liberals ; chafing and 
 fretting there, between inaction and hope, till the day 
 came when those noblest men of the country were driven 
 from it when the Revolution of '48 seemed to have 
 proved but a poor futility, and all the manly, courageous 
 love of liberty was crushed into silence or driven from 
 the Continent, as if it had been the most pestilent and 
 ruinous presence that could afflict the people. Then 
 he had come to England, and was about buying a com- 
 mission, to reenter the army, in the hope that thereby 
 some worthy work would come to his hand, when the 
 desire to see America seized him. He came, and had 
 spent a year between the Free and Slave States and 
 the great West ; and now, apparently somewhat to his 
 own astonishment, he was a passenger on board a ship 
 to California. I have told you here much of his his- 
 tory that we did not know till long after the time I am 
 now speaking of. 
 
 You are already thinking, I know, that the man I 
 have described was one whom all women of the weaker 
 sort would call adorable, or perfect, or splendid ; and 
 whom the stronger would admire profoundly, and 
 pronounce in an under-tone, magnificent. He had 
 genius of a sort not grown by the intellect alone. His 
 
14: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 power, his frankness, his directness, his love of young 
 children, and capacity to enter into and increase their 
 happiness, his unmistakable and unerring sympathy 
 with the right, in all questions, however great or 
 trivial, gave him the position of a commanding person. 
 His experience had been various and large, and from it 
 he had gathered much of all sorts of knowledge : know- 
 ledge of general subjects, of science, of men, of opinions, 
 and of practical, daily doings, which he could and would 
 use in the promptest and most efficient manner, when 
 occasion required. After this, I have no need to tell 
 you that I admired him exceedingly, and that, but for 
 my being an acknowledged old maid, whom any good 
 man like him, in the course of a long sea voyage, 
 would naturally come to treat with the frankness and 
 unceremony of a sister or old friend, I have little doubt 
 that I should have fallen desperately in love with him. 
 
 Of the two ladies beside myself, one was a Mrs. 
 Farley ; and when I prefix the article, and give her 
 name, I give the measure of her individuality; for 
 Mrs. Farley, beside her name, consisted of eight or ten 
 or twelve boxes and trunks of clothing costly, fash- 
 ionable clothing, understand, all new and a smallish, 
 slight, genteel person, on which, as a foundation, with 
 whalebone and cotton, a most respectable, showy, and 
 with due help of outside materials, even an imposing 
 looking woman was sometimes gotten up for occasions. 
 Without the extras, and let down from the dignity 
 which they maintained by taking, she was a little, 
 gossiping, weak, complaining woman ; somewhat bit- 
 ter, but never malignant hardly positive enough for 
 that ; a negative, small existence, for whom the great 
 danger was that we should utterly forget when she was 
 out of our sight. 
 
 The two children were the sons of the lady whom I 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 15 
 
 have not introduced Mrs. Bromfield. Their father 
 had been more than three years dead, and was buried 
 away on one of the remote islands of the purple South 
 Seas, of which, whenever I looked into her serious face 
 and great brown eyes, she seemed to be dreaming. I 
 could see whole groves of cocoa-nut and stately palms 
 reflected in their depths. 
 
 In detail, Mrs. Bromfield was not handsome. Taken 
 singly, every feature of her face except the eyes might 
 be pronounced plain. Her full lips had such decided 
 curves in their chiseled lines, that I used to think, in 
 looking on them, the mouth lacked tenderness, and 
 expressed strength and pride, rather than love. Her 
 forehead was broad, with a massive projecting form, as 
 unlike as you can imagine to the smooth, characterless 
 delicacy of shape so much praised in women. Even the 
 un envious and admiring did not often render the verdict 
 " beautiful," after examining her impressive face. And 
 yet many such looked on her, for she was one of the 
 few women who are universally admired, without that 
 coveted gift, beauty a rarer and more enviable lot 
 than to possess it. 
 
 She was a clear, warm brunette, with a gorgeous 
 head of hair, that seemed to change, by the light and 
 shadow upon it, from dark purple to raven black. And 
 those who saw her only when the full interior life was 
 kindled and aflame with glorious imaginations, or with 
 resentment, or with the towering pride that repelled 
 uninvited approach, were always heard to affirm that 
 the flash of those black eyes would make the bravest 
 soul cower before her. 
 
 On this day such an occurrence had happened, of 
 which I alone was witness ; but the words it had 
 called forth from her to the offender had got to wind, 
 and Mr. Garth, who was a secret worshiper of hers 
 
16 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 or who thought he was, though I had caught his secret 
 weeks before was talking it over with me, and saying 
 something about the scorching black eyes, when little 
 Phil, her youngest boy, who had strolled near us, and 
 now stood unnoticed, leaning on a coil of rope, said, 
 "My mother hasn't dot black eyes, Mis'r Darf. 
 They're only black when somebody's naughty to her 
 'ats all 'ey are." 
 
 The speaker started, and laughing, tossed Phil up 
 to a seat on the rail, encircling him there with his 
 arms, w r here he fell into one of his mother's dreams, 
 gazing down into the deep, deep sea. There was the 
 slenderest of all possible new moons a mere line of 
 pearly light looking up at him from the still depths 
 it seemed in the calm to be miles below and shim- 
 mering stars, a very few of the boldest, which had 
 ventured out of their azure palaces before the sunset 
 fires of the tropical sky had been quite extinguished, 
 though the sea was heaving in long, lazy surges, right 
 into them. 
 
 Mr. " Darf" and Phil were very fond of each 
 other. The child was indeed irresistible, and Mr. 
 Garth, who was generous and affectionate enough to 
 have loved him heartily for himself, was still more 
 drawn to him by his unavowed love for his mother. 
 He never approached or addressed this lady, but in a 
 most respectful and even reverential manner ; but if I 
 had eyes and could see at all, he devoured every word 
 and movement with a heart-yearning that it pained me 
 to behold. He rarely named her to a third person, 
 and then in such scanty and guarded speech, that one 
 less keen of observation than I flatter myself I am, 
 would have thought that her being or not being were 
 much the same to him. But, as I said, on this day 
 there had happened an incident in our monotonous life. 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 
 We had been five days wearing out a calm a 
 calm there in the Pacific, where, I think, they 
 seem more hopeless than in any other waters. We 
 were impatient, wearied, restless at times almost 
 fiercely so. Every resource had been over and over 
 again exhausted chess, draughts, cards, backgam- 
 mon ; even dominoes with Phil and Harry ; books, 
 music, and conversation. But Mrs. Bromfield, who 
 always stood much above our common vexations, and, 
 whatever she suffered, suffered in a kind of queenly 
 silence, had not come down to our level of complaint. 
 She was absorbed in reading and making critical anno- 
 tations upon that wonderful book of Lamartine's, the 
 History of Les Girondins ; and she pored over it from 
 early morning till the hour for extinguishing the lights, 
 excepting only the times of walking with the boys and 
 amusing or caressing them. She was a fond mother, 
 but an intellectual woman also; and her children, 
 though loving her passionately, and fearing her not at 
 all, generally understood when mamma had the read- 
 ing or the thinking face on, and sought amusement 
 and entertainment, for the time, elsewhere. 
 
 It had been very warm in the morning, and I was 
 lying on the sofa, in my state-room, with a headache. 
 I was fretful and impatient, and foolishly aggravated 
 
18 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 my discomforts by keeping them in the balance, and 
 making hourly computation of their amount and 
 force. I was doing this for the hundredth time, when 
 I heard a light, yet measured tread, and the soft rustle 
 of a dress, and turning my aching eyes quickly, I saw 
 Mrs. Bromfield's ample but unshowy draperies just 
 disappearing past my door. I called her name. 
 
 " Are you ill ?" she asked, kindly, turning back, and 
 entering my room. 
 
 " 'Not ill, dear Mrs. Bromfield, but so horribly tired, 
 and worried, and parched, in this lifeless air ; and I 
 have a severe headache here" placing my hands 
 across the top of my head. 
 
 I always liked her near me when I felt thus. The 
 calmness, and order, and sweetness of her life seemed 
 to overflow and soothe me. She was like breezes from 
 the hills, laden with the perfume of flowers, and the 
 odors of woodlands, and the glorious sunshine. And 
 she really had an infinite fund of tenderness, which 
 immediately closed up the distance between her and 
 others when she saw them suffering. 
 
 " Shall I cure your headache ?" she asked, with a 
 smile, laying her cool, soft hand on my brow, and pass- 
 ing it gently over my temples. 
 
 " Oh, if you will, I shall be very thankful," I 
 replied ; " and impart to me some of your own equa- 
 nimity and self-adjusting power, for I am miserably 
 
 nervous." 
 
 She sat down on the stool beside me, and talked in 
 those low, deep tones, peculiarly her own, which, while 
 I was hearing them, I always wondered how anybody 
 could resist, and, without apparently doing anything, 
 except for mere idleness, as it were, letting her hands 
 wander about my head. She had, in a few minutes, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 19 
 
 banished my pain. The magnetic interchange had re- 
 established me, in a measure, and I was ashamed, on 
 opening my eyes and looking into her thoughtful face, 
 to feel how much I was indebted to this superior life, 
 and how easily it had penetrated and restored my own 
 to harmony. 
 
 I had never spoken directly to her of these things, 
 but now I said : " What would I not give for the 
 power you possess of containing yourself and affecting 
 others so happily !" 
 
 " I believe I have little more," she replied, " than 
 all well-balanced and developed persons possess, if they 
 would exercise it. But, Miss Warren, all good gifts 
 wither if they are not used. I have no doubt that God 
 gives us all equally precious treasure and talent, if we 
 could but be born with good bodies and brains, through 
 which they could prove themselves, and attain to free 
 growth. You need to be taken away from yourself 
 just now. Will you come with me into the cabin 
 there is no one there and hear me read a poem of 
 Mrs. Browning's ? It will help you to forget your 
 discomforts." 
 
 There could be no greater pleasure offered to me 
 than this, for Mrs. Bromfield was perfect in the rare 
 art of reading. Her voice charmed the ear, and so 
 much of her own nature flowed out in the few grand 
 things she ever condescended to read aloud, that one 
 forgot at the moment she was reading the language of 
 another, and felt the actual presence of a great soul 
 uttering itself in words and tones of fire, or scorn, or 
 tenderness, or grief, as these sentiments prevailed in 
 the writer. 
 
 I followed upon her invitation, and we sat down 
 alone on the transom in the stern-cabin. Phil and 
 
20 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Harry were at a game of romps on deck, with Mr. 
 Garth and Colonel Anderson such romps as can be 
 played in tropical latitudes, consisting of little motion, 
 much amusing speech, and a deal of idle laughter. 
 But the children were entertained by them, and their 
 mother, after listening for a moment to assure herself 
 that they had companions, opened her book, and com- 
 menced reading " Lady Geraldine's Courtship. '' 
 She sat near the door, with her back toward it, and, 
 consequently, did not notice what I saw that, shortly 
 after she began, Colonel Anderson came down the 
 steps, and remained standing through the whole read- 
 ing, within a hand's-breadth of her shoulders. 
 
 Bear in mind, in judging of the act which followed, 
 that we had been three months shut up in the narrow 
 compass of a ship, a small company of us, and that 
 that length of time, there, would establish between 
 persons of any congeniality an acquaintance and free- 
 dom equal to that of a year, or even years, in more 
 general society. 
 
 How she swept through the interview of the excited 
 poet with his mistress, and triumphed with him in the 
 words : 
 
 " I am worthy of your loving, for I love you 
 I am worthy as a king " 1 
 
 At that instant was it a flash of lightning that struck 
 her ! did a thunderbolt fall on her scathed forehead, 
 and purple its broad surface, and swell those blue veins 
 to such painful fullness ? IsTo, but something as deadly 
 to her high and pure pride. A hand had been placed 
 upon each cheek, and her head upturned so suddenly, 
 that, before she could lift her own hands, a bearded 
 face had swept her brow, and left a kiss imprinted 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 21 
 
 there which she seemed indignantly to clutch away 
 and trample under her as she rose to her feet. She 
 turned, facing the door, and the strong light fell upon 
 her countenance, which my weak nerves trembled to 
 look upon. There stood the offender before her, and I 
 suppose I shall never again behold such a scene as that 
 encounter. I have endeavored to describe Colonel 
 Anderson to you, but I fear you do not see him now 
 as I saw him then. His naturally fair complexion had 
 been bronzed by long exposure to torrid suns, but its 
 even and finely-shaded color showed that all the cur- 
 rents of life yet had their full and equable play within. 
 In one hand he held his broad Panama hat, and with 
 the other he tossed back, from time to time, the masses 
 of light, redundant hair, which the merest breath of 
 wind served to displace. He had the health and nerve 
 of a lion, and, therefore, I thought, was not likely to be 
 daunted even by the swelling form and resentful eyes 
 which now confronted him. 
 
 " Sir !" exclaimed Mrs. Bromfield, from the far- 
 away, awful hight whither she had withdrawn herself, 
 " sir, have you any excuse for the outrage you have 
 perpetrated on me ?" and again she clutched nervously 
 at the spot which seemed to burn upon her forehead. 
 
 " None, I fear," was the reply, " that you will ac- 
 cept from me, though you have just considered it very 
 good from the lips of another. Love !" 
 
 " You insult me still further, sir," she said, drop- 
 ping her eyes for the first time before the passionate 
 tenderness that overflowed from his. 
 
 I began to feel de trop, yet had some hesitation 
 about leaving my friend at that moment. 
 
 She stood, awaiting his reply, which came, slowly 
 and painfully, through his misty eyes as well as from 
 his quivering lips. 
 
W2, THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 "If the purest and truest love of which a man's 
 heart is capable is an insult " 
 
 " Colonel Anderson," she interrupted, " your words 
 are strangely unbefitting the time and place." 
 
 I rose, but Mrs. Bromfield staid and seated me by a 
 gesture of her hand, without turning her eyes toward 
 me. " You must not go, Miss Warren," she said. 
 But you, sir " and again her eyes drooped before the 
 appealing tenderness of his " have been guilty of a 
 rudeness, not to call it by a harsher name, which, as a 
 gentleman, I expect you to apologize fully for, in 
 presence of Miss Warren ; and henceforth we are 
 strangers." 
 
 " Madam," he said, " I never did a wrong, to my 
 knowledge, that I could not heartily apologize for, the 
 moment I saw it to be such ; and I certainly shall not 
 now withhold from the one person who fills the uni- 
 verse to me, any expression she may demand, to heal 
 the hurt I have given. I was betrayed by your voice 
 and those noble lines beyond the constraint I have put 
 on myself for the last four months ; and if the rash act, 
 by which I could not forbear expressing the one senti- 
 ment and hope for which I live, was offensive to you, 
 I can only say, that, as deeply as you scorn, I regret 
 it. I did not, at the moment, duly weigh the differ- 
 ence between a character drawn in fine words, on 
 paper, and one clothed with warm, throbbing life. 
 Have I said enough ?" 
 
 " Enough !" and she waved her hand, as dismiss- 
 ing him. 
 
 I saw she was becoming pale, and feared, notwith- 
 standing her great firmness, that she could scarcely 
 bear up against the strength of his last words and 
 tones. He drew back a step, and stood in the door- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 23 
 
 way, his magnificent figure, like a Hercules in its glory, 
 fully revealed, and his fine face overspread with the 
 dew of an emotion, which, it was plain, worked its way 
 irresistibly up from the depths of his great heart. 
 Often before, when seeing these persons for a moment 
 side by side, I had thought what a pair they would 
 make. I thought so now again, when they stood 
 there still, face to face for she would not sit while he 
 remained, and it seemed impossible for him to go. 
 I wished that she would release me, and let him speak, 
 and I moved to try her, but she stretched forth her 
 hand again imperiously, and stood now, as if she were 
 watching him. 
 
 He felt this, and said, with a bitter smile, " The 
 madness of the moment is past. Pray, do not so regard 
 me, as an enemy to be held at bay. I should despise 
 myself, while I am speaking to you, but that I know 
 the man who loves the noblest woman alive, cannot 
 altogether merit my scorn." 
 
 What surprising audacity, I thought ; she will be 
 darting lightning again. And sure enough it came, 
 swift as the flame of heaven, from those black eyes, 
 right against his front. 
 
 " Sir," she said, " you are a stranger to me. Reserve 
 such speech, I beseech you, for ears it may be more 
 familiar to than mine, and when next we meet it will 
 be as people who have never seen each other's faces. 
 Good morning ;" and turning, she swept away from 
 him, pushing the heavy hair from her temples as she 
 went, that the air might bathe them more freely, and 
 give her back somewhat that she had lost in this inter- 
 view. She entered her own room, which was the 
 second from mine aft on the same side. When she 
 turned away, Col. Anderson, without bestowing a 
 
24 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 glance upon me, departed to the deck, where, the next 
 moment, I heard the dear Philip's voice greet him, 
 and saw the boy lifted to his bosom, in an embrace 
 that evidently excited more surprise than pleasure in 
 his little heart. 
 
 He looked wonderingly into his friend's face for a 
 moment, lifted the light hat from his head, and twining 
 his slender fingers among the curls that clustered all 
 over it, at length said : " You ky, wat for, Turnel 
 Annerson ?" 
 
 A groan of anguish broke from the heaving bosom 
 of the man. 
 
 " Put me down, do, please I want to go to my 
 mamma," said Phil. 
 
 " But you won't tell mamma of me, Philip," said 
 his friend, setting him down at the foot of the steps. 
 
 " No, if you'se haven't been naughty to her," said 
 the little fellow, with a suspicion, it would seem, or an 
 instinct, or a revelation what shall we call it? that 
 what so distressed the strong and good companion of 
 his childish games, must also, in some way, affect 
 mamma. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 I had not felt it best to follow Mrs. Bromfield. 
 Much as I liked her, and social, and even tender as she 
 was at times, I did not feel at liberty to invade the 
 privacy in which I knew she was making a desperate 
 struggle to quench the roused and conflicting emotions 
 of that hour. I heard the water flowing from the tank 
 into her basin, and I knew that that first requisite of 
 restoration would be put to thorough use, for Mrs. 
 Bromfield worshiped water. If she had been born a 
 heathen, she would not have deified the sun, or fire, or 
 light; but water. Beside the scrupulous purity to 
 which it was essential, it was scarcely less so to her, in 
 a spiritual sense. Deprived of her baths, she confessed 
 to human infirmities, which, with them, she seemed 
 wholly superior to. 
 
 When Philip entered the room, his little foot-patter 
 interrupted her for a moment, but I could feel and hear 
 that she applied herself at the next more closely than 
 before, to laving her face, thereby, I suppose, conceal- 
 ing it from the child, till she could in some measure 
 mask it for his searching gaze. For Phil had an eye 
 for mamma's face, that was not easily cheated ; and if 
 real, internal sunshine and peace were not there, he 
 would not see the smiles or assumed expression by 
 which she would have made him believe they were. 
 2 
 
26 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Then he would shy up to her knee, in a bold, yet timid 
 way, that was altogether his own, rest his little elbow 
 gravely upon it, and with his cheek or his chin upon 
 his palm, would regard her in silence for a space, and 
 if she did not speak, would at length ask, " Who's been 
 naughty to mamma ?" 
 
 I sat down near the door of her room. Shall I 
 confess ? It was then, with a desire to gather, if possi- 
 ble, from any word to the child, a clue to the feelings 
 with which she had come out of the startling interview 
 of that morning. She kept her face some minutes, it 
 seemed to me, concealed from him, by a long bathing, 
 but at length she stood up and moved a step, to where 
 her towels hung. She did not wait for him to speak, 
 but said herself, " Where's Harry, darling 2" 
 
 " He's on foetassel, wiz Mr. Darf." 
 
 " Will my little King Philip go and call him, to get 
 ready for luncheon?" she said, in a tone of forced 
 pleasantry. 
 
 Bat little King Philip, though a very obedient child, 
 had other views, which must first be carried out. He 
 knew that mamma had had some disturbing experience, 
 and it behooved him to know whence it came and what 
 it was. For King Philip had inaugurated himself 
 mamma's champion, and often and often recounted the 
 sublime wonders of his future years the fortunes, the 
 splendors, the triumphs in not one of which was 
 mamma ever forgotten. So, instead of departing 
 immediately, he went and pulled softly at her gown, 
 to get a look from her, which she had carefully avoided 
 giving him yet, and when he saw that her eyes were 
 unmistakably black, he asked, with a great spirit rush- 
 ing up through his little frame, " Mamma, has Turnel 
 Annerson been naughty to you 2" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 27 
 
 "God bless the boy!" thought I. "He has his 
 mother's own insight, which the child-experience has 
 not clouded." I waited for the answer. 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield was like truth itself. I fancied she 
 could scarcely speak to deceive, but what would she 
 say to this blank question ? 
 
 "Philip mustn't ask questions about big people; 
 Philip can't understand it all," she replied, folding 
 her arms around the fragile but stately little form, and 
 burying the spirited, earnest face in her bosom. 
 
 " 'Body's " (meaning somebody,) " been naughty to 
 you," he insisted. 
 
 " Mamma has been naughty herself," she said, in 
 what I felt to be a self-accusing tone ; and thereat I 
 clapped the hands of my spirit, and shouted, mentally : 
 " Bravo ! we are getting a little nearer the world's level, 
 when we can say that." 
 
 If you wonder how I could honorably establish my- 
 self in this kind of friendly espionage upon a proud, 
 self-inclusive woman, I answer, that I desired most 
 earnestly having involuntarily become possessed of 
 this secret, which would have startled and scattered 
 any other woman's faculties for days, if not months 
 to know what hold it had taken on her. I was pre- 
 determined, too, whatever I might learn, not to disclose 
 a syllable not even to breathe to any mortal concern- 
 ing it ; and, indeed, had I not so determined, she 
 would have compelled me to silence by her own mag- 
 nificent reticence. 
 
 When Philip, the king, left her, to go to the " foe- 
 tassel " for Harry, she smoothed the folds of her hair, 
 and stepped forth into the cabin, looking certainly 
 paler than was her wont, and showing something of 
 languor in the lines of her mouth and in the relaxed 
 
28 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 eyelids ; but otherwise she was Mrs. Bromfield, unof- 
 fended by Col. Anderson's declared passion. She sat 
 down beside me, and calmly resumed a conversation 
 we had begun the evening before, on the Girondists 
 sustaining herself in it with a nerve and self-suppression 
 that impelled me almost to worship her. I did not 
 wonder at the Colonel's madness so magnificent, so 
 proud,, so womanly, so sensitive, she sat there. I could 
 see, through the thin white drapery that covered her 
 shoulders, flashes of color come and go when some 
 footstep approached the cabin-door, and I thought, 
 How is this stranger dreaded ! 
 
 At length luncheon was laid. At table Col. Ander- 
 son was Mrs. Bromfield's vis-a-vis, with Harry next 
 him, and Philip next her. This arrangement had been 
 made, when we were all first able to take our places, 
 at Col. Anderson's request, and it seemed to please 
 him very much, for reasons which you understand, by 
 this time, as well as I do. The Colonel did not present 
 himself at luncheon, and when inquiry was made, 
 Ching, the waiter, said, " Colonel ! he be gone to main- 
 top, ma' am," addressing Mrs. Bromfield, though she had 
 not spoken, as if he thought she were the person most 
 directly interested in knowing his whereabouts. " I 
 am much mistaken," said I to myself, watching her at 
 the moment, " if that flushed cheek does not belie the 
 name ' Stranger," by which you have ordered yourself 
 to call this man." 
 
 Col. Anderson was usually gay at meals ; and Mrs. 
 Bromfield, often tacitly accepting his challenge, shone 
 through all her dignity, with infinite wit, spirit, and 
 courage, in the encounters thus provoked between them. 
 It was the delight of the little company, when they 
 two set upon each other in these charming encounters 
 of the toninie. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 29 
 
 But to-day we were dull. Poor Mr. Garth looked 
 on from a distance, and made some futile attempts to 
 engage us in conversation, but the calm without was 
 stagnation within, and every endeavor only made 
 the failure more apparent. Little King Philip 
 munched his crackers and figs, and sipped his water, 
 while he was unmistakably engaged in a profound 
 mental study of the whole case, which he seemed in a 
 fair way to make out, too, between mamma's solemnly 
 resolute aspect and the Colonel's empty chair, and the 
 remembered tears and groan of that great strong man ; 
 while Harry, who was less sensitive and transparent 
 than Philip, though not less earnest, took his part very 
 quietly, and only asked Ching, in an under-tone, with 
 reference to the main-top, if there was land ahead. 
 This made everybody laugh, except Phil, who first 
 looked at his brother with a glance of mild rebuke, and 
 afterwards at mamma, and her faint, proud smile, 
 with grave, large-eyed wonder. 
 
 " It is really too bad," I thought, when luncheon 
 was over, and I sauntered upon deck, u too bad to be 
 defrauded of all the sweet woman-talk which this occur- 
 rence ought to furnish. I've a great mind not to bear 
 it. And then, that both parties should so grandly 
 ignore my presence when the storm has passed !" 
 
 But as I was approaching the state of indignation 
 which my self-respect claimed as its due, from these 
 momentous facts, I found little Mrs. Farley at my side, 
 with her small, thin voice, and feeble face. I saw at a 
 glance that she had something to say now, and instantly 
 prepared myself to be questioned, for Mrs. Farley be- 
 lieved that I knew everything. 
 
 " I've been all the forenoon in my berth, Miss War- 
 ren," she said. 
 
30 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Her room was between Mrs. Bromfield's and mine, 
 but it was our good fortune to have her a little deaf; 
 for, though we never gossiped gossip with Mrs. Brom- 
 field ! and were really very unlike, and had never yet 
 been confidential, I think we did sometimes both feel 
 that Providence had befriended us in this particular. 
 Mrs. Farley never heard our conversation unless it was 
 intended for her, and, therefore, it was never necessary 
 to explain any of the many things which otherwise she 
 must have had fully opened to her. 
 
 But her dull ears had keen auxiliaries in her little 
 gray eyes, which read, or tried to read, everything 
 that passed before them ; and so, after having 
 announced to me what her morning had been, she 
 asked : 
 
 " What ailed Mrs. Bromfield and the Colonel ?" - 
 putting their names together in a manner that made 
 me involuntarily look around to see who might have 
 heard her. I wouldn't have met that countenance 
 then and there for all Mrs. Farley's wardrobe, of which 
 she was always boasting, and mourning to have the 
 bowels of the great ship restore safely to her. 
 
 " I do not know Mrs. Bromfield's affairs," I said ; 
 " and I advise you not to join her name with any gen- 
 tleman's, and let her hear you, unless you want the 
 lightning of her eyes to strike you. She is not a woman 
 to be much spoken of in that way." 
 
 " Well, something is wrong between them, I know," 
 said Mrs. Farley, " for lie's never been absent from the 
 table before, and I saw it in her face when Ching told 
 her he'd gone into the main-top ;" and the little body 
 laughed a poor little thin laugh, as if some funny idea 
 had just chipped the shell of her little mind, and was 
 making a little stir there. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 31 
 
 " That Mr, Gartli and Col. Anderson," she added, 
 after the lip-mirth had subsided, " look and act as if 
 they thought that woman was an angel, or something 
 better, while she never notices them. I should think 
 they'd get tired of watching her fine looks and her 
 grand airs, and listening for her words, that she's as 
 sparing of as if she was a queen or a president's wife. 
 I've seen many a handsomer woman than she ever was, 
 or will be, not half so much admired." 
 
 " Very likely," I replied ; " because mere beauty 
 of person is a chance gift, which, in some sort 3 the 
 mean as well as the noble may possess ; but she has 
 much more than that. I do not wonder that men ad- 
 mire and adore her; if I were one, I should do it 
 myself the very first thing," 
 
 I knew that this was the quickest way to rid myself 
 of my interlocutor, which I wished to do, for the affair 
 of my friends had taken such powerful hold on my feel- 
 ings, that I wished to be alone, to think it over to 
 revel in the interest it had excited in my torpid mind, 
 and to unfold my woman's nature in the perfumed air 
 it had cast over me. To be so beloved by a man alto- 
 gether worthy, as I thought, of any woman's love 
 to be shut up with him in the small compass of a ship 
 to sit daily over against him at table to receive 
 from his hand, with a stately " thank you," the numer- 
 ous civilities which this position made necessary to 
 feel that from that throbbing heart there was welling 
 the divinest passion and power of manhood, and pour- 
 ing themselves upon the ground at her feet "All this," 
 I thought, " will prove that firmness, and try that hard- 
 ness, and break them down, too, in the end, I believe. 
 If only, now, the man will hold to his first audacity, 
 and maintain the right he has so boldly asserted, all will 
 
62 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 yet be well with them, I am persuaded." And I heart- 
 ily wished it ; though it would have been very possible, 
 I think, for the Colonel to have interested me in his 
 happiness more than would have been consistent with 
 such a wish in behalf of another, had I been gifted to 
 command him as she was. But I was never the most 
 brilliant anywhere, even among less shining creatures 
 than this one, and such alone could take and keep the 
 loyalty of a soul like his. 
 
 I was glad that he had found her. I exulted in the 
 thought that he had to bow down to her. I rejoiced 
 that his great passion had so humbled him ; for I had 
 no doubt that he had hitherto gone through the world 
 unscathed in heart, taking of its trials and struggles 
 only so much as he could not shake off and that, I 
 concluded, must be very little and of its enjoyments 
 reaping harvests when and where he would. I was 
 glad that it had come to this with him : that there was 
 but one woman in the universe, as he had said, and 
 that he had surrendered body and soul to her keeping. 
 But I wished the surrender to be accepted. I did not 
 like to think of those two faces meeting each other with 
 alien looks. I did not wish to see those two spirits 
 with mechanical courtesies, bending like the automata 
 that counterfeit life and scarely caricature it upon 
 the boards of the showmen. 
 
CHAPTER IY. 
 
 I remained long on deck, sometimes walking, some- 
 times sitting, and sometimes leaning over the rail, and 
 wondering, as I looked into the great world of waters, 
 if there were, indeed, nothing in all the immense, 
 varied life of that world, to answer to the sentiment 
 which bows down and lifts up, rends and heals, withers 
 and ennobles the human soul. I remained long, but 
 saw nothing of my friends. Mrs. JBromh'eld was in 
 her state-room, hearing Harry his afternoon lessons 
 and teaching King Philip the true interpretation of 
 various pictures, in a gorgeous edition of the venerable 
 Mrs. Easy's works, which the Colonel had produced 
 for him from his own room, after the discomforts of the 
 first days were over. 
 
 With a wonderful reverence for his mother, and for 
 everything she said, the child could not sometimes 
 refrain from quoting the " Turn el's" diiferent opinion. 
 He had already a spark of man-erishness in his little, 
 clear, budding soul, and could not readily accept a 
 woman's authority against a man's, even though she 
 was his perfect and adorable mother. 
 
 " But, mamma dear," I heard him say, as I was 
 walking slowly up the cabin, " the Turnel do say 'at 
 ole woman in 'e shoe have all dirls for her bathes, ^an' 
 'at's why she whip 'em all when 'ey go to bed. Do 
 mammas have to whip dirl-babies, mamma?" 
 2* 
 
$4: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 I did not hear the reply, but I concluded and it 
 was like a woman, perhaps, so to conclude that the 
 question had hastened the adjournment of that session ; 
 for Phil very shortly followed me up the cabin, with 
 his book in his hand, inquiring for the Colonel. In all 
 probability he had determined upon a final settlement 
 of the "dirl" question. 
 
 On deck he shouted for the " Turnel," and then 
 Harry shouted gleefully, for the coolness of the deli- 
 cious tropical evening was drawing across the still sea, 
 and told him that PhiKp, the king, wanted him. 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield left her room, and I could see that 
 this call, which she dared not interdict, made her 
 nervously uneasy. Doubtless she saw through it diffi- 
 culties in the programme of the next few weeks, which 
 she had not at first anticipated. The regal frost 
 " when next we meet, it will be as people who have 
 never seen each other's faces" -with which she 
 had parted from this man, would melt away in the 
 sunlight of those children's hearts. He had them. 
 He was indispensable to their daily eating, drinking, 
 talking, and playing. She could not separate them 
 from him without publishing to the common sailors, 
 and even to almond-eyed Ching, that something had 
 happened. 
 
 The Colonel soon made his appearance from some- 
 where, in answer to his titular dignity, whether from the 
 main-top or not I cannot testify; but very shortly Phil's 
 hammock was suspended, and he swinging in it, with 
 an expression of such entire rest and contentment as 
 quite moved me to behold, knowing, as I did, what a 
 desperately agonized heart was beating beside him. 
 For when I went on deck again (I was restless myself, 
 and could not be still,) and when I looked into Colonel 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 35 
 
 Anderson's face, and saw there the marble rigidity into 
 which he had calmed or compelled his features, I began, 
 first, to call in question Mrs. Bromfield's right so to 
 condemn and punish a man for any mere audacity. 
 " True," I said, " it was a bold offense, but one must 
 see that it was an act of irresistible worship ; it was 
 involuntary in him, and that should extenuate, if not 
 excuse it. She ought not to be so merciless." 
 
 Mr. Garth came along with Harry, and I thought 
 he cast a peculiarly searching glance at, or rather into, 
 Colonel Anderson's face. They walked back and 
 forth several times the boy and he talking, and once 
 again I saw the same questioning, almost angry look, 
 which, however, fell unnoticed on the other. I stepped 
 to the companion-way, and called Harry to me. 
 
 " Go down and bring your mother up, to take her 
 walk before dinner, Harry," said I, wishing at the 
 same time that he would stop and ask me about her, 
 that so I might learn whether he or Mr. Garth had 
 any notion of what had taken place. 
 
 " Is mamma ill ?" he inquired. 
 
 " No, Harry ; but I think she would be glad to have 
 you invite her on deck." 
 
 He lingered yet, and at length I said : " What is it, 
 Harry?" 
 
 "I want to know if Colonel Anderson said any- 
 thing to mamma, this morning, that he oughtn't to, 
 because " 
 
 " Well, because what, Harry ?" 
 
 " Because Mr. Garth and I, when we were on the 
 forecastle, heard one of the sailors telling another, that, 
 when he was at the wheel this morning, the dark-eyed 
 lady and Mr. Garth says that means mamma told 
 the Colonel something that was mighty unpleasant for 
 
36 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 him to hear, and that's the reason, the man says, that 
 he's been in the main-top all the afternoon." 
 
 " So so," thought I, " there was a man at the 
 wheel, of course, with nothing in the world to do, in 
 this still sea, but have eyes and ears open to every- 
 thing." 
 
 I had been hoping that the strange interview 
 was unknown to any but myself, and was not pleased 
 to hear of this publication of it ; but I set the child's 
 mind at rest, charging him to say nothing of it to his 
 mother, or any one, which he readily promised. And 
 as the boys were remarkable, even at that early age, 
 for clear perceptions, a high sense of honor, and 
 thorough conscientiousness, I knew I could fully trust 
 him. 
 
 His mother did not accept his invitation, however, 
 and I already began to foresee many discomforts and 
 miseries, for myself and those I was most interested in, 
 from the disturbed relation of these our " iirst 
 persons." 
 
 Colonel Anderson shortly lifted Phil from his ham- 
 mock, and thereafter disappeared from the deck. 
 
 " Has he gone below ?" I asked, mentally ; but 
 though I wished much to witness the iirst meeting, 
 feeling assured of a most dainty, frosty, and at the same 
 time, unmanifest piece of ceremony, to be then and 
 there enjoyed, I did not go down, being resolved to 
 wait the call of Ching's gong a pleasanter instrument 
 to me the farther I was removed from it. 
 
 At length it came, and after the last horrible vibra- 
 tion had died away, I descended with Mr. Garth, who 
 had been unburthening his mind to me of this affair, 
 and little Phil, who had protested against the black 
 eyes imputed to his mother. ISTo one was yet at table 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 37 
 
 no one in the cabin but Ching, looking careful and 
 important ; the Captain, and Mrs. Farley. Mr. Pedea 
 soon entered, then came Mr. Wilkes, and next, my 
 queen of tragedy, with bright glancing eyes, and seri- 
 ous, calmly determined face. 
 
 " She will betray herself," I said, inwardly vexed 
 at that great look, and feeling more keenly than before 
 how much was at stake. 
 
 " What ! the Colonel absent yet ?" asked Captain 
 Landon. " Is he gone ashore, Ching ?" 
 
 " No, serr, me no tink." 
 
 "Ah ! here he is." And how intently I watched. 
 " Now," thought I, " I shall judge of her good sense, 
 more than of her heart, by the next three minutes." 
 
 lie walked up the cabin, and, strong man as he was, 
 I saw his face whiten in the progress ; but she looked 
 unconstrained, and when he came opposite and took 
 his seat, she raised her eyes those eyes which com- 
 manded his and said, very naturally : 
 
 " The boys had a hunt for you this evening, Colonel 
 Anderson. I hope they did not disturb or interrupt 
 yon." 
 
 There, again, I clapped the hands of my spirit, and 
 mentally reiterated, " Bravo ! She sees the impossi- 
 bility of adhering outwardly to her first purpose. 
 She will treat him in public as an acquaintance, and 
 will probably reserve those little pungencies of polite 
 intercourse, with which she will avenge this necessity, 
 for the more private passages which cannot always 
 be avoided while we are confined to the space of a 
 ship." 
 
 But I soon saw that she had finer weapons than I 
 knew of words that served the exigency of her spirit 
 rarely, as flexible and tortuous as those of the most 
 
38 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 skillful diplomat; and subtile tones which would 
 cement these needles of the tongue into a glittering 
 barrier between them. I was infinitely vexed by this 
 keen bearing of all that she said to him during our 
 meal, and her conversation was little shorn of its usual 
 freedom and charm. Yet I felt, rather than saw, how 
 it agonized him ; the ice- wall, I knew, went up and 
 up, the sharp crystals pricking and chafing as they 
 took their place in the glittering fabric. But I was 
 proud and delighted, in the inmost depths of my heart, 
 to see, that, while there was no mock gayety in his 
 defense, there was also no unmanly acknowledgment, in 
 his voice or eye, that he felt the wounds. 
 
 " They are well matched for the battle," said I, 
 mentally ; but while it was going on, I thought, with 
 a feeling of relief, " Every meal will not be such an 
 ordeal. When she has fenced him off and shown him 
 the limits of his traversable territory, she will sit qui- 
 etly within her own, and throw him a nectarine or a 
 peach now and then for those arrows she is now 
 piercing him with." 
 
 Mrs. Bromtield had certain old-fashioned ways, in 
 which she was very fixed. Her children were never 
 allowed to engross the conversation at table, as one so 
 often sees the young people in our country do. Occa- 
 sionally a word or a question, quietly put, but never 
 reiterated, and above all, never a loud or noisy tone, 
 exacting attention. At this dinner, however, the roj^al 
 Philip ventured, in a moment's pause of his elders, to 
 remark to the " Turnel," looking gravely at him across 
 the table, that " Mamma did not think all 'at ole wo- 
 man's chil'ens in 'e shoe were dirl-babies." 
 
 There was a laugh all round at this, and Colonel 
 Anderson said : " Doesn't she, Pliil ? I am sorry to 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 39 
 
 differ with such high authority as mamma is with 
 you, my boy ; but we'll argue the case after dinner 
 shall we?" 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered Phil, after a good long draught 
 from his little goblet, " on deck, when mamma is 
 takin' 'er walk wis Harry and me. You'll come, 
 too, Turnel, won't you ?" 
 
 " He had got through the whole speech, unusually 
 long for him at table, before Mrs. Bromfield could 
 arrest his tongue. Her face flushed, and she turned 
 her eyes rebukingly on the child, and said, thereby cut- 
 ting the matter off from another word : " Philip must 
 not talk at dinner. Mamma is not pleased with it." 
 And addressing herself to the Captain in the next 
 breath, she inquired if there were any signs of the calm 
 breaking up soon. 
 
 " I think there are, ma'am," he replied. " There's 
 a little scud on our larboard quarter that I hope means 
 something for us beside lying here. The Tempest will 
 certainly lose her reputation if we are to fare so much 
 longer." 
 
 " Have we changed our position at all in the last 
 five days ?" 
 
 " Oh ! yes ; but unfortunately, in the wrong direc- 
 tion, ma'am ; we have gone westward, when we would 
 better have gone eastward. But let us have a breeze 
 once more, and we'll soon set that all right," he said, 
 rising and going forward. 
 
 We shortly followed him, leaving Mr. Pedes in 
 warm and dogmatic argument with Mr. Wilkes on 
 some question touching the univalves and bivalves of 
 the Pacific islands, in which the latter gentleman, to 
 our astonishment, stood sturdily to his first assertion 
 in so self-reliant and clear a tone, that Mrs. Bromfield 
 
40 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 declared, unhesitatingly, lie must be in tlie right, even 
 though the man of science was against him. 
 
 Colonel Anderson still sat, sipping with moody, ab- 
 stracted look, a glass of wine, while Mr. Garth, unin- 
 terested in either the men or the argument, retired to 
 the deck, Harry and Phil following him, with a prom- 
 ise from mamma and me to come very soon. The 
 children, so excellent, clear, sunny, and trustful never 
 doubting their cordial welcome to any heart or hand 
 of those they loved were an inexpressible treasure to 
 us all. When older souls were clouded, theirs were 
 clear; when other tongues were silent, theirs ran in 
 merriment or music ; when Time was growing heavy 
 and slow, they plumed his wings, and quickened them 
 by their bright, affectionate fancies of the future. 
 Happy children ! blessed in being born of a mother 
 whose mental and physical life had so richly endowed 
 them ; who rejoiced not in feebleness and fragility, but 
 in strength and health, that were above price to 
 them. 
 
 We soon joined them on deck for the accustomed 
 evening walk and lounge before their bed-time came. 
 Up and down, up and down, without ever a word on the 
 one subject that I knew she was woman enough to be 
 engrossed in, though her pride buried it from every 
 eye but her own and mine, which saw as deep as hers 
 that evening. Colonel .Anderson was wont to join us 
 at times in this stroll, crossing and recrossing ; stop- 
 ping for a few words, or walking two or three turns 
 with us, and then falling off with some one else. But 
 to-night he did not appear. 
 
 "Surely," I said, "he will not give up so. He 
 ought to have the pride and self-command of a man 
 and more, too, to match hers." I had almost a mind 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 41 
 
 to go below and urge him up into her presence, but I ques- 
 tioned if I had the nerve for so brave a word as would be 
 needful for that, and so staid, until she called Harry 
 from Mr. Garth's side, where he stood, watching the 
 moon and listening to a talk between him and Mr. 
 Pedes, to go down to bed. King Philip was already 
 drowsy, and she took him up ; but just as she was set- 
 ting her foot upon the first step of the companion- 
 way, Col. Anderson's form rose up out of the dimness 
 below, and the child flung himself forward into his 
 extended arms. 
 
 Mrs. Bromfleld rarely reproved, and never scolded 
 her children ; but I think, judging from the quick, back- 
 ward turn of the head for it was too dark to see her 
 face that that act put her in a mood to have done one 
 or other right heartily at that moment. I was just be- 
 hind them, for I thought of offering to undress one of 
 the boys, as I often did ; and I enjoyed seeing Phil 
 borne up the saloon, his arms folded around Col. An- 
 derson's neck, and his delicate cheek resting upon the 
 sturdy shoulder his mamma following, with fiery look 
 and charing step. 
 
 At the door of her room the child and man parted 
 with a clinging kiss there was great love between 
 them and as the Colonel placed him on the carpet, he 
 said : " I so dlad, Turnel, I ain't a dirl, so to be whipped 
 'fore I go to bed." 
 
 In spite of his pain, the man smiled, and said : 
 " We must talk about that in the morning, Phil. 
 Good night." And with a grave, courteous bow to the 
 figure that stood beside the child, he retired to his own 
 room. 
 
 No chance for a meeting on deck, then, that night. 
 "Will the man part with all his courage?" I asked 
 
42 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 myself again. " Even for her, grand and complete as 
 she is, I wouldn't do it, if I were he." And yet I, a 
 woman, sat and watched her motions, and drank in her 
 tones, with a sort of worship at least, if you object to 
 that a fullness of satisfaction which mo other being had 
 ever given me. 
 
 The prayers were over, and the last kisses exchanged, 
 and the last broken, sleepy words had been uttered by 
 Phil's lips, just as the curtains of his eyes fell irresisti- 
 bly down for Phil was a child of ideas, and they would 
 press out of him, even when sleep was crowding hard 
 to drive them back and when all this was done, Mrs. 
 Bromfield, stately and alone, came forth from her room, 
 and said : 
 
 " Will you walk a little, my friend. I hope so 
 much for a breeze to-night. I feel suffocated" throw- 
 ing the hair back in careless disorder from her temples. 
 I knew, by their distended veins and by her dimmed 
 eyes, that they were throbbing with the pent-up fire, 
 which, I thought, if you are such a woman as I 
 have accepted you for, you cannot much longer stifle 
 there within. Tears or words must give it way soon. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield was at least an inch taller than 
 myself, and I was reckoned of full womanly stature 
 before I drooped from my last illness : but so exquisite- 
 ly was she proportioned that one would not willingly 
 have lost an eighth of an inch from her hight. Her 
 figure had that unmistakable elegance and bearing on 
 which a common eye would dwell with delight. But 
 it was in her motions and tones, in the language of her 
 radiant, clear, calm eye, and the living light of her 
 face, that the spiritual beauty which commanded peo- 
 ple expressed itself. 
 
 I acknowledged it whenever she approached me, 
 and I could feel the thrill with which others drank it 
 in, in their intercourse with her ; I could see it in their 
 countenances, and in the glad alacrity with which the 
 servants and seamen, when they were near, sought to 
 please or serve her. She had the rare and happy gift 
 of making her service a joy and privilege to those 
 about her. Yet how blind she was to their pleasure in 
 it! How seldom she indulged herself or others in 
 receiving at their hands what they would so gladly 
 have rendered. How quiet and self-helpful she was. 
 As she rested her hand upon my shoulder in our walk, 
 I felt how hopeless it was for Col. Anderson, or any 
 other man, to struggle against a genuine love for this 
 
44 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 woman. To endure it might be possible to overcome 
 it, never. 
 
 We walked, then sat and walked again, long, long ; 
 but neither his name or the excitement of the day was 
 alluded to by either. Mr. Garth joined us, and after- 
 ward Mr. Pedes, and both expressed some wonder that 
 the Colonel was not out ; but their remarks elicited 
 from her only quiet and dignified replies, such as she 
 would have made had the Captain or Mr. Wilkes been 
 their subject, instead of this mad, crushed lover this 
 newly caged lion, the key of whose prison had been 
 given to her. 
 
 It was late when we went below, and already the 
 sky was overcast in the south-west. At intervals 
 there came to us airs from that dim, dreamy region, 
 such as had not fanned our heated brows for many a 
 day welcome airs, freighted with hope whispering 
 courage to our hearts imparting pleasure and life to 
 our languid bodies, and by their mysterious touch 
 moving the secret springs within to old, forgotten 
 harmonies. O glorious summer wind ! pulse of the 
 great moving heart of the universe ! how all created 
 things languish when thou withdrawest thyself how 
 the spirit of man, and the brute brotherhood, every- 
 where mourn and faint in thy absence ! how they 
 rejoice when again thou lea vest the secret chambers of 
 the heavens, and treadest unseen the fields of ether, 
 sending bounties and blessing over the earth ! How 
 gratefully we wanderers on the deep hailed thy care- 
 less, fitful promise, when thou didst momentarily touch 
 our slackened sails, coyly retreating, and again return- 
 ing with firmer pressure on the canvas, that seemed to 
 woo thy stay ! Thrice welcome to our impatient souls 
 thrice freighted with blessing to us, of healthful 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 45 
 
 pleasure for the present, of hope for the future, and of 
 sweet, suggestive fancies, of the vast unknown whither 
 thou wert journeying. 
 
 I had been two hours or more asleep, when I awoke 
 with the lively rush of waters at the ship's side a 
 sound more welcome than any other could have been 
 to us. I was delighted, and could not again compose 
 myself to sleep for a long time. I heard four bells of 
 the morning watch; then six, then eight, and the shout 
 from away forward, " Eight bells. Starboard watch, 
 turn out !" 
 
 The wind had increased from my first waking, and 
 I was seaman enough to know, by the orders on deck, 
 that it was " hauling fairer " every hour. " Square 
 the yards " were the words from time to time, and the 
 Tempest seemed really taking kindly to her old voca- 
 tion of rocking into the seas again. It was refreshing 
 and delightful to feel the living motion once more 
 beneath us. 
 
 I lay, gladly hearing our wings stretch and fill with 
 the careering wind, till presently I found myself dream- 
 ing that it was a gale, and that we were lashed to the 
 masts and capstans to enable us to hold by the ship in 
 the great seas that rolled over her. I awoke. It was 
 full daylight, though not sunshine, as it had been the 
 last days, and the Tempest was pitching as I had not 
 felt her since we left the frozen seas of Cape Horn. 
 Her cordage creaked, and the wind roared through her 
 shrouds and sails like the voice of doom. We were on 
 the weather side, and already I heard little fussy Mrs. 
 Farley pitching occasionally against the partition of 
 our rooms ; and the gleeful voice of Phil in the saloon, 
 challenging mamma and the " Turnel" and "Mis'r 
 Darf " to go up with him on deck and "see the wind." 
 
4:6 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 He stumbled along to Colonel Anderson's door, and 
 knocked, but there was no answer ; and Phil was just 
 about to raise an unkingly cry, when the cabin-door 
 was opened, and the leonine voice and form rushed in 
 together, as on the wings of the air. 
 
 " Halloa, Philip, my king !" 
 
 " Oh ! Turnel, do, p'ease, take me on deck ; I want 
 to see 'e wind so much !" 
 
 " Yes, come with me ;" and away they went, filled 
 with new life, both of them. 
 
 And I thought : " We shall not see so tame a Colo- 
 nel to-day, in a gale, as we had yesterday in the calm. 
 There will be hands wanted to-day, where they were 
 needless yesterday, and strong, masculine arms for 
 emergencies on deck and elsewhere. We shall see now 
 how it will be all through another sort of day ;" and I 
 rose in haste, and made my toilet, to be ready. 
 
 A sudden sea, following a calm, always brings to 
 me, in the first hours, a little dismay not fear, 
 nor dread, but my mercury falls for awhile, like that of 
 the barometer, when the silent breath of the advancing 
 tempest lightens the air. 
 
 I was glad, therefore, at breakfast, to hear the Cap- 
 tain and Colonel Anderson and Mr. Pedes congratu- 
 lating each other on the breeze, and prophesying what 
 we should make that day ; and, with the sanguineness 
 of men to whom hope comes swiftly, foretelling all sorts 
 of good luck and speed for the remainder of our 
 voyage. 
 
 " Are you not still farther west than you would 
 like to be, Captain Landon, asked Mrs. Bromfield. 
 
 " A very little, ma'am," said the old seaman, 
 slightly nettled at her question. I think he would 
 have preferred his lady passengers should not know 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 47 
 
 whether they were in the Atlantic or Pacific or Indian 
 Ocean. " We are a very little farther west than ] 
 would be if I had Aladdin's square of carpet ; but a 
 few hours of this wind will put us where we want 
 to be." 
 
 Phil asked for and got a bit of broiled chicken this 
 morning, on the ground, as he said, of the wind, and 
 the hard work he should have to-day. It was aston- 
 ishing how the motion raised our spirits, as the day 
 wore on, and lifted us out of the little stagnant world 
 which had contained us yesterday. Even the events 
 that had so absorbed me till I went to sleep, became 
 comparatively insignificant in view of a speedy arrival 
 and the change and action that would be consequent 
 thereon. Nevertheless I watched my two friends, as 
 they met and passed here and there through the day 
 through that day and the next the wind still keeping 
 up, and at times increasing uncomfortably for an hour 
 or two. 
 
 On the third morning the Captain announced that 
 we had passed a group of coral islands in the night, 
 which he was glad to be leaving behind him, and all 
 seemed to promise as fair as our most ardent wishes 
 could demand. 
 
 Just before luncheon that day, Col. Anderson came 
 to me, on deck, and said : " Miss Warren, I am about 
 to ask a favor of you, which I hope you have the 
 courage and candor to refuse if you feel the slightest 
 reluctance to granting it;" and with the words, he 
 drew from his breast-pocket a letter, and handed it to 
 me. It was unsealed, and addressed to Mrs. Eleanore 
 Bromfield. I was struck with the name, for it was the 
 first time I had known what it was, and how should he 
 have learned it ? 
 
4:8 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Your presence in the cabin on Tuesday morning," 
 lie said, " brings me to you as .a messenger to that lady. 
 Have you any unwillingness to oblige me in this 
 matter ?" 
 
 "None, Colonel Anderson," I answered, after a 
 moment's reflection ; " but I should be loth to encour- 
 age you with a hope of reply." 
 
 " I have left the letter unsealed," he said, in defer- 
 ence to her feelings. She would not suffer you to leave 
 her at that mad meeting, and I have written nothing 
 here which she might not, after what you have wit- 
 nessed, leave to your perusal, if she choose. For God's 
 sake," he added, already pale with his strong emotion, 
 " go to her with it, and bring me some word or expres- 
 sion that will make me a man again !" 
 
 I hurried away, and following the sound of Phil's 
 joyous voice, found her, with both the boys, in her 
 room. The note was in my pocket, for I meant to be 
 guarded in delivering it, and so waited till the boys 
 were dismissed ; Harry walking proudly away, en- 
 trusted with the safe delivery of King Philip on deck, 
 to which end he summoned Ching at the cabin-door ; 
 but in another moment I saw the little form lifted with 
 passionate fondness to another bosom than yellow 
 Ching's, and so borne off. 
 
 " Mrs. Bromfield," I said I did not dare to let her 
 begin, in her leading way, on indifferent topics, for 
 then I could never have broken in with the one that 
 had brought me to her " Mrs. Bromfield, I have been 
 requested to bring you this note ;" and I drew it from 
 my pocket and laid it on her knee. 
 
 She did not know Colonel Anderson's writing, and 
 
 O* 
 
 as she slowly proceeded to draw the sheet from its en- 
 velope, she asked if we were getting up a compli- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 49 
 
 mentary card to the Captain " or what is it ?" she 
 said, quickly, as her startled eye fell on the name at 
 the bottom. 
 
 She laid it down a moment, and took breath and 
 counsel of herself. Then she glanced at me, and 
 turned her eyes straight before her. I did not speak, 
 which was, perhaps, better than if I had ; for, after a 
 long pause, she took up the note and began reading it. 
 These were the words he had written her : 
 
 " To MRS. BKOMFIELD : 
 
 " If my offense is indeed too great for expiation or 
 forgiveness, let me bear the consequences your indig- 
 nant scorn and my own self-contempt 
 
 " But you are too just to condemn me unheard. 
 Had I so much as touched your garment with rude or 
 irreverent hand, it were right that you should dismiss 
 me with ignominy from your presence and acquaint- 
 ance ; but until you hear me, you cannot know, surely, 
 that I am thus guilty, and you so injured. 
 
 " Therefore I pray you to hearken patiently to a few 
 words. They shall be very few, and let the soul to 
 which they are addressed not flame in consuming scorn 
 upon him who utters them, 
 
 " You will better feel the earnestness of this prayer 
 when you understand, that, for the last four months, I 
 have lived but for one object absolutely and entirely 
 for one. And you will also feel how absorbing that 
 must have become, to swallow up the whole of a life 
 that has hitherto compassed I may say it without 
 vanity many and various ones* Four months ago I 
 went on board the Tempest, to see the quarters which 
 a friend of mine was proposing to take for this voyage. 
 While we sat in the room to which he had shown me, 
 3 
 
50 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 your boys came on board, and walked up the cabin, in 
 my sight. I love children God bless them ! and 
 never was a pair seen that could so captivate a man's 
 heart. I looked earnestly for their mother, for it is 
 my belief, when I behold such children as Harry and 
 Philip, that their mother will always be a woman 
 worth looking at. And when you came slowly after 
 them, glancing neither to the right nor left, and en- 
 tered the room you now occupy, I only asked, ' Who 
 is she, that woman and mother, who passed by ?' I 
 was told your name and condition, and that you had 
 taken passage on this ship. An irrepressible desire to 
 become known to you instantly possessed me ; and as 
 the choice of my destination was unfettered by any 
 existing arrangements, my decision was promptly taken. 
 That night I engaged the room my friend had given 
 up, and the rest you know. I have never for a mo- 
 ment repented my precipitate voyage, nor do I now, 
 though God knows my heart could not hold another 
 agony at this hour. 
 
 " I was mad on Tuesday morning. I have enjoyed 
 your reading but three times before ; and at each have 
 been, as I then was, an uninvited auditor. The senti- 
 ment of that poem, so noble and so wholly adopted as 
 your own, by the voice and the swelling emotion that 
 came forth with the words, made me forgetful of every- 
 thing but that love like mine might also ask and claim 
 its recognition. I kissed your forehead, as in my higher 
 moments I bow down before my God because it was 
 the one and only act that could bear forth the life and 
 passion of my soul. And I swear to you that I am not 
 sorry for it ; I was born into a new life by it. But if 
 I have therein mortally oifended you, may God help 
 me, for no human being then can ! I shall live all my 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 51 
 
 appointed time, such life as is left to me ; but you will 
 stand between me and Hope between me and all 
 manly work between me and the salvation it brings. 
 I have no hope of worthiness hereafter but in your 
 sweet pardon. The precious treasure I have sought I 
 will not again seek, by word or look, till we know 
 each other better ; but let me believe that I may come 
 near to you, as I formerly have, without feeling you 
 chill to stone at my approach. 
 
 J. LEONARD ANDERSON." 
 
 I had glanced at the face which hung over this note 
 more than once during its perusal. She generally read 
 with great rapidity and quickness of apprehension, 
 but this meaning seemed to lie deep, or her faculties 
 were not on edge to sift and take it in. I was immea- 
 surably encouraged by her lingering over it, and 
 secretly delighted to see her deliberately turn back in 
 my presence and read it a second time. Then she 
 handed it to me with a trembling hand and a face 
 white as marble. When I returned it she said, " Tell 
 Col. Anderson that I fully pardon his offense. God 
 knows if we were merciless in rejecting such gifts, even 
 though they come unsought and are abruptly thrust 
 upon us, the world's garden would show bare rocks 
 for many a bed of bloom that now glorifies it." 
 
 The tears sprang and overflowed as she spoke, but 
 she turned her eyes to the door with an unmistakable 
 glance of dismissal, which I heeded promptly, feeling 
 how keenly her subdued pride would demand leave to 
 hide its defeat. 
 
 I found Col. Anderson slowly moving up and down 
 a narrow space on the main deck in front of the cabin 
 doors, and I did but appear there when he came 
 
52 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 forward, evidently encouraged and uplifted by my long 
 tarry, perhaps also by the glad sympathy of my face ; 
 for as he reached the spot where I stood awaiting him, 
 he seized my hand, and said, in a low tone, that seemed 
 to vibrate his whole being, " She forgives me, Miss 
 Warren ?" 
 
 " She does," I answered. 
 
 " Thank God 1" he said devoutly, while his earnest 
 eyes filled with tears. 
 
 I wished, oh how I wished that delicacy worthy the 
 high character of my friend would have permitted me 
 to add another word for the man's comfort; but it 
 would not. I simply said, therefore, " You will see 
 her now again on the old terms." 
 
 " Miss Warren, I thank you most gratefully," he 
 said, clasping my hand again. " You have done me 
 a service that it becomes me not now to speak of as I 
 value it, but you shall find it is not forgotten if we 
 remain long within each other's knowledge. Pardon 
 me now, I have need of being alone ; and if you will 
 permit me to advise you, I should say, do not stand 
 here ; the wind and sea are increasing momently, as 
 you may see by the spray that drenches the decks." 
 
 He was just turning to enter the cabin, w r hen we 
 heard the clear, bird-like voice of Master Phil calling 
 to him, " Turnel Annerson, will you p'ease take me to 
 my mamma? I feel so sick." And the pale, delicate 
 face, looked down upon us from the promenade deck. 
 
 " Yes, Phil, come into my arms. Poor fellow," he 
 said, as the child's "head dropped upon his shoulder. 
 " Miss Warren, would you be kind enough to go before 
 us ?" he asked ; and I did. We waited at the door a 
 full minute before it was opened to us, and then, 
 though she stood there erect, the beautiful religious 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 53 
 
 light that shone from her features convinced me that 
 her last attitude had been the humblest and meekest 
 we ever assume. I had never seen her face more 
 radiant and tender and glowing, as by a light and life 
 within. We entered a charmed circle in placing 
 ourselves near her. 
 
 " Col. Anderson has brought King Philip home 
 sick," Mrs. Bromfield," said I. 
 
 " He is very good indeed," was her reply, and to him, 
 " I owe you many thanks, sir, for your kindness at all 
 times." 
 
 " You could not possibly owe me anything, dear 
 madam," said he, at the same time laying Phil down 
 on the sofa. " If, during the rough weather, I can in 
 any way serve yourself or the boys, by means I do not 
 see, I hope you will not hesitate to suggest them 
 to me." 
 
 He took his leave with these words, and very 
 shortly poor little Harry came reeling down, with 
 Mr. Garth's help, also pale as a ghost, and begging 
 room to lie down immediately. They were soon 
 asleep, and then Mrs. Bromfield, putting on a light 
 close bonnet that she had made for the voyage, 
 and a linen sacque, went upon deck. I remained 
 below, having been out enough for that day. She took 
 much to the decks in rough weather, to keep off sick- 
 ness and to accustom herself to meet and overcome 
 difficulties. I never saw a woman so little apt to 
 shrink, and take the easy side of a burden, and I have 
 a right to know, as you will see by-and-by. 
 
 The wind continued to increase, but it gave us no 
 alarm, for we had a stanch ship and plenty of sea- 
 room, and we had been boarded too often by the great 
 waves off Cape Horn, an the coast of Buenos Ayres, 
 
64 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 to tremble now when occasional seas broke over the 
 forward deck, and showered the whole length of the 
 vessel. 
 
 Why doesn't Mrs. Bromfield come down ? I 
 thought. She staid surprisingly, considering how 
 rough it was getting. Poor Mrs. Farley was in her 
 berth, notifying us, by an occasional groan, of her 
 discomfort farther we scarcely heard or thought of 
 her ; though I found, upon going in to see her before 
 dinner, that Mrs. Bromfield had been twice or thrice 
 there in the course of the day, and had mixed the 
 little lady's favorite doses with the docility of a child, 
 though, for all belief in their efficacy, she, a disciple of 
 Hahnemann, would sooner have offered her a crust of 
 bread. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 It was near dinner-time, very duskish and very- 
 rough, and I had heard for a long time no feminine 
 footfall above. I wondered, and my wonder drew 
 me out to find Mrs, Bromfield, standing patiently 
 there by Mr, Garth the only persons on deck save 
 the two men at the wheel listening to what I under- 
 stood immediately, though I could not hear a word or 
 tone of either voice. The sight of me seemed to re- 
 mind her to move, and she came toward the companion- 
 way, saying : " Really, Mr. Garth, I have lingered 
 very long, speaking and listening; pardon me, now, 
 for I must go below, to prepare for dinner." 
 
 He handed her down the steps, and they both fol- 
 lowed me into the cabin. 
 
 " Are the boys still asleep, dear Miss Warren ?" 
 she asked, 
 
 " Yes. Philip, though, looks very pale," I said, 
 taking the lamp from its bracket, and holding it 
 near him. 
 
 " Dear little king, so he does !" she exclaimed, 
 almost with alarm, as she bent over without touching 
 him. 
 
 " Would you not better make ready for dinner ?" I 
 said, " and let us get Ching to call the Captain, so 
 that that dreadful gong won't have to be sounded. It 
 will wake them both, I am afraid." 
 
56 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " It will, to a certainty," she replied. " Do, dear, 
 go to Ching at once. I dread to hear a peal at any 
 moment, it is so late." 
 
 u I will tell him you wish it omitted," said I, " and 
 that will settle it." She smiled on me in a saddened sort 
 of acknowledgment of her power, to which I knew she 
 had just been receiving fresh testimony, and I sought 
 the potent Ching, who said, with great urbanity, when 
 I mentioned Mrs. Bromfield's name : 
 
 " Surtin, me him call, coptane no ring." 
 
 So we assembled with ominous silence to dinner 
 our last dinner on board the Tempest. 
 
 While we sat eating and talking for, though the 
 gale was straining hard at our sails, and the great seas 
 were rushing past and sometimes over us with devour- 
 ing haste, no one was at all alarmed King Philip 
 called out, "Mamma dear, I want to have some 
 supper." 
 
 " Shall I bring him to you, Mrs. Bromfield ?" asked 
 Col. Anderson, rising. 
 
 " Thank you, no. He is hardly able, I think, to 
 sit up. " I will give him some toast and a little crust 
 tea, Ching, if you please, in my room." 
 
 But Phil said he was well, and wanted the " Tnr- 
 nel " to take him to table. So, without further ado, 
 Mrs. Bromneld sat down and received her flower 
 again from his arms. 
 
 "Dear, dood Turnel," said the boy, passing his 
 hands fondly over the bearded face. " I love you, I 
 do." What a dewy light sprang in the melting eye 
 of the elder, at those words, and spread all over his 
 tine features. 
 
 The child will unite them, I said, if there were no 
 other bond. And he looked, as lie sat by his worship- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 57 
 
 ing mother, sufficient for any such holy mission. His 
 delicate face, a little paler save for the deep rose-leaf 
 on each cheek his profuse wavy hair, moistened and 
 tumbled by his sleep his sweet, flexible mouth, play- 
 ing with a tender, dreamy sort of smile, as if the skirts 
 of some beautiful, vision of shadow-land yet fell about 
 him his great brown eyes, shaded by their long, heavy 
 lashes, made a picture of childish loveliness which I 
 believe none of us ever forgot, even amid the horrors 
 of the awful night that followed. 
 
 Harry did not wake. His suffering was always 
 more obstinate, his mother said, than Philip's, and so 
 Ching brought a plate of toast and a bit of salt dried 
 fish, which was always his first meal, and placed them 
 for use whenever he should wake. 
 
 Col. Anderson had a bottle of Burgundy, and he 
 sent Ching with it, and his compliments to me after 
 having filled a glass for .Mrs. Bromfield then back to 
 poor Mrs. Farley, who always came near being forgot- 
 ten in these little matters, and then to all the gentle- 
 men. u To the Tempest," he said, raising his glass, 
 " a speedy voyage, and a happy termination of it to 
 all on board." 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield, Mrs. Farley, and myself, very soon 
 left the table, for Harry had called out ominously for 
 Ching, and his mother also hastened to him. 
 
 I never saw a child whose peculiarities impressed 
 me as Harry's did ; and I speak of them here, because 
 of the strange manifestation of one of the most striking 
 of them, which we witnessed that night. In his com- 
 mon moods he appeared to be simply an earnest, quiet, 
 thoughtful boy, very much like other good and sensible 
 children ; but there were times when he seemed 
 another being when he impressed those who saw him 
 
58 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 as looking out of his dreamy eyes into a distant world. 
 He would sit by himself upon some coil of rope in an 
 out of the way corner of the deck, and look into the 
 water or the clouds, with a long, unbroken gaze, 
 which betokened both inquiry and rest in his mind ; 
 and when approached, he would seem to come back 
 as from a trance. His mother more than once told me 
 of startling and wonderful speech he had held with her 
 on these occasions, of what he sometimes saw " the 
 angels' gardens," he said, " filled with more beautiful 
 flowers than we ever had ; and men and women, and 
 little children, so handsome and good and loving, that 
 if mamma could only dream his dreams about them, it 
 would make her very happy." 
 
 " Do the angels have gardens, mamma ?" he asked 
 after one of these dreams, in which he said he had seen 
 a great bank of purple heliotropes^ his favorite flower 
 blooming beside a little lake so clear " so clear, 
 mamma, that if there had been the tiniest little fish in it 
 I could have seen it away down to the bottom." 
 
 Yet with this wonderfully spiritual life the boy 
 combined a healthy, active nature : was full of play- 
 fulness, and physical as well as mental activity ; had a 
 keen love of practical jokes ; and when he could get 
 some innocent little trick upon one of the passengers 
 or crew, whereby they were or appeared to be sur- 
 prised, his spontaneous, clear, silvery laugh, would 
 gush out of his young heart so joyously that every face 
 around him smiled in pure sympathy. 
 
 I was impressed, perhaps wrongly, that Mrs. Brom- 
 field loved Phil best, but that she held Harry in a 
 keen, almost painful sense of his being a rare and 
 exalted treasure, which she might wake some morning 
 to find flown away forever. Her tenderness toward 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 59 
 
 both was intense and untiring, but in their daily life, 
 Phil, with his rogueries and graces, was besieging and 
 taking captive her heart, while Harry was roaming far 
 away in the celestial gardens, and defining in his 
 dreamy fancy lovely islands in the blue and purple airs 
 that bent over him. 
 
 " He will be a poet or seer," I think, said his mother 
 one day, when we stood looking from a distance on his 
 fixed eyes and rapt countenance. " God bless the dear 
 child. It almost seems, at times, as if he belonged to 
 some higher life than mine, and he makes me tremble 
 lest I should have to let him too soon go from me." 
 
 When I went to them now his mother stood holding 
 his beautiful head in her hand, and stroking the hair 
 back from his pale brow. "My dear Harry," she 
 expostulated, " do not make yourself so unhappy. 
 Nothing has happened or is likely to. You have been 
 dreaming, darling." 
 
 " But, mamma," persisted the child, " how the wind 
 blows. Do you feel very sure that we are a great way 
 off the land 2" 
 
 " So far, dear, as to be quite safe, I have no doubt." 
 Harry was already sailor enough, though he was but 
 seven years old, to understand the value of sea-room in 
 a gale. 
 
 " Mamma," he said, after a moment, " come close to 
 me, will you ? I want to whisper to you. Excuse me, 
 Miss Warren, I want to ask mamma a question." 
 And when she had bent over him a minute she stood 
 up with a puzzled, troubled expression, and said, 
 " Yes, my darling, if you wish it so very much ; but 
 can you not wait till morning ?" 
 
 "No, please do ask him now, mamma, I feel so 
 badly." 
 
60 THE IDEAL ATTAIN ED. 
 
 She stepped into the cabin, and I heard her say, in 
 those clear, frank tones, which I knew rung sweetly in 
 the heart of the listener, " Col. Anderson, Harry has 
 waked in an unaccountable fright, which all my assur- 
 ance fails .to dispel, and he begs to see you. Will you 
 do us the favor ? It is quite ridiculous, but the child's 
 fears seem so real that I cannot chide him." 
 
 "Pray do not, on any account," he said. "He 
 thinks I am a famous sailor, and he will believe me 
 when I tell him that we are perfectly safe. Will you 
 not, Harry ?" he asked, taking his hand. " We are 
 all as right as possible, my boy going on grandly. 
 In a few days more, with such a wind, we shall see 
 San Francisco, and then huy for shore. How glad 
 you and King Philip will be then, won't you ?" 
 
 But poor Harry could not be lifted out of his 
 strange depression by the cheery words or voice of his 
 friend., "His hands are very cold," he said, taking 
 them in his warm, sympathetic clasp. " He must have 
 had an alarming dream, which does not leave him. 
 Have you not, Harry?" he asked, tenderly touching 
 his lips to the child's pale, smooth cheek. 
 
 In answer to this question Harry again drew his 
 mother's head to his pillow, and we heard the word 
 " father," and some whispered question following it, 
 to which she answered by a silent shaking of her head, 
 and when she again stood up, her troubled face, as she 
 regarded him, alarmed me. 
 
 Col. Anderson said, " Shall I take you up, Harry, 
 and carry you out a few minutes ? You can then see 
 how the old ship is plowing the sea, just as she used to 
 at Cape Horn, when you were not a bit frightened, 
 although it was very cold there." 
 
 "Oh, please do!" answered the child, his chin 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 01 
 
 quivering with nervous excitement and fear. " Mamma," 
 lend me your warm shawl, will you?" But Mrs. 
 Bro infield seemed to be paralyzed by Harry's last 
 communication, and stood still, while the Colonel and 
 I wrapped him up, and he was borne away to the 
 great dark world outside the cabin doors. 
 
 " I fear he is going to be ill," she said to me, after 
 they were gone. " I have never seen him so affected 
 before. He must not remain out, for a sudden change 
 of temperature might now be very dangerous." But 
 there was no need to concern ourselves about his 
 remaining, for he had been unable, Col. Anderson 
 said, coming in with him, to bear the darkness and the 
 wild rush of winds and waters a moment. It quite 
 overcame him. He objected, too, to being undressed, 
 and begged his mother to let him sleep in his clothes 
 that night, an unheard of request, which was finally 
 granted, with the greatest reluctance. 
 
 Col. Anderson now left him with us, and walked 
 out, saying he would return after a little, and look in 
 again. But as he was going little Phil roused himself 
 from the sofa, and called out, "Dood night, Turnel, 
 I aint afraid, 'ike Harry, I aint. I'm doin' to bed in 
 night-down'." 
 
 His mother smiled. It was rare to hear either of 
 the children boast, and as the little braggart came 
 toward her, with his good-night kiss from the Colonel 
 fresh on his lips, she caught him up, and holding him 
 to her heart, said, " Little boaster, to say you are not 
 afraid ; why, what would you do if mamma were gone ? 
 You'd be afraid then, I think." 
 
 "No, I should not. I should doe wiz Turnel." 
 There we had it again; and the Colonel, happy man, 
 stood looking his satisfaction at the avowal. 
 
62 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Poor Harry grew physically quieter with his 
 mother's potent hand upon his forehead, and an occa- 
 sional kiss and word of encouragement murmured in 
 his ear; but I was surprised, after an hour's absence 
 in the cabin, to find him still awake. 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield sat by him, looking distressed and 
 alarmed. The boy did not complain, or make any 
 childish moan, but he seemed so powerfully impressed 
 that nothing could restore or wholly calm his spirit. 
 I sat by him while his mother made her preparations 
 for lying down beside him, which she did with a 
 dressing-gown on, remarking that she might have to 
 rise in the night. She seemed, I remember, particu- 
 larly grateful for my little attentions, and honored me 
 with an unreserved kiss when we bade each other good 
 night. 
 
 King Philip was sound asleep, and rosy and tempt- 
 ing as a beautiful bud one sees sometimes, and irre- 
 sistibly plucks, though knowing well that it ought to 
 remain and mature where the good Father placed it. 
 
 Blest above all women, thought I with perhaps a 
 little, a very little dash of bitterness, as I withdrew to 
 my lonely room with two such children diamonds 
 set in the crown of her womanhood and so devoted 
 and noble a lover to make smooth the earth before her 
 feet, would she but permit him. And she will, I went 
 on saying to myself; she will love him and return him 
 measure for measure yet. 
 
 I laid down with pleasant thoughts, or rather waking 
 dreams of these people, in a beautiful home where 
 I saw them enjoying the heaven of each other's life 
 refinement a pervading presence everywhere in it 
 her clear spirituality and idealism brought to anchor 
 sometimes by his earnest and more practical hold upon 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 63 
 
 the world ; and his nobleness chiseled and polished by 
 her artist hand love making light the task till it 
 stood a fit presence for the first and highest anywhere. 
 I heard his step overhead, quicker and lighter than it 
 had been in the last few days, yet firm and decided, as 
 of a man who says in his soul, " I see the Good and 
 the Great, and all earth- shall not turn me from the 
 pursuit of them." 
 
 The wind seemed to increase and madden the sea 
 more and more, yet the ship had a steadier motion 
 than in the hours of light, and I knew we must be 
 going a great many knots every hour. This was about 
 my last waking thought. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 When next I became conscious, it was in such a 
 scene and moment as I pray God I may never again 
 have to participate. A great crash and shock, which 
 made the ship reel and shiver like a strong man sud- 
 denly struck down an unearthly, awful cry of human 
 voices an instantaneous rush of men's feet and over 
 all distinctly rose the terrible words from the officer of 
 the deck, " Lay aft here and man the wheel, quick !" 
 
 " Ay ay, sir !" and as the men hurried to obey the 
 order, the Tempest fetched a great lurch toward the 
 larboard quarter, that threw me on my knees. The 
 lamps arid other light articles had been thrown from 
 brackets and racks, and rolling about the floors or 
 dashing into fragments around us, added to the sense 
 of helplessness I felt for a single moment. 
 
 Mrs. Farley was shrieking and calling on God and 
 man for help, but I heard no sound from that room 
 beyond, which contained so much. 
 
 I had but recovered my feet and laid my hand on 
 my dressing-gown, when Col. Anderson's voice reached 
 me in these fearful words : 
 
 " The ship has been run into. Be on your feet as 
 soon as possible, every one. I will be here again in a 
 moment." 
 
 How calmly he spoke. Mrs. Farley heard, and 
 then redoubled her shrieks and cries, but there was vet 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 65 
 
 no sound from Mrs. Bromfield. I took my dressing- 
 gown, and putting it on as I went, (the saloon was 
 dark as well as my room,) found her, just lighting a 
 wax taper. I spoke her name and opened the door in 
 the same breath. 
 
 " Oh Miss Warren," she said, " how are my dar- 
 lings to be saved ? The horror is worse than the worst 
 result of it can be. Look there," she added, speaking 
 low, and with the slightest motion indicating Harry, 
 who lay broad awake, with a face that, but for the 
 light and intelligence of the eyes, would have been the 
 fac-simile of death. 
 
 Not an instant was lost during the utterance of 
 these few whispered words. I was paralyzed myself, 
 but she had put on additional clothing, and taken a 
 dark merino dress, in which she now stood, from one 
 of her trunks, ready to address herself to the care of 
 her children. Harry, you will remember, was dressed, 
 and so, as she bent over him to take Philip np, she 
 only kissed his eyelids, which closed a moment under 
 her blanched lips, and said, " Trust mamma, dear 
 Harry." 
 
 " But I saw father again just now, mamma dear," 
 said the boy. 
 
 A cold dew broke over his mother's face at these 
 words, but she stopped not a moment. " My flower, 
 my jewel, my king," she said, lifting Philip from his 
 sound sleep and bringing him forward to the sofa, where 
 his garments lay, ready to be put on. "Would God 
 you, my darlings, were past the terrors that are 
 before us." 
 
 Philip rubbed his eyes and tossed his hair back, 
 and, looking at me, and the strange light, and heark- 
 ening a moment to the noise without, asked, "Are 
 we doein' ashore, mamma?" 
 
00 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Yes, love, in a small boat. Does Philip hear the 
 men letting it down into the water?" as the lusty 
 " Yo, heave ho !" and the creaking of the blocks sound- 
 ed in our ears. 
 
 This brought me out of my stupor ; for, though I 
 had been conscious of everything she had done and 
 said, I did not, till these warnings came, remember 
 that I had anything to do but wait and go down with 
 the ship to her deep and silent home. There had 
 scarcely yet been to me a perceptible period of time 
 since the first awful moment ; but now I started to my 
 room with a full sense of what I ought to try to do. 
 Mrs. Farley had got a light and was packing a trunk. 
 
 " Oh Miss Warren," she groaned, " to think of all 
 my trunks and clothes away down in the hold !" 
 
 " You had better think now of your soul and body," 
 
 1 replied, with some asperity, and passed on. I 
 dressed myself ; put a small box, containing some 
 jewels and treasured mementoes, and that lock of 
 Herbert's hair, which had been sent me in place of 
 him, on w r hat was to have been our wedding-day, into 
 my bosom ; and over all I threw a light gray wrapper, 
 which had hung on my wall since our last cold day, 
 and then I was ready. My watch ! should I take it ? 
 What matter whether it went down with the ship or 
 me for I had no hope. I had acted mechanically in 
 all I had done. The things I had taken were related 
 to my heart-life : as long as I could think, I should feel 
 happier and stronger for having them near it. 
 
 I now returned to Mrs. Bromfield's room, stopping 
 a moment by the way, to silence, if possible, Mrs. 
 Farley's weak and irritating lamentations, and set her 
 at work in some reasonable way ; for she was sailing 
 about in an elaborately wrought night-dress, packing 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 67 
 
 her finery as carefully as if the Tempest lay beside the 
 wharves of San Francisco. My words, however, had 
 the contrary effect to silencing her. 
 
 Oh dear !" she exclaimed, " oh Lord ! and all my 
 new dresses and shawls to be lost ! Two thousand dol- 
 lars' worth, Miss Warren, and every one ,as good as 
 new. Oh my God, my poor soul ! Have mercy on me !" 
 It was idle staying there. I could neither comfort 
 nor help that spirit, so I passed on. When I entered 
 Mrs. Bromtield's room Phil sat on his mother's knee, 
 folded close to her bosom, his head resting quietly 
 there, while with the other arm over Harry's form she 
 was gently stroking his cold forehead. They were all 
 silent a group such as Life seldom exhibits and the 
 sublimest Art could never reproduce. Waiting thus, 
 as it were, the trump of doom, we stood and sat. I 
 was now entirely collected for any event. Perhaps my 
 fears were somewhat excited, for I imagined the ship 
 was settling astern, though we did not then know 
 where she had been struck. 
 
 The " Yo, heave ho !" was yet sounding upon deck, 
 and, at times, I thought I still heard another awful 
 human call coming from farther off; and then I remem- 
 bered the order of Mr. Watkins, the first officer, for 
 fresh hands to man the wheel. I now began to under- 
 stand that the helmsmen (there were four when I had 
 been on deck the last time in the evening) must have 
 been disabled by the collision in some way, or oh, 
 inexpressible horror ! carried clear away in that wild 
 sea. And theirs, then, were the terrible cries we had 
 heard, and which I was sure the wind still bore to us 
 at intervals. 
 
 I could not speak to Mrs. Bromfield, on account of 
 the children ; for I saw that Phil was very quietly 
 
68 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 awaiting a comfortable landing, and that now the 
 worst had come, she was getting the better of Harry's 
 nervous excitement. The child was less rigid and 
 deathly as she bent over and breathed upon him, and 
 indeed I know not who could have resisted the inflow 
 of that calm will, and clear, purposeful life, in such a 
 moment. 
 
 There were steps hurrying down the companion- 
 way, and by a glance of her eye she implored me to go 
 out and meet the intelligence. It was Colonel An- 
 derson. 
 
 " Is she ready ?" were his first words. 
 
 " Quite ready," I replied, " for anything." 
 
 " God be praised. Captain Landon is of opinion 
 that it will not be necessary to leave the ship till day- 
 light. I do not know. The boats are all lowered, 
 and we are getting water and provisions into them, 
 but as we have no means of judging of the extent of 
 the injury, except by the pumps, and the rush of water 
 may increase instantly should a heavy sea make the 
 breach larger, we must be ready to go at a moment's 
 warning." And then he explained that the ship lost 
 her course, or went about, or something of that sort, 
 before fresh hands could be got to the wheels when the 
 others were carried away. 
 
 " Oh, God's mercy !" I said ; " then they were the 
 cries of those poor creatures that I have heard." 
 
 " Yes, they were all carried away but one, who 
 caught by the stern boat, and came in from a quick 
 grave, perhaps, to a slow one," he added. " God only 
 knows." 
 
 " Can I see her ?" he asked, after a moment, " and 
 can that unfortunate little woman " (meaning Mrs. 
 Farley) " be quieted in any way ?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 69 
 
 " I will let you know," I replied to his first ques- 
 tion, and I soon returned from Mrs. Bromfield's room, 
 telling him that she was very anxious to see him. 
 
 I stopped a moment at Mrs. Farley's door, and, 
 heaven forgive me, I did deceive her a little a very 
 little ; for it was true that I felt much relieved by what 
 I had heard, and the horror was greatly mitigated, 
 certainly, if we should not have to take to the boats 
 in the darkness of night on that wild sea. When I 
 told her this, in a half dozen almost impatient words, 
 the little soul dropped down upon her largest trunk, 
 with revived hopes, I am sure, of being able to save all 
 its precious contents yet. 
 
 " Oh, if it is daylight, she said, that will be differ- 
 ent." 
 
 " Quite," I replied, hurrying off, in my impatience, 
 as well to be rid of her as to be in the presence of 
 others. 
 
 When I entered the room whose occupant it seemed 
 no longer necessary that Col. Anderson or I should 
 designate by her name, her cold, pallid hand, was 
 holding his convulsively, and her eyes, distended beyond 
 even their ordinary size, were fixed upon his face. 
 
 " Tell me, dear sir, what we have to expect. 
 Where are we, and what has really happened to us ? 
 Is there any hope for " and her eyes fell upon her 
 treasures without a further word. 
 
 " We have reason to suppose ourselves not very far 
 from Rescue Island," he replied. a We were in its lati- 
 tude to-day, and perhaps it is fortunate that we made 
 westing enough, in that idle calm, to carry us near its 
 longitude, though we have since run a good way to the 
 eastward." 
 
 " And our injury ?" 
 
70 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " We have been struck, apparently by a vessel of 
 near our own size, and it is impossible to ascertain the 
 extent of damage. You hear the pumps, and the water 
 is gaining fearfully, as you perceive by the ship's set- 
 tling astern, as she does. Still, Captain Landon thinks 
 we can stay by her till daylight at least perhaps 
 longer." 
 
 " But if not ?" 
 
 "Then, the boats being lowered and stowed, we 
 shall have to take our chances, my dear friend ; and 
 all that strong arms and willing hearts can do, the 
 helpless may rely on. "We have noble officers, a brave 
 crew, I believe, generally, and I think you know the 
 passengers well enough to need no assurance from me, 
 that they will behave at least with the courage of men, 
 if not always with their prudence" 
 
 " God bless you, Col. Anderson. I need not say 
 how much my life at this moment lies without my own 
 proper self. But among the painful thoughts of this 
 hour, not the least is that a life not belonging to me is 
 exposed to this awful hazard through my " 
 
 " Through that divine power clothing you, which 
 makes this a happy moment to me. To have a life to 
 offer you to have health and strength, which I never 
 valued so highly as at this instant to have endurance, 
 which I have never yet found wanting, when the 
 motive was only the preservation of my own life, or of 
 some other scarcely as worthy ought I not, with all 
 this, to be a calm, if not a happy man, now ? God 
 forgive me if my state of mind borders almost too much 
 on the latter condition ; but I feel so strong, so capable 
 to take all you precious ones, as it were, in the car 
 of my will, and bear you to some safe spot of rest 
 in these seas, that I cannot but be thankful to Him 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 71 
 
 that I am hero with you. Miss Warren, you are to be 
 one of us," he said, turning to me. "Antonio has 
 already been to me, to engage for the special care of 
 Harry ; and as he is a brave fellow, and could outswim 
 a whale, I believe, I have promised, with your ap- 
 proval, Mrs. Bromfield, to ask Captain Landon to 
 attach him to our boat's crew." 
 
 " Would you like that, dearest ?" said the mother, 
 turning to her boy, who had heard all without uttering 
 a word. 
 
 " Yes, mamma, but I am not to go from you, and 
 Philip, and the Colonel, and Miss Warren, am I ?" 
 
 "No, my precious, you shall sit with my arm 
 around you, as now, only only if if anything should 
 happen again to us, good Antonio would help you 
 better than I can. You see, dear, do you 1" 
 
 " Yes, mamma. Can I get up and go out with 
 you, Colonel Anderson ?" 
 
 " Yes, my boy, for a minute," he replied. " Have 
 no fear," he said, looking at the mother's startled face, 
 " I will not leave him." 
 
 " What a blessing that Phil has fallen asleep," I 
 said, when they were gone. 
 
 " Yes, the darling, he knows nothing of the terror, 
 and went to sleep, waiting for the boats to get ready 
 to take us ashore." 
 
 Mrs. Farley met Col. Anderson and Harry at the 
 door. She came in, and Mrs. Bromfield, laying Phil 
 out of her arms, rose, and asking her to sit, said, 
 "You will excuse me a moment, I hope. I am 
 benumbed with my constrained position, and the chill- 
 ing fear I have endured. I must go out for a little, as 
 well for the motion as to see with my own eyes what 
 I hope I may never have to look upon again." 
 
72 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 I followed her. Without, lights were burning on 
 all the decks, from stem to stem, of the noble ship, 
 which drooped back in the water, as an eagle with 
 suddenly fractured pinion would falter and sink from 
 his empyrean flight. All was bustle and movement 
 around us. Water-casks were being lowered away 
 into the boats, with sacks of bread, hams, and cheese, 
 and cases of stores ; all the pumps were manned, and 
 being worked with such a purpose as men show when 
 struggling for life. Mr. Garth, without coat or hat, 
 was at the one nearest us, with Mr. Pedes beside him ; 
 and poor pale Mr. Wilkes stood by one of the tackles, 
 to make fast to the articles that were to be sent down 
 to the boats. 
 
 Col. Anderson and Harry had just returned from 
 the stern of the vessel, as Mrs. Bromfield and I were 
 reentering the cabin. 
 
 " Now," said the Colonel, " the boy is a hero ; he 
 knows all, and will not tremble any more. Take 
 him in, madam, for I must go to my. post yonder." 
 
 In a few minutes Captain Landon entered, looking 
 very pale, his gray hair disheveled and drenched with 
 spray of the salt sea, and the perspiration which 
 exhaled copiously from his face, and stood in beads 
 upon his forehead. He took Mrs. Bromfield's hand, 
 and bowed to me and Mrs. Farley. 
 
 " I should have come to you sooner, ladies," he 
 said, " but I knew Col. Anderson would say all that I 
 could. We might be much Avorse off than we are, 
 though God knows it is bad enough. You are all 
 ready, I see, and that is right ; for, though I hope for 
 some hours yet, we cannot tell how it may be ; but 
 while we wait, the wind is abating and the sea falling, 
 which is much to be grateful for.' 5 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 73 
 
 " Have you a hope of ultimate escape ?" asked Mrs. 
 Bromfield. 
 
 " A hope I certainly have, ma'am. Sailors are the 
 last men to abandon that ; and our case is not so 
 desperate as it might be. We have good boats, and 
 enough of them, with our small complement of passen- 
 gers, not to have to crowd any; and if no rough 
 weather comes across us for some days, which is less 
 likely since this long blow, we shall make land safely, 
 I think though what will await us there, Heaven 
 only knows. There have been terrible imprisonments 
 on some of the uninhabited islands hereaway. But we 
 will hope and work for the best. You, ma'am, had 
 better prepare a trunk of clothing for yourself and the 
 children, and you two ladies can, I think, take one 
 between you." 
 
 " And am I to lose all my clothes, Captain 3" asked 
 Mrs. Farley, piteously. 
 
 " Better them than yourself, I think, madam," was 
 his reply. " And make yourselves ready to go at a 
 moment's warning, for I perceive she is taking in water 
 very fast these last few minutes." 
 
 He was gone, and Mrs. Bromh'eld, who had Harry's 
 hand in hers, seated him on the sofa, and, opening her 
 trunks, began to fill one with selected garments from 
 the others, while Mrs. Farley and I went about tho 
 same task for ourselves. And oh the lamentations of 
 the little woman ! and the difficulty of choosing, and 
 the sorrow of leaving ! 
 
 The twilight was well advanced when I closed the 
 
 joint-stock trunk, and put the key in my pocket. Just 
 
 as I was taking the last look about my room, with u 
 
 heart saddened by many inexpressible thoughts and 
 
 4 
 
74r THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 regrets for things I must leave to tlie hungry waters, I 
 heard little Phil's voice in the saloon. 
 
 " Oh, mamma, how 'is ship do stand all 'e time up 
 hill. What makes it ?" and then, receiving no answer, 
 " Mamma, I want to doe to Turnel Annerson." 
 
 " No, not now, Philip," said I, meeting him ; " Col. 
 Anderson is getting ready to take us all ashore, and 
 so we must wait." He was very docile in the expect- 
 ation of this welcome event, and sat down in the saloon 
 with me. Ching came and made preparations to lay 
 some breakfast, which we assembled to at the last 
 sound of the gong, for it was hardly over, Captain 
 Landon and Col. Anderson being absent, when the 
 word went fore and aft, " To the boats ! to the boats !" 
 At the same moment the Colonel entered the cabin. 
 
 "Are you weddy, Turnel," asked Phil, "to doe 
 ashore ?" 
 
 " Yes, Philip, come with me now," he said, taking 
 his cue from the child's words ; and away he went, as 
 gleeful as an escaped bird to the woodlands. 
 
 "Don't undeceive him, as you hope for heaven," 
 said his mother ; " Harry's silent suffering is all I can 
 bear." 
 
 " I will not, dear madam ; and I strongly hope that 
 our experience will not either. The weather is becom- 
 ing better every hour." 
 
 One by one, slowly, as it seemed to those who were 
 waiting, we went over the ship's side. There were 
 three large boats, and a small one. In ours, which 
 was the largest, there were, beside ourselves, no other 
 passengers but Col. Anderson, the Captain and fourth 
 mate, Antonio, Ching, and eight of the ablest seamen. 
 Mr. Watkins, the mate, had charge of another, in 
 which was Mr. Garth ; and Messrs. Pedes and Wilkes 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 75 
 
 went with Mr. Hepburn, the third mate. Each boat 
 was furnished with its own supplies and implements, 
 and all were directed to hold by each other as long as 
 possible ; and in any case to head west-south-west, and 
 search, if they were separated from the others, for 
 Rescue Island, whose latitude and longitude were given 
 them. 
 
 Poor little Phil was sadly puzzled and vexed not to 
 see the land ; but we were too much weighed down by 
 the fearful lot before us, and the exhausting emotions 
 of the last four or five hours, to heed his many ques- 
 tions, as he was accustomed to have us. 
 
 The ship was deep in the water when we left her 
 so deep that I foolishly shuddered, going over her side, 
 lest she should suddenly, in a moment, drop from under 
 my feet. For I had but litle idea of the awful specta- 
 cle of a great ship going into its grave of waters, as we 
 saw it, after leaving her, while we yet lay upon the 
 waves that were ready to rush over and bury her. 
 
 Oh, it was a fearful sight ! The tall masts rocking 
 so low in the surging seas, the black bulwarks alter- 
 nately sinking into and vainly heaving up against 
 them, the steady march of the deadly waters, up, and 
 up, and up, every receding wave rioting in its fullest 
 triumph over the conquered king and then the fierce 
 tongues, that, as it sinks, lap eagerly over the noble 
 decks, where you have walked, chatted, read, rested, 
 enjoyed and suffered perhaps filled the circle of 
 experiences the agonized shiver of the masts, as their 
 mad foes rush fiercely in, to seize and uproot them 
 and finally, the great swirl and audible groan with 
 which the battle is given over, and the surrender made, 
 are sickening to behold. I shudder now at the 
 remembrance of what I describe so feebly. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 Out upon the broad, awful ocean, whose good 
 nature the very smile of God is our only trust 
 nothing visible but our little fleet, and a world of 
 rolling waters and blue sky, thickly dotted with fleecy 
 clouds, whose friendly shadows fall gratefully upon our 
 course. Some sails and spars had been provided, and 
 the first two days were busily spent in rigging these 
 but the sea being quiet, and the winds very light, our 
 progress was chiefly made by rowing. Nevertheless, 
 we parted from the small boat on the third night, and 
 at the dawn of the fifth day we saw but one, a long 
 way astern of us. This gave us some uneasiness, but 
 we were reassured, as well for ourselves as for those 
 whom the missing boats contained, that, as long as the 
 weather continued smooth, we were as well without as 
 with them ; that each had its own supplies, and only 
 in case of accident would one be needed or able to 
 serve another, and in that case, we were as likely to be 
 hopelessly separated in a short time as we now were. 
 
 All this the Captain and Colonel Anderson told us 
 more than once, yet to the last hour of that eventful 
 voyage, I felt misgivings and heart-sinkings, after we 
 were alone, that I should not have experienced had 
 our weary eyes been blessed with the sight of any 
 living things beside ourselves. 
 
 We bore the confinement and the tediousness won- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. . 77 
 
 derfully well. The first night, I think, no one slept a 
 moment but the dear, quiet children, whose mother 
 watched and tended them without a word or sigh ex- 
 pressive of weariness. Phil was now and then, during 
 the day, passed along from our quarters, in the stern, 
 to the Colonel, amidships ; and Harry was sometimes 
 permitted to go forward to the oarsmen, and sit or 
 stand with those who were resting ; but his mother 
 let go of him always with lingering reluctance, and 
 received him again with silent ecstacy both, in their 
 peculiar degree, the result of his extraordinary mental 
 condition on the night of our disaster. Occasionally 
 they had a game of dominoes, for their thoughtful 
 mother had not forgotten in her terror the importance 
 of sustaining their cheerfulness and courage. A large 
 basket which she had under our seat contained some 
 of their choicest resources, and along with other things, 
 an illustrated " Robinson Crusoe " of Harry's, and 
 Phil's copy of " Mrs. Easy's Khymes and Stories." 
 When these were for the time exhausted, Mrs. Brom- 
 field sat by the hour improvising stories to them 
 stories of sea and land of fairies and men of beasts, 
 birds, and fishes ; to many of which, older ears than 
 theirs listened with eager pleasure, so exquisite were 
 the imaginations, so rich and varied the childlike 
 thought, often laden with another and higher and sad- 
 der significance than the young souls apprehended. 
 I received many beautiful lessons in these effusions ; 
 it was a lesson perhaps the greatest of all to see the 
 mother thus self-forgetful ; putting aside fear, intense 
 weariness, disgust all the annoyances and shocks 
 which her keen delicacy and deep refinement had to 
 endure day by day and living wholly in the one sub- 
 lime devotion that dethroned them all. 
 
Y8 
 
 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Mrs. Farley never recovered the sight of the sinking 
 ship with all her trunks on board, and sat and drooped 
 through the days and nights, seeming, much of the 
 time, indifferent to everything but her foods and 
 drinks. Her poor little external being had withered 
 up like a shallow stream when its fountain-head is cut 
 off, as one sees so many hundreds of such women do in 
 ordinary life, when misfortune deprives them of their 
 dresses and shawls and embroideries. 
 
 Col. Anderson, who was as indefatigable as the 
 wind or the sea, and as quiet and unobtrusive as they 
 both were now, had fitted up, with ropes and some 
 light bits of wood made fast to the sides of the boat, 
 just forward of the part assigned to us, a curtain of sail- 
 cloth, so that, dropping that, we were to all practical 
 purposes in an apartment of our own, though its 
 dimensions were some thousands of miles in extent. 
 His consideration and delicacy in all things were above 
 praise, and then he was so entirely undemonstrative, 
 doing every possible act of kindness, and refusing our 
 fervent gratitude to himself by acknowledging it for 
 the whole company. 
 
 E"o demonstration did he make, in these days, of his 
 great love ; scarcely by a stolen glance of compassion- 
 ate tenderness at her weary face could I now and then 
 detect that it still existed. And as for the object of it, 
 she seemed to have risen to sublimer hights of life 
 than ever. Neither complaining nor indifferent 
 thankful when served, and never omitting a service 
 which her confinement and cares permitted her to offer 
 to any with a cheering or helpful word for all when- 
 ever she spoke she sat before us, day after day, the 
 grandest instance of self-abnegation I have ever seen. 
 "When she could no longer sustain the loss of sleep, she 
 would commit the children, if awake, to Col. Anderson 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 79 
 
 and myself, or Antonio, and showing me her watch, 
 would bid me wake her at a certain hour, if she did 
 not wake herself; and when it came, she seemed to be 
 quite ready for her arduous cares till its next return. 
 ~No persuasion ever prevailed on her to rest in the 
 hours of darkness. She watched then. How I won- 
 dered at her silent endurance, and admired even more 
 than I wondered ! But Mrs. Bromfield was a healthy 
 woman healthy in all senses. Not only had she a 
 well-developed, substantial body, but her organism was 
 sound throughout, and kept so by faithful study of and 
 adherence to the laws of health. Without thrusting 
 her opinions or practices upon others, she was a full 
 believer in the perfection to which God has ordained 
 humanity, and she neglected no means by w r hich it 
 could be secured to herself and her children. Sickness 
 had never pampered and nurtured selfishness in her. 
 She met life at all points with sound normal sensibili- 
 ties. Thus, in the powers that flow from health and 
 perfect equilibrium, her sufficiency seemed, with all 
 her refinement and delicacy, equal to that of the firm- 
 est man among us. 
 
 Yet I sometimes saw those strong arms, imper- 
 ceptibly to any but myself, linger near her in some 
 little office of common kindness, as if they would so 
 gladly and tenderly infold her to a rest commensurate 
 with her exertions a triumphant testimony to her 
 withal utter womanhood. Strong in mental and phy- 
 sical life individual, fearless, and aspiring to nothing 
 less than the highest ideal that Life, History, Poetry or 
 Art could offer her, she was, withal, fully and truly and 
 sweetly a Woman. I forgave all her superiority for her 
 feminineness, all her her grace and elegance for her no- 
 bleness, all her power for her tenderness. 
 
 At noon, on the eighth day, Captain Landon com- 
 
80 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 municated to us the joyful news that we had made the 
 latitude of the island, and that if it were correctly laid 
 down on the charts, we had but about seventy or 
 eighty miles of departure to run. At these tidings, a 
 shout of joy and thankfulness went up from the men, 
 which was echoed by us all. And we had deep cause 
 to be thankful. Eight days in an open boat on the 
 broad ocean the precious jewel of life contained so in 
 an egg-shell tossed by no rough sea assailed by no 
 rude wind pelted by no merciless storm only the 
 fierce torrid sunshine in the cloudless days smiting us 
 too steadily, and making necessary the shade of our 
 frail shifting awnings truly what more in our con- 
 dition could mercy and love have done for us ? 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 In the afternoon of that day I had persuaded 
 Mrs. Bromfield to let the boys go forward for a 
 time, and rest herself by reclining, on a pillow, in my 
 lap. 
 
 " I am thinking," she said, after a long silence in 
 this position, " of what may yet be before us, Miss 
 Warren. We have watched and prayed for a sight 
 and touch of this land, but what then ? I remember 
 reading, only last year, a narrative of a party of men 
 cast away on a small group of uninhabited islands, 
 somewhere in these seas, who did not escape till 
 the twelfth year was more than half gone. They had 
 implements and some portions of their wreck, and 
 with these they built themselves habitations. They 
 planted some kernels of corn and wheat which they 
 saved from the vessel, and subsisted upon the little 
 they could raise thus, and the eggs of sea-fowls. How 
 long could we bear such a life, dear friend ?" 
 
 " With shelter and means of subsistence," I replied, 
 " a good while, I think ; but whether or not one 
 could be grateful for such an existence, prolonged 
 beyond hope of escape, I am doubtful." 
 
 " I could be grateful for any existence, Miss War- 
 ren," said my friend, " that should not force me out 
 of sustaining and harmonious relations to somewhat 
 in both the natural and moral world, that might suf- 
 4* 
 
02 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 fice, in a measure, my spiritual needs. I have often 
 dreamed of an Arcadia in some 
 
 1 Summer isle of Eden/ 
 
 where, with one soul to love and give me love in re- 
 turn, and a few others half a dozen, say kings and 
 queens to reign in the outside circle of my heart pre- 
 cious growing friends with few cares and no slavish 
 employments, we could set up our own standards of 
 life, and feel no sneer making weight against our 
 faithfulness to them. True, I have parted with those 
 pleasing dreams years since, and yet, were it not for 
 my children, I believe I could even now find in myself 
 the courage to declare this an adventure, and treat it 
 accordingly. The many-sidedness of life has wearied 
 me in these late years, and I seem to find a rest in the 
 idea of escaping, for a season, the eternal revolutions 
 by which its night and day, its clouds and sunshine, 
 its glory and gloom, pass before the soul." 
 
 "And yet, from them," I replied, "the soul has 
 its growth." 
 
 " They are, rather, the rain on the seed," she said. 
 " It is well that it fall at times ; but it is well, also, 
 that it be withheld. Periods of seclusion and rest are 
 as necessary to growth, I believe, as those of active 
 culture ; and, unmolested by the presence of discord- 
 ant spirits or the pressure of physical necessities, 
 I could pass a year or two here, if such should he 
 our fate, with no very bitter repining. I can teach 
 my boys, if the Good Father will spare them to me ; 
 and I am so grateful for you, dear Miss Warren so very 
 grateful that such a woman is the companion of my lot, 
 that I can afford a great deal of lenity to Mrs. Farley 
 though she does seem fearfully diminished since those 
 gowns and shawls were lost." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 88 
 
 Mrs. Farley lay upon the opposite seat, fast asleep. 
 She slept, happily, fourteen or sixteen hours every 
 day. The other eight or ten were divided between a 
 moping silence and weak, querulous complaining 
 against what we all accepted with thanks that no utter- 
 ance could express the weather, our progress, our 
 unimpaired health, and our comfortable accommoda- 
 tion in all respects wherein we might reasonably have 
 feared and even expected continual suffering. 
 
 " When our house is built here," continued Mrs. 
 Bromfield, " you shall have the corner opposite mine. 
 I suppose our couches will be of sand, or, at least, of 
 grass or dried sea- weed ; our tables pray Heaven there 
 may be something to lay on them will be the lids of 
 trunks, and our divans and chairs great stones and 
 fragments of rock from the beach. We shall have to 
 be each other's mirrors " 
 
 " I think I know of another pair of eyes that would 
 brighten to serve you in that capacity," I interrupted. 
 
 " Truce to your jesting on that subject, Miss War- 
 ren. The thought of it, while it appeals to my selfish 
 sense of security, perplexes me deeply at times. Be- 
 cause, you must see," she added, speaking even lower 
 than we had been, " that nothing but a delicacy that 
 is almost fabulous in any man can spare me many and 
 some distressing embarrassments in the life before us." 
 
 "Have you not," I asked, "every indication you 
 could desire of the presence of that delicacy ? I have 
 never myself seen that rare and beautiful trait 
 so wholly and purely manifested as it is here ; 
 and I am weak enough," I added, " or good enough 
 which is it ? you, perhaps, would say the first to be 
 capable of worshiping a man who was so noble as to 
 treat me thus." 
 
84 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Her pale face flushed beneatli my earnest gaze, but 
 I would go on, now tliat I had spoken thus much. 
 u There is not," I said, " a soul here, pent up as we 
 are within these few feet of space, who has seen the 
 slightest indication that could wound your pride. He 
 does not approach you but as he would our poor little 
 friend over there, if she had children that he could aid 
 her in caring for ; he never looks at you with a glance 
 of love ; he surrounds you with an invisible care that 
 never fails or tires ; and when thanked, acknowledges 
 the expression as much for Ching, or Antonio, or Tom, 
 as for himself. And if you do not love " 
 
 Here her finger was placed upon my lips to stop 
 their further utterance. 
 
 My dear friend," she whispered, " no service could 
 puchase my love. My gratitude, my warmest friend- 
 ship, my utmost capacity to confer happiness by recip- 
 rocal deeds, it would secure ; but once for all, a man, 
 without an act of kindness, without a word of admira- 
 tion for me, must have, in his own being, the qualities 
 that would irresistibly take that before he could have 
 it. I cannot give my love. It must be taken by a 
 mandate of God, issued in the life and nature of him 
 who asks it, and when that comes, I shall not resist it." 
 
 I sighed, and tears of pure compassion, of real heart- 
 fell pain for one whose fearful wretchedness and waste 
 of life I saw possibly foreshadowed in those words, 
 filled my eyes. 
 
 " They are for him, not you," I said, as she 
 looked up when one dropped upon her hand. " You 
 are hard and almost hateful to me in uttering such 
 language. I think it is wicked such an exercise of 
 power, which must have been given for good, not for 
 pain for lifting up, and not destroying." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 85 
 
 " I would not pain or destroy," she said, raising 
 herself to an erect position on the seat beside me, " the 
 poorest and scantiest soul among that swarthy company 
 before us. God forbid you should think me capable, 
 for a moment, of anything but intense pain myself, in 
 any such thought. But, Miss Warren, I know, or, 
 rather, I believe, that life must, somewhere or some- 
 how, furnish for every true demand of our nature a 
 true object. And I cannot consent to compromise for 
 any but that in a matter so sacred. But let us speak 
 no more of it. It was weak in me to permit the sub- 
 ject to go so far ; but do not think ill of me, clear, for 
 what I have said. I have but expressed my convic- 
 tions and feelings; I am no worse than I was 
 when they were unexpressed and not at all hard- 
 hearted, as I see you are more than half inclined to 
 think me." 
 
 I was sad, nevertheless, with a feeling I could not 
 shake off, and which I pondered deeply in the wakeful 
 hours of that night she sitting there, with her boys 
 sleeping on each side of her, and occasionally taking 
 the two or three steps which the space between our 
 trunks and seats permitted. At dark the rowers 
 rested, the breeze being fresh enough to carry us for- 
 ward, and at ten o'clock Captain Landon said, that, if 
 all went as well as it had with us, we should reachthe 
 island by three or four the next afternoon. And then 
 Col. Anderson surprised us with the extraordinary and 
 interesting fact that he had had an acquaintance and 
 many conversations with a man who had been cast 
 away on it, about four years before. He was a Scotch- 
 man a ship-carpenter and their vessel had struck in 
 the night on a coral reef, that surrounds the island. 
 He had told him of its resources in water, fruit, and 
 
86 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 game ; the latter very scanty on land, but the fishing 
 good. The vegetable productions, cocoanut, palm and 
 banana trees were plentiful in some parts ; also the 
 bread-fruit and various esculents. 
 
 This account of our destination and future home 
 absorbed us far into the evening. " Why," I asked, 
 " had we not heard it before ?" 
 
 "Because, ladies," replied Col. Anderson, "I saw 
 you were getting on so well with our troubles, that I 
 reserved it from day to day, fearing a dark one might 
 come, when it would help your failing courage to 
 hear it." 
 
 " How long had these persons to stay, Col. Ander- 
 son ?" asked Mrs. Bromfield. 
 
 " They were fortunate enough to signal a ship in 
 about four weeks," he replied ; " and now that the 
 commerce is so greatly increased upon these waters, 
 I feel very little apprehension of our having a pro- 
 tracted imprisonment before us." 
 
 " ISfo, said Capt. Landon ; " if there is a liight 
 where we can keep a look-out and a signal, I think we 
 shall not fail to secure relief in a few weeks. I also 
 have a hope that some of our boats may fall in with a 
 vessel, and as they were all bound hither, it is possible 
 that we may escape in a few days. At any rate," he 
 added, after a moment, " we have, thank God, all that 
 is necessary to enable us to support life without desti- 
 tution or pain. We must be very careful of health, and 
 preserve as much cheerfulness as possible, and I hope 
 we shall all yet live to see the faces of old friends and 
 homes again." 
 
 I saw Mrs. Bromfield move tenderly over Harry at 
 the mention of health and cheerfulness. It was plain 
 to me that she had not shaken off the alarm she had 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 87 
 
 felt about her before leaving the ship, although lie 
 had been well since only a little graver and more 
 thoughtful than was his wont, as he would naturally 
 be in our circumstances. 
 
 As for Phil, he had many times protested against 
 " doein' ashore so long," and almost scolded the Cap- 
 tain for not bringing us in the ship which his mother 
 had prevented his seeing the loss of and repeatedly 
 asked the " Turnel " what he did " doe and bring 
 mamma and Miss Warren, and me and Harry, in 'iss 
 bad little boat, such a long way, for?" Phil never 
 understood but it was the legitimate going ashore, but 
 he disliked the inconvenience greatly, and declared, as 
 the time went on and he grew more weary of the con- 
 finement, that, when he was a man, and had a big 
 ship, and genelinans and ladies in it, he'd bring it right 
 up to the land, he would." But whenever he showed 
 signs of taking seriously to fretting, his mother led off 
 his imagination and thoughts to the moon, or the bot- 
 tom of the sea, or to fairy-land, or up among the stars, 
 where she created such beautiful worlds to his mind, 
 that he was effectually cheated, for the time, out of all 
 complaints against this one. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 " Is that land, Anderson ?" asked the Captain, 
 about two o'clock next day, after he had been sweep- 
 ing the western horizon carefully with his glass. Tell 
 me how it looks to you. It is very low, if it is." 
 
 " I should say it was land, beyond a doubt," re- 
 plied the Colonel, after a diligent survey. " It cannot 
 be vapor, I think, hanging so low and remaining 
 so fixed." 
 
 We were now all excitement ; every eye was 
 strained Phil's among the rest, held high up in the 
 " Turnel's " arms an effort which he rewarded with 
 a kiss, and a grave assent to the previously expressed 
 opinion of his elder friend : " Yes, 'at's land." 
 
 In an hour or two there was plainly visible to the 
 naked eye the long, low, blue outline, very little broken 
 to the southward by slight elevations, and looking so 
 pure, peaceful, and ethereal, hanging between the sky 
 and ocean, that to us it seemed as if it might be the 
 Arcadia we had talked of. 
 
 Mrs. Farley roused herself, and faithful to the ruling 
 passion, began at once to adjust, pick, arrange, and 
 smooth her apparel, and as she saw the pleasant-looking 
 earth, she groaned in recollection of all she had lost, 
 that would so have glorified her there. She moved 
 across to my side, and said : 
 
 " Isn't it a pity, now, Miss Warren, we have got 
 here so easily, that we didn't bring more with us ? 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 89 
 
 We could just as well as not have had a trunk for 
 each of us." 
 
 " It would not have been safe to load the boat 
 more deeply," I replied ; " and if we had met rough 
 weather, we should each have been obliged, perhaps, 
 to throw over a part of what we had. Let us be 
 thankful, Mrs. Farley, to have escaped so terrible an 
 accident so well, instead of mourning that it was not 
 better." 
 
 " But I shall never get so many clothes again," she 
 said, piteously ; " and my niece and sister will be so 
 sorry, for we could all wear the same dresses." 
 
 " If your niece and sister," I said, " are not glad 
 to see you safe, after such danger, without pining for 
 so paltry a loss, your pains and perils will indeed be 
 poorly repaid." 
 
 I never could command my patience with the poor 
 soul. Often and often I had commenced speaking 
 to her with the firmest and kindest intention not to be 
 provoked to asperity, or indulge any disposition to re- 
 prove her follies ; but she would hunt me to the end 
 of my forbearance, and then came the ungracious or 
 rebuking word that drove her back into her little shell 
 again : and so we went on. 
 
 Twilight fell softly down in gray repose upon the 
 darkening waters ; and right over in front of us there 
 hung the silver rounding moon. It made our hearts 
 glad, for the surf was heard throbbing on the shore of 
 the island, and very soon we should be near enough 
 to be in danger from the reef. 
 
 Antonio now took rank among us. He was a 
 Madeira Islander, and for aught I know, might have 
 been born and nursed in the water. At all events, he 
 was as nearly amphibious as anything human could be, 
 
90 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 and he explored the reef, as we approached it, in the 
 most ludicrous manner dropping overboard every few 
 minutes with the nonchalance of an experienced New- 
 foundland dog, and presently coming in, in some incon- 
 ceivable way, over the bow, and sitting perched there, 
 dripping, till he saw occasion for another plunge. 
 
 Col. Anderson's informant had told him that there 
 was a broad gate through the coral wall, on the north- 
 east point, and this we were searching for till the moon 
 had set. The greatest caution was used to preserve the 
 boat from injury, for we all felt how invaluable it might 
 be to us, even after we got safely to shore. At last 
 Antonio sent us a glad shout from the midst of the 
 darkness ahead. His ordinary speech was a mixture 
 of French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English; and 
 now we heard him roaring forth : " Ici ! ici ! Madre de 
 Dios ! Gracias ! Tank God !" 
 
 He came on board with these exclamations, and 
 very shortly after we were sensible of approaching the 
 surf rapidly. As we drew near, over went our pilot 
 again, and in a few moments the astonished air was 
 rent with a thunder-peal of gladness, as our prow shot 
 swiftly and smoothly up on a fair sand-beach. 
 
 What a bustle ! almost as great as if we had really, 
 as Phil thought, reached the right land. But his keen 
 observation could no longer be cheated. In all the 
 hurry and excitement, I heard him say to his mother, 
 (who held the children both firmly to her till the word 
 came for us to go ashore) : " Mamma, is 'iss 'e other 
 land ? I don't see any cannles, mamma." 
 
 And then, mamma remaining attentive to other 
 things, he appealed to Harry, who replied, in a tone 
 of grave condescension : " No, this isn't the other land ; 
 this is an island." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 91 
 
 Antonio reported that it was high tide, though I 
 was unable to discover how he could tell that, in the 
 darkness, till next day, when I saw the long wet beach 
 at low water, and the waves coming up to the dry sand 
 when the tide was in. The boat was run up so that 
 we could almost step ashore from her bows, whence 
 the children and Mrs. Farley were carried by the men, 
 while Col. Anderson and the Captain assisted Mrs. 
 Bromfield and myself to alight, by a great leap, in 
 about three inches of water. 
 
 Oh, what inexpressible joy to have the land beneath 
 our feet again ! When we had felt it so, and heard 
 the children, and stood up together, Mrs. Bromfield 
 threw her arms about my neck and wept. " Dear Miss 
 Warren, how good is our Lord God, to spare us all 
 and furnish this resting-place in the midst of the shift- 
 ing, treacherous sea ! Is it not the peace of heaven, 
 after the uncertainty of these dreadful days ? to have 
 the dear children secure here, where the awful waters 
 cannot devour them to know that we are all gathered 
 safely out of that frail shell !" 
 
 I felt, from the intensity of her expression, that she 
 must have suffered far more than I had supposed, 
 and I had a little quiet satisfaction in making as near 
 an approach to encouragement as I suppose the most 
 courageous would have dared to offer her. 
 
 I returned her embrace cordially, as I was wholly 
 moved to, and said : " Yes, dear friend, it is joyful to 
 clasp each other in hope again, instead of fear and ter- 
 ror ; but we will not now think either upon the past 
 or present, except, if possible, to find a place of rest 
 for ourselves especially for you and the boys. I fear 
 we shall have you on our hands soon, unless you take 
 to sleeping more than yon have since we left the ship." 
 
92 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 I took her matters in some measure into my own 
 charge, and she suffered me, without remonstrance. 
 Col. Anderson, who, as he said, had nothing to look 
 after, unless we kindly suffered him to adopt us, had 
 our trunks and other chattels on the beach when I 
 stepped down ; and as no choice could be made of po- 
 sition that night, he proposed to spread a sail upon the 
 smoothest bit of sand he could feel out, and let us get 
 to rest at once. "For you know, Miss Warren," he 
 said, " that she cannot go on so without utterly break- 
 ing down soon." 
 
 Ching and Antonio presented themselves, by the 
 Captain's order, to await our commands. A light had 
 been struck by means of a flint, but was immediately 
 extinguished again, so that we only caught a flash of it ; 
 but our preparations went forward in the dark, and 
 very shortly our five weary bodies were stretched upon 
 the dear old earth, for a rest we had not known in ten 
 long days. Phil and Harry seemed scarcely able to 
 enjoy enough the intense luxury of spreading their 
 young limbs. " Oh, mamma," said Phil, " I do 'ike 
 to sleep here it's so better it's so nice isn't it ?" 
 
 The noise subsided about us, or we soon became 
 insensible to it, for it seemed to me, when I woke in 
 the early twilight of the morning, to have been but a 
 few minutes since I went to sleep. 
 
 That day was spent in preparations for our tempo- 
 rary home, which was at first an open tent, or, rather, 
 awning, to shelter us from the sun, but which grew be- 
 fore night into an inclosed space, where, for the first 
 time since leaving the Tempest, we enjoyed the luxury 
 of a dressing apartment. We renovated thoroughly, 
 to our great satisfaction and comfort ; and, as Mrs. 
 Bromfield, having first carried Harry and Philip 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 93 
 
 through a course of sea-water and towels, was stepping 
 outside, Antonio and Ching presented themselves, and 
 made known, in their respective styles, their desire to 
 serve us in the capacity of laundresses. 
 
 " Me washy," said Ching, u ver' good ver' much." 
 "Yo lava," said Antonio," what you call vash, 
 Madame, Signorita." 
 
 We were more than thankful for the service thus 
 offered, and Mrs. Bromfield did not spare expressions 
 of our gratitude ; for nothing, beside sufficient food and 
 drink, could so much conduce to our comfort here as 
 plentiful supplies of fresh clothing. 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 Our meals were taken in the tent Capt. Landon 
 and Col. Anderson joining us at a rude table made 
 from some bits of loose board and the seats of our boat. 
 We had but two plates, but the great avaloni arid 
 mother-of-pearl shells were more beautiful and nearly 
 as convenient. There were no trees near, and only an 
 inconsiderable elevation, a little to the north-east of us, 
 where, early on the first morning, a staff of the tallest 
 spars, spliced together, had been raised, and a signal 
 hoisted. On a little green spot beyond this a well had 
 been commenced on the same day, but though dili- 
 gently dug arid carried down several feet, there was no 
 sign of water on the third. This gave us our first real 
 anxiety. Water would be our first want if we contin- 
 ued to be alone ; and then, if the other boats' crews 
 should arrive without any as must happen if they 
 were out many days longer than we had been no 
 imagination could exaggerate the suffering before us. 
 Already we were sparing, and expeditions were daily 
 made to other parts of the island for water and fruits. 
 Bananas were brought us in plenty, but though very 
 agreeable and refreshing, and well used to take the 
 place of food, they seemed rather to increase than allay 
 thirst, especially with the children. 
 
 On the morning of the fifth day Ching came with 
 the pail and the Captain's compliments, " And he no 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 95 
 
 could more givee one pint, one lady two pint, two 
 boy !" 
 
 How poor Mrs. Bromfield's heart sunk at these 
 words ! " Oh, my poor children !" she exclaimed, 
 " what is to become of you, if we find no water ?" 
 
 And the sky looked as if it would never rain again. 
 Col. Anderson had been out all the day before in 
 search, and was going again this morning ; but he 
 presently approached the tent, and addressing my 
 friend, said : " I am just setting out for the other side 
 of the island, Mrs. Brornfield, and as we have been 
 prudently put on allowance of water to-day, and I 
 know my little friends will be most inconvenienced by 
 this arrangement, I came to say that four of the men 
 desired me, this morning, to tell you that they would 
 divide their rations with them. If you will send Ching 
 down to the tent, he will be able to get it any time." 
 
 Tears of gratitude, and deep, deep emotion, were 
 falling from her eyes before he had done speaking. " I 
 cannot now," she replied, " express to you, Col. An- 
 derson, or to these excellent and noble men, the grati- 
 tude I feel for all your constant and thoughtful kind- 
 ness. I should be grateful for any act that would 
 mitigate my own sufferings, were I alone ; but all that 
 is done to take away the horror and wretchedness my 
 children might have to endure, entitles the doers to a 
 reverential aifection from me." 
 
 She had taken his hand in speaking, and she 
 pressed it convulsively between her own before letting 
 it go. 
 
 " We are but doing," he said, " what a common 
 sentiment of human tenderness prompts all good per- 
 sons to do. I pray you not to cherish a sense of pecu- 
 liar obligation to any of us. There is not a man in a 
 
90 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 hundred, I suppose, of all who fill the world, but 
 would, in like circumstances, do the same. I hope to 
 be more successful to-day than we have been," he con- 
 tinued. " The man who told me of this island, said 
 they had sunk a well which supplied them, scantily in- 
 deed, but so reliably that they did not suffer ; and they 
 were more in number than we are at present. So that 
 I do not at all despair of success, but it may be some 
 days yet before we discover this treasure." 
 
 " Meantime," she said, " you are daily fatiguing 
 yourself perhaps exposing your health and life by 
 walking under this burning sun all the day. I fear 
 you are risking what we can ill afford to lose, my dear 
 sir." 
 
 "I am, fortunately, much used to torrid climes," 
 he replied ; " my Indian service is but three years 
 over, and I was in Algeria a little more than a year 
 ago. There is no danger of me, ma'am. If my 
 friends had the same security against suffering that I 
 have, in iron health and a toughened constitution, I 
 should feel much less anxious than I do. But I must 
 bid you good morning," he said, clasping her offered 
 hand ; " I hope to bring you good news to-day." 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield sighed as he walked away, and, 
 without a word, turned back to where her children 
 were awaiting the completion of a story which his 
 coming had interrupted. 
 
 " Mamma," said Harry, when it was over, " can I 
 go up to the signal with Antonio ? He is going to 
 look out by-and-by, and it's cool up there, he says." 
 
 " I am afraid, my darling, that the sun will be too 
 hot for you." 
 
 " No, mamma ; Antonio will carry your umbrella, 
 if you will let him will you ?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 97 
 
 " Certainly, dear Harry, if you go ; but I must ask 
 Captain Landon what he thinks of it, first." 
 
 She seemed to have partly recovered from her 
 anxiety about Harry, and when the sun was low in the 
 morning or evening, often let him run freely about 
 the beach and the ground where the stores were laid, 
 wishing him to have as natural a freedom as his safety 
 would allow, the more surely to throw off the serious 
 gravity that had settled upon him since the night of 
 the wreck. She took him now by the hand and went 
 down to the tent where Captain Landon was standing, 
 and when they came back, Harry was fitted out with 
 the umbrella and a cambric handkerchief folded in 
 the crown of his Panama hat, to keep out the sun's 
 rays. Antonio was to stay two hours, and all the 
 injunctions were carefully laid on both ; yet his mo- 
 ther's face was very sad and anxious as she let him go 
 from her arms. She stood looking after him and re- 
 turning his little salutations from beneath the umbrella 
 so long, that I said : 
 
 " You must be much less than your usual self, my 
 dear friend, to feel such an anxiety for Harry, when 
 he seems to be so well and cheerful." 
 
 " I am never happy or at ease when he is out of my 
 sight, Miss Warren," she replied. " I cannot be, since 
 that night ; and I have impressions, at times, of some 
 fate impending over him, which startle and pain me 
 inexpressibly. But I wish not to have him feel this, 
 as a cloud over his spirits, and therefore I have given 
 him some liberties, which I might, perhaps, have more 
 wisely withheld. You do not think there is any risk 
 in this little walk, do you ?" 
 
 " Not in the least, I should say. Antonio is so fond 
 of him, and so faithful and trusty, that I should think 
 5 
 
98 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 you might set yourself at rest about him ; and if you 
 would lie down with little Phil" who had quietly 
 turned over on the sail-cloth and gone to sleep "you 
 would, I think, be acting wisely. You know, dear, we 
 were to be mirrors for each other, and now I must 
 reflect your face to you, thinner and paler by many 
 shades than I ever saw it before. You will wear out 
 insensibly under these anxieties and dreads, and though 
 you may rely on your strength and endurance with 
 good reason, yet you know not how much more they 
 may be needed by-and-by." 
 
 "While I read this homily, she came and sat down 
 on the trunk beside me. 
 
 " Do not talk of resting now," she said ; at least 
 not of sleeping. I can rest better here with you, 
 dear." 
 
 And we went straight forward into a world of clear, 
 sweet talk, sitting there by ourselves on that quiet 
 morning for Mrs. Farley had gone to her sail-cloth, 
 otherwise her couch, and was also fast asleep. 
 
 At length Mrs. Bromfield said : " I have always 
 had a feeling that I could not lose one of my children, 
 and live. They are so closely related to my life, and 
 it is so shorn of other sweets beside them, that, since 
 my alarm about Harry, and our peril, I really do not 
 know an hour's peace. I am conscious of losing, as 
 you say, flesh, and strength of all kinds. That, in- 
 deed, would be natural to our position ; but I confess 
 I feel sorely burdened with a shadowy fear, apart 
 from the possible or probable sufferings of our lot here. 
 Oh! a woman's heart has its strength in love, and 
 when the love is taken away, alas for her who is 
 deprived of it ! All that life, at its worst, can do, may 
 be borne with it ; without it, great God, what deserts 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 99 
 
 filled with horrors stretch around -endless everywhere 
 but in that distant, narrow point, where the gateway 
 of the future life opens." 
 
 " But there," I said, " springs the bow of Hope, 
 that never fades to the eye of Faith." 
 
 " Yes, there it is," she replied ; " but the most 
 favored and exalted of us do not see it at all times, and 
 the hours of its obscuration are heavy and dark with 
 life's blackest shadows. Then, too, we know only the 
 affections of this life. We know only the sweet love 
 that blesses us here. It is reasoning, trusting, and 
 hoping for that which shall come to us there. Even 
 I, dear friend, with a light that you do not yet accept, 
 have sometimes but dim outlooks into that great future, 
 where our all lies after a few glancing years shall have 
 swept by. Did you ever meet these lines of an old 
 poet ? I know not who he was that wrote them, but 
 listen to their wondrous beauty and crystal clearness : 
 
 " Dear, beauteous Death thou jewel of the just, 
 
 Shining nowhere but in the dark ! 
 What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, 
 Could we outlook that mark.' " 
 
 How the slow-spoken words thrilled me, and the 
 spiritual glow of her dark eye, as she uttered them 
 seeming to outlook all marks and penetrate the depths 
 of the Infinite Beyond ! 
 
 " Surely," I said, " your vision is seldom darkened 
 in that direction. You have little to complain of, I 
 think." 
 
 " I oftener lose my beacon than you imagine, dear 
 friend," she replied. " A mist seems to heave up be- 
 fore me, and bury the known and the true in its blind- 
 ing shrouds. Granted that we have more light than 
 
100 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 any age has ever before enjoyed, we have also a larger 
 need wherein to absorb it. Granted that Science and 
 Religion have both unfolded to us truths and hopes 
 which were never before the property of the soul 
 its appetites and powers have grown with the receiv- 
 ing, and we can never again rest where we have. The 
 ages before us have given birth to creeds and systems 
 to which Truth was subordinated ; it seems to me the 
 grand privilege of ours to lift the divine light above 
 dogmatism, and inaugurate it in the heart of man." 
 
 " You believe, then, that, amid all the contention 
 and strife of this age, there is a greater influx of truth 
 than ever before ?" I asked. 
 
 " Not relatively greater, perhaps, than ever before. 
 There have been periods in the world's history as re- 
 markable as this ; but they were so by comparison with 
 what preceded them. Transition periods are always 
 so marked, but no previous one has led from so high 
 a plane to so high a one as those which are beneath and 
 above us to-day." 
 
 " Truly there is war enough," I replied ; " but it 
 seems to me that we are following ignesfatui, rather 
 than true light, in the way some of us are going." 
 
 " Never believe it for a moment, my dear friend," 
 she replied. " The new parties in the religious world 
 comprise many, very many of the most developed men 
 and women, whose inmost lives are hungering for some 
 high, clear religious truth. The soul has outgrown its 
 creeds, and more than half who remain within the 
 churches, even, already doubt their sufficiency for our 
 further development. Look, Miss Warren, at the 
 daring and constant challenge under which the theo- 
 logical dogmas lie, not from infidels alone, or persons 
 who can be denounced as such, but from religious, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 101 
 
 earnest, thoughtful, striving, loving men and women, 
 who desire God, and cultivate his likeness in their 
 souls ; who do not feel themselves irreligious because 
 the Church denies them its countenance ; but, on the 
 contrary, feel and know that there is a broad and deep 
 religious current in their natures, which is none the 
 less pure for not flowing in prescribed channels." 
 
 " But all this seems vague and indefinite to me," I 
 said ; " too much so to afford any substantial rest to 
 the spirit in its days of trial. One craves something 
 clearer and more positive." 
 
 " No, no," she answered, in quick expostulation ; 
 " do not say that you desire to be told how to be reli- 
 gious. Do not tell me you would rather repose upon 
 a creed than upon the infinite God and his eternal 
 laws. I cannot doubt that his truth and love are suf- 
 ficient for the soul in its darkest hours. They are only 
 clouded to me when thinking, as we were just now, of 
 the loss of the love which is ours here. What efful- 
 gence of glory, what greatness, what power, what 
 duration of existence, or wealth in any sort that it 
 could bring us, would compensate this loss ?" 
 
 I had no word of reply to these thoughts, and when 
 next she spoke, she said : " Do you know, dear Miss 
 Warren, that Harry's condition on that dreadful night 
 was like the instances of second-sight we used to hear 
 of, and which are now talked of as spiritual impres- 
 sions? He has had a similar experience one night 
 since, with less noticeable results ; but I cannot free 
 my mind of a deep and painful anxiety for him." 
 
 " His condition, in my opinion, Mrs. Bromfield," 
 said I, in my weightiest tone, " arose from some de- 
 rangement of his system. The child has a sensitive 
 and delicate organization, and he had, perhaps, eaten 
 
102 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 something that his disturbed stomach refused to 
 assimilate." 
 
 " That would do for you to say and believe, Miss 
 Warren, but not for me. You see only the outward 
 facts in the case, while to me his inmost spiritual con- 
 dition is revealed, in some manner that I cannot de- 
 scribe, but which I feel perfectly, and which you could 
 better appreciate were any life so related to your own. 
 Pardon me, dear, kind friend," she said, drawing me 
 toward her, and kissing my cheek ; "I spoke more 
 abruptly than I ought ; for, under all your outward 
 tranquillity, I found, long ago, a woman's quick heart 
 beating." 
 
 She did not speak again till I raised my head from 
 her shoulder, and said, " Tell me, now, the rest." 
 
 " I was saying," she resumed, " that I could feel 
 in Harry a different cause for these experiences, from 
 any mere bodily one. He has, normally, but a very 
 imperfect recollection of his father " she seemed to 
 speak with great difficulty and effort, but went on, 
 slowly " and yet he has twice, since we have been on 
 this island, described him to me, as accurately as if he 
 had seen him yesterday more vividly, indeed, than 
 children of his years ever describe those they live with 
 daily. It is not this alone, however, that impresses 
 me, wonderful as it seems ; but I have, in my own 
 being, a clear perception not intellectual that it is a 
 reality to the child. When he speaks, I see not what 
 he sees, but him seeing it. I do not make myself 
 clear to you, Miss Warren, I suppose ; but I have pon- 
 dered these things much, and it was an imperative 
 necessity to speak of them." 
 
 There was a long silence, which she broke by say- 
 ing, tenderly : "Did I open a wound in your heart, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 103 
 
 dear friend, by referring to the richness of my own 
 relations in life? Believe me, you have the truest 
 pit.y I can feel. If the angels ever weep tears of blood 
 over our mortal sphere, they must fall, I think, for the 
 woman to whom maternity is denied. If I hurt you, 
 dear heart, forgive me. I was too selfishly absorbed 
 at the moment of speaking those words, to consider, as 
 I ought to have done, that yours is the irreparable lot. 
 I could better afford to lose all now, if so terrible a fate 
 could be sent me, than never to have known the light 
 and sweetness of the last seven years. Brighter heavens 
 and fairer earth since that day of motherhood dawned ; 
 larger God and nobler humanity." 
 
 She stopped speaking, and held my head upon her 
 shoulder, pressing her pale, softened cheek upon my 
 eyes, to keep back the tears. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 I know not how long we had remained thus silent, 
 when the words, "Boat ahoy !" startled us. We rose, 
 and stepped quickly without ; and there, just coming 
 in sight, as if rounding our signal point, lay two of our 
 missing boats. Of course there was joy and bustle, 
 for we had all experienced more or less anxiety for 
 their crews. Mr. Garth was in one of them, and I was 
 struck with the difference between Mrs. Bromfield's 
 reception of him and her treatment of Col. Anderson. 
 She hastened frankly forward with extended hand, her 
 features speaking the cordial welcome she gave him. 
 No constraint or formality, as in the other case, but a 
 kindly and genuine concern for his wasted, changed 
 looks. He had evidently suffered much, though he 
 said they had had good weather, plenty of food, and 
 were only put on allowance of water three days before. 
 They "had naturally been anxious for the others," 
 he said ; and his hopeless eyes, as he spoke, turned to 
 hers. 
 
 Like a sister, or old friend, whose right none would 
 question, she sat down near him, talked over our voy- 
 age, and asked about his ; told him of the children, 
 showed him Phil, fast asleep, and assured him the child 
 would be delighted to see him : " For he has not for- 
 gotten you," she said, " nor suffered any of us to." 
 
 It was time that Harry should return now, for they 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 105 
 
 had already been something more than two hours 
 away ; and but for this exciting arrival, we should, 
 doubtless, have begun to be anxious about him. 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield walked to the end of the tent, look- 
 ing toward the point more than once after we spoke 
 of him ; and at length she said : " Miss Warren, I 
 think I must walk out and meet them. Will you re- 
 main with Phil till we return ?" 
 
 " Yes," I replied, " if you will go ; " but the sun is 
 getting very warm." 
 
 " So much the more need," she said, " of my care," 
 tying on her light bonnet. 
 
 " Can I be of any service ?" asked Mr. Garth. 
 
 " Thank you, I need no service, I hope ; but if you 
 will walk, I shall be glad of your company." 
 
 As I looked after them, I thought this and her 
 words puzzle me beyond anything. She would not 
 treat Col. Anderson so for her right hand ; yet I know 
 she has wholly forgiven his offense. What, then, is 
 the reason ? Does she love the man ? Has she found 
 in him the divine power to take, which she declared 
 she would not resist, and is she holding both him and 
 herself in a show of antagonism, because of our cir- 
 cumstances ? 
 
 Thus I questioned, with a growing hope for them 
 both, till the figures before me had nearly passed from 
 my sight around the rise of ground, when Phil awoke, 
 and called for mamma. " She is gone to fetch Harry, 
 darling," I said, lifting him and brushing his moist- 
 ened hair from his forehead. 
 
 " Div' me some water, p'ease, Miss Warren." 
 
 I held it to his lips, and he drank a long, long 
 draught, with such eagerness, that I thought, with a 
 shudder, of the time, possibly near at hand, when the 
 
106 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 prayer would have to be denied. I placed him on the 
 ground, with a kiss Phil's contact with the world, 
 thus far, was chiefly through kisses and caresses and 
 he walked to the door. Next moment I heard him 
 say : " Wat you run for, Ching ?" 
 
 "Wattee! wattee !" was the answer, in the glad- 
 dest tones of poor Ching. " He findee Colonel ; see !" 
 and he held forward a tin vessel, containing pure- 
 looking water, which I tasted. 
 
 " Good !" said Ching ; " no muchee one pail." 
 
 There was considerable bustle at the lower tent, 
 and I made out, over all the heads, Col. Anderson's 
 broad hat, like a small umbrella, drooping on his 
 shoulders ; and a moment after he separated himself 
 from the crowd and walked briskly toward us. 
 
 "You have found water, Colonel," I said, very 
 gladly, as I offered him my hand in congratulation. 
 
 " Yes, thank God enough to save us from actual 
 suffering, and perhaps to show us the way to more. 
 It is an eventful day, Miss Warren." 
 
 "Yes, happily eventful. We rejoiced to see our 
 shipmates arrive safely." 
 
 " Where is Garth ?'" he asked. 
 
 " He is gone with Mrs. Brornfield to Signal Point, 
 after Harry." 
 
 He changed color, and moved involuntarily, as when 
 a heavy shock falls upon some sensitive part. 
 
 " Mr. Garth looks very miserably," I added, wish- 
 ing in some way to convey my idea to him, and 
 scarcely knowing how to do it without committing or 
 risking a blunder. " He has evidently suffered deeply 
 on the voyage." 
 
 " And he carries an advertisement of it in his face, 
 I suppose," he said, bitterly, " to enlist pity." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 107 
 
 " I did pity him, certainly," I said, with somo 
 firmness, " and I know Mrs. Bromfield did ; for pity 
 is always born into her heart when she sees pain." 
 His face grew harder and sterner every moment. 
 " She would pity Captain Landon, or Mr. Watkins, or 
 Mr. Pedes, or any of the men, if they were suffering as 
 much, in the same way," I added. 
 
 " God forbid I should ever be honored with that 
 sentiment from her !" he exclaimed. " I could enjoy 
 her hate or Tier scorn, but her pity bah ! I would as 
 lief feel a tepid bath rushing over me under this sun- 
 shine, Miss Warren !" and he shook himself, as if he 
 felt the loathsome sensation already. 
 
 I smiled, and said : " I think you need be at no 
 pains to prevent the exercise of that sentiment toward 
 yourself. I should say it was the remotest of all pro- 
 babilities, in your case." 
 
 " Or her gratitude," he added, almost savagely. 
 " I wish she would never say thanks to me again." 
 
 You are a pair ! I thought : she will accept only 
 the one soul that is omnipotent over hers, and he is 
 chafing and fretting, lest, in the exercise of the com- 
 mon kindness which our misfortunes call for, he should 
 expose himself to her too fervent gratitude. 
 
 He sat upon my trunk, facing Signal Point, with 
 his eyes stretched, after their last savage flashing, away 
 beyond all near objects. Little Phil was beside him, 
 with his small hand resting in his palm an aifecting 
 picture of trust and wonder. He had not heard the 
 mention of his mother's name, and in the languid 
 silence that followed his long slumber he had heeded 
 only the last word and looks of his beloved friend. 
 
 '* Good God !" exclaimed Col. Anderson, suddenly 
 starting forward ; " what can that mean ?" And fol- 
 
108 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 lowing his movements with my eyes, I saw Mrs. Brom- 
 field and Mr. Garth approaching in the distance ; she, 
 with some great burden in her arms, which drooped 
 low under its weight, rather flying than walking, and 
 he near, but a little behind, as if unable to keep her 
 great speed. I was sorely frightened by the sight, but 
 the idea of Harry did not at the first instant enter my 
 mind. I was bewildered for a moment ; but then, 
 with a great stunning pang, that shot from my head 
 to my feet, came the thought he is drowned ! No, 
 that is impossible, said my common sense, at the next 
 breath; with Antonio, it could not happen. What 
 then ? sudden illness, that struck him down helpless ? 
 That seemed hardly possible in a child so healthy. 
 
 As they drew nearer, Mr. Garth made frequent 
 demonstrations of taking him from her, but she pressed 
 forward without even a gesture of remonstrance. 
 Col. Anderson met them more than half way, and I 
 saw that he lifted the child from her arms, without 
 resistance, and apparently bidding Mr. Garth aid her, 
 they came forward. I had presence of mind to call to 
 Ching and tell Phil he might go down to the shore with 
 him, but he must keep out of the sun ; and as they 
 went, I said : " Send Captain Landon here, quick." 
 
 " Yes, me send," replied Ching, in wonder. 
 
 ~No one had seen the party that was approaching, 
 and when Captain Landon, who came at once, entered 
 the tent, I pointed to them. They were now within 
 a few yards. 
 
 "What can it be?" I asked, feeling breathless and 
 cold. 
 
 " It is a sun-stroke, Miss Warren," he replied, in a 
 tone which at once cut off all hope. 
 
CHAPTEK XIII. 
 
 They entered, and the drooping body, even now to 
 all appearance dead, was laid gently on the sail-cloth. 
 The mother with a face that, notwithstanding the 
 burden, and the dreadful heat, and the haste, was as 
 cold and fixed as marble knelt down in silence and 
 opened the light vesture which covered it. Then there 
 was discoverable a slight fluttering in the little chest, 
 which she passed her hands softly over, as, with a sup- 
 pressed, shuddering moan, she turned to us who stood 
 by. Never shall I forget the uplifted agony of those 
 eyes at that moment. 
 
 Captain Landon, who had been gone a moment, was 
 now here again, with his medicine-chest ; but, with a 
 presence of mind and clearness of purpose that aston- 
 ished me, she put his hand back. " No, no," were her 
 first words ; and then she turned to me, and said, 
 huskily : " The little case of vials in my trunk, dear." 
 
 I went instantly and brought it ; and when she 
 had selected the one she wanted, she dropped, with a 
 steadier hand than my own was at the moment, two or 
 three drops in the small glass cup which I had filled 
 with water ; and, drawing the bright spoon from its 
 little sheath at the side of the case, she poured a spoon- 
 ful between the faintly purple lips. It was all the 
 work and thought of a very few moments. 
 
 No contraction of the muscles of the throat followed ; 
 
110 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 and as I, kneeling also beside that low couch, looked 
 more closely at the upper features, and saw the slight 
 corrugation of the brow, and the fading crimson give 
 place to a purple flush there, I knew that hope was 
 not to us. I trembled with fear as well as anguish, 
 and presently lifted my hands, and, without resistance, 
 removed the bonnet from the head, about which our 
 inaudible prayers of feeling and act began now to 
 center. 
 
 I stepped aside, and Captain Landon came to me : 
 " Take care of her," he said, in a low voice ; " the 
 child is beyond care in this world. I don't know what 
 to look for," he continued ; " she ought to be flushed to 
 scarlet with her exertion and the heat, but, you see, 
 she is like a statue. Where the blood is keeping itself 
 I cannot see, nor how to start it in its course." 
 
 " How long ?" I asked, pausing, in dread to 
 
 frame the remainder of my question. 
 
 " Not more than a few hours," he replied. " The 
 setting sun will probably see him at rest." 
 
 " How can how will it be borne ?" and I shud- 
 dered again and again, as the question passed through 
 my mind, and I looked at those two figures. 
 
 She had dipped her handkerchief in water, and laid 
 it over the darkening brow ; and there she sat, rigid 
 and white and intent recognizing our presence only to 
 sign us for anything she wanted for him and we stood 
 watching for the issue, and studying, each of us, how it 
 would be possible to save her. 
 
 " Where is the king ?" said Col. Anderson, in a 
 whisper, to me. 
 
 He spoke the word with an emphasis that conveyed 
 his meaning at once ; and when I told him, he stepped 
 carefully away ; but he might have gone with the rush 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. Ill 
 
 of an avalanche, for all her heeding him. I feared he 
 was going to bring the child immediately in ; but not 
 so. He returned presently, and taking Mr. Garth 
 aside, he asked him to go down, and keep Philip care- 
 fully from the sun, and from his mother also, if possi- 
 ble, " till," he said, " till the time comes when nothing 
 else will keep her to life ; and that will not be long, I 
 fear." 
 
 Then he sat down, not far from her, and pro- 
 nounced her name. She looked at him, in answer, but 
 did not speak. 
 
 " I have seen such cases," he said, before our dear 
 Harry's, in India and Egypt." 
 
 I had wondered at first what he could say, feel- 
 ing that I should not have dared attempt so great a 
 task as addressing her. But he was right and wise in 
 saying this, for the mystery and terror were holding 
 her speechless, as well as the agony. 
 
 " What is it ?" she said, laying her hand upon his. 
 
 " Will you rouse yourself to bear it, if I tell you ?" 
 
 She did not speak in reply, but from her eyes there 
 went to his such a dumb, beseeching glance, that I 
 felt the pain of it go through and through me. 
 
 He took her hand between his own, and chafing it 
 gently, said : " There is such great power in the soul, 
 dear Mrs. Bromfield, " if we can but see clearly when 
 and how it may be summoned to our help ! And 
 those who live nearest to God, and to the divine in 
 other souls, are most richly furnished for such bitter 
 conflicts as life sometimes forces on us. If you now, 
 with that heart's idol before you, were, as you might 
 be, with equal love, darkened and imprisoned within 
 the poor limits of ignorance and doubt " 
 
 " Tell me what it is," she whispered, interrupting 
 him. 
 
112 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Will yon promise me," he asked, " to bear it, as 
 I know you can ?" 
 
 Every word lie uttered, I thought, was wisely pre- 
 paring her for the final close. 
 
 " It is a coup de soleil" he said, still holding her 
 hand, while tears ran from his eyelids upon his cheeks. 
 
 " Then " she whispered, and paused. 
 
 " Yes," he replied to the unspoken question, 
 " then there is only left to your darling a few hours 
 more between this world and that he is so well 
 fitted for." 
 
 " Will he not know me again ?" 
 
 " No ; he will leave you without suffering, and will 
 never realize this life any more." 
 
 He spoke as authority, which on that subject he 
 was ; for, as he told her, he had seen all this many 
 times. After his last dreadful words, which, in fact, 
 announced that, to her, death had already taken 
 place, she turned her eyes helplessly to the little pa- 
 tient, and raised her right arm, as if with the purpose 
 of folding him in it ; but it relaxed, and fell at her 
 side ; she reeled to and fro a moment, and the next fell 
 back, as if dead, into Col. Anderson's arms who, 
 seeing what was coming, had placed himself to re- 
 ceive her. 
 
 " Some water, Miss Warren," he said, looking 
 scarcely less deathly than herself. " Pray God my 
 words have not killed her ! I meant to spare her and 
 soften the awful blow ; but this is fearful. Drench 
 her head with what you have, and wake that woman 
 to assist us. You must open her dress and chafe her 
 chest. It is not a mere swoon ; it is suspension of ani- 
 mation, from the terrible shock." 
 
 Till this moment there had scarcely been a loud 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 113 
 
 word spoken in the tent since Harry had been brought 
 in ; now I went over to Mrs. Farley, after giving him 
 the water, and shook and roused her, simply telling 
 her she was wanted. Her own senses must take in 
 the rest. I opened the loosely-worn garments that 
 covered my friend's form, and Col. Anderson dis- 
 patched Mrs. Farley for more water and Captain Lan- 
 don-s presence. He came immediately, and we chafed 
 and bathed her temples, neck, and hands, with spirit 
 and ammonia, while poor Mrs. Farley, dumb and 
 overwhelmed with what she saw, but could not tinder- 
 stand, stood over Harry with a wailing that it was pite- 
 ous to hear. 
 
 Beads of anguish rolled down Col. Anderson's brow, 
 during this time, which seemed interminable. 
 
 " Can we restore her ?" he asked of Captain Lan- 
 don, as the latter withdrew his hand from her heart. 
 
 " God grant it," he replied, " but I can feel no 
 motion there yet." 
 
 " I fear she will never return to us," I whispered, 
 " any more than the dear child." 
 
 " She must she will," said Col. Anderson ; " I 
 will bring her back, or die with her !" And, raising 
 her in his arms, he carried her forth into the shade of 
 the tent ; and when we had spread a bit of sail-cloth, 
 he laid her upon it, with her head raised ; and, kneel- 
 ing beside her, placed his lips to her heart, and 
 breathed forcibly and long, breath after breath, upon 
 her we, in the meantime, busy with the palms and 
 temples. 
 
 It was a great while so long, that I despaired of 
 ever again hearing that voice or seeing the light of 
 those eyes, when he exclaimed : " It is coming the 
 motion ! I can feel the flutter here, as of a dying bird ; 
 
114 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 please God, it shall be the flutter of life, returning to 
 abide. Captain Landon, will you bring Philip, and 
 give him into Miss Warren's hand ?" 
 
 He turned and left us, and the restorer's lips were 
 next moment pressed in unutterable tenderness upon 
 the still insensible forehead. 
 
 " It will not wake her eyes to anger, now," he 
 said ; " it will not offend, nor pain, nor chill the heart. 
 
 sweet heart! O noble soul! O glorious life, come 
 back to the worshiped citadel thou hast fled ! Miss 
 Warren, place your hand here, and feel if I am 
 deluding myself," he said, when still there came no 
 other perceptible sign of returning life. 
 
 I did so, and found yet only the faintest flicker, as 
 a rose-leaf would vibrate in the evening wind. " I 
 feel it," I said. 
 
 " Oh, then, God be praised, we shall have her back 
 once more ! And there is power in love, they say, to 
 work miracles ; if so, mine ought to hold her life se- 
 curely w r hen we win it again. If I could know," he 
 said, " whether, before her sorrow, my presence had 
 been hateful to her, as I sometimes thought, or if it 
 were her pride, I " 
 
 " It was her pride," I said, venturing the assertion 
 in fear that lie would withdraw his support when she 
 should be conscious of his presence. " It was her pride, 
 
 1 am sure do not leave us." And even as I spoke, 
 there was a tremulous motion of the eyelids, the pale 
 lips parted, and the next moment her eyes opened 
 faintly, but closed again, without, I think, taking in 
 any object. 
 
 "Bring the child, quickly," said Col. Anderson; 
 and folding the loosened garments over her bosom, 
 I went for him. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 115 
 
 Captain Landon had him in his arms, walking 
 outside, and telling him that mamma was ill, and 
 he was to go to her when Miss Warren came for him. 
 He had not seen Harry. He was to be kept calm for 
 his mother. 
 
 I led him around outside the tent, within which 
 Mrs. Farley still kept her place by the dying boy, and 
 before I reached the spot where his mother lay, I said : 
 " Don't cry, now, Philip, to frighten your mamma. 
 She feels very badly, and she wants Philip to come 
 and kiss her, and be very good." 
 
 " I will," he whispered, awed by her pale, motion- 
 less features ; " but, Miss Warren, where's Harry ? 
 Why don't Harry come to mamma ? Mamma loves 
 Harry, too." 
 
 I smothered the last words by clasping him close to 
 me ; and, alarmed by the danger they hinted at, I 
 said : " Harry isn't here, darling, and it will tire 
 mamma if Philip talks about him now." 
 
 " Well, I won't, then," he said, his small, delicate 
 countenance straining into an expression of sore pain 
 as he looked upon that prostrate figure and deathly 
 face. 
 
 With this little lesson, I led him up to her. Col. 
 Anderson's face indicated courage and trust, otherwise 
 I should scarcely have known, but by touch, whether 
 she was alive or not. He silently took Philip in his 
 arms, and sat, whispering, to soothe and sustain his 
 little swelling heart, till the happy moment should 
 come. He still held one of her cold, passive hands : 
 now he clasped the child's upon it, that the touch 
 might familiarize his mind with her condition, before 
 his self-control should be farther tried. 
 
 Thus we waited long, long, for the positive or more 
 
116 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 manifest evidences of returned consciousness. The 
 bathing with spirits and chafing were continued, and 
 again remitted, at short intervals : but I more than 
 once despaired of her ever speaking to us more, so fear- 
 fully prolonged was our suspense. 
 
 " Col. Anderson," I said, as we were passing out 
 of the tent whither we had stepped for a moment to 
 look at Harry, leaving Phil with his little cheek laid 
 to his mother's forehead "is there not still a 
 doubt of her recovery ? it is so very long since 
 she fell into this state ! Do you know it is near an 
 hour?" 
 
 " Yes I am more anxious than I can tell you," he 
 replied. " She is now, I think, though very slowly, re- 
 viving ; but the danger is, that, the first action of her 
 memory may be to restore that fearful picture, and 
 so banish life again, when our poor skill and means 
 might fail to recall it." 
 
 He resumed his seat by her, and took the child to 
 whose caresses and suppressed wailing she was still 
 insensible again in his arms. It was wonderful 
 his self-imposed calmness and showed us the mother 
 in miniature. 
 
 " What do you wash mamma in that for ?" 
 he asked, as I resumed the bathing of her temples and 
 throat. 
 
 " Because she is very tired, love, and feels so ill, 
 and this will make her better." 
 
 " Will it make her well enough to speak to me ?" 
 
 " Yes, by-and-by." 
 
 A slow contraction of the right hand the least 
 perceptible movement of it and our hearts bounded 
 at the sight. 
 
 "Mamma," pleaded Phil, scarcely able to articu- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 117 
 
 late, and reaching out to touch the living member 
 " do you want me, mamma dear 2" 
 
 The sweet, clear, tender accents, seemed to pene- 
 trate the dull ear ; for we saw a visible effort to part 
 the eyelids, and the lips moved ; but no sound came 
 forth. Col. Anderson rose hastily and stepped away, 
 but returned in a moment, with a bottle of Burgundy 
 Port in his hand. 
 
 " The spoon she used, Miss "Warren," he said. 
 " A little wine cannot fail to help this struggle of 
 nature." And he poured some out, and put it to 
 her lips. 
 
 It evidently passed, though we could detect no dis- 
 tinct effort to swallow ; presently another was taken, 
 and shortly after our trembling hearts were made glad 
 by seeing her eyes open, and the returning intelligence 
 look feebly out upon us. 
 
 Thereupon Philip softly laid his lips to hers, and 
 repeated the assurance of his presence. He was re- 
 warded by the most shadowy smile that ever flitted over 
 a wan, sunken face ; but her hand closed feebly upon 
 his, and so we knew that the silver cord was not finaly 
 parted. 
 
 I now left the three, to go to that other couch and 
 that form whence the thread of life was slowly unwind- 
 ing in a silence that would never be broken this side 
 the gates of Heaven. Perfectly motionless he lay, his 
 beautiful face darkening with the purple tide that had 
 been so suddenly arrested, but with no other visible 
 change, except a slight gathering of froth on the lips, 
 which his mournful attendant wiped gently away, from 
 time to time. There were sad faces looking in silently 
 every moment, and Mr. Garth, utterly broken down, 
 sat by the little feet he had so often guided, his face 
 
118 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 buried in his hands, and wept. Captain Landon went 
 and came, and Ching, and the seamen ; but I remem- 
 bered, at length, that, among all the solemn ones, I had 
 not seen Antonio. 
 
 When I asked for him, Mr. Watkins told me he had 
 not been seen since Mr. Garth and Mrs. Bromfield met 
 him with Harry in his arms. " I suppose," he added, " the 
 fellow feels badly enough, for it is very likely that he 
 went into the surf, after playing awhile, and forgot 
 himself there, leaving the child in the sun alone. Mr. 
 Garth says he looked little better than Harry, and gave 
 him up to his mother without speaking." 
 
 "Will you not send some one to persuade him 
 back ?" I inquired. " Poor fellow ! he may be afraid 
 to come." 
 
 " We will see to-morrow," he replied, " if he does 
 not come of himself to-night." 
 
CHAPTEK XIY. 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield recovered her consciousness slowly, 
 but steadily. After the first few words, we felt no fear 
 of its immediate loss again, for she had her own bal- 
 ance, in a degree, and spoke to relieve the anxiety she 
 read in our faces. Col. Anderson leant over, to hear. 
 
 " I shall not lose myself a second time," she said. 
 " I know all that has happened do not fear for me 
 any more." 
 
 But she lay still and held Phil's hand, and occa- 
 sionally whispered a word in his ear. " How is it in 
 there ?" she presently asked, of Col. Anderson. 
 
 " Just the same, my dear friend," was his reply. 
 
 " Will you help me to go to him ?" 
 
 " I would help you, God knows, and bear you to 
 the ends of the earth, if it would serve you ; but let me 
 pray you, first, to get firmer hold on the life we have 
 seen so nearly lost to us." 
 
 " The danger is past," she said. " I shall not be 
 shocked now, and I cannot lie here." 
 
 She spoke with great difficulty, but with such firm- 
 ness of purpose, that we felt resistance to be fruitless ; 
 and so she was passively taken again in Col. Ander- 
 son's arms, and laid beside her perishing child. As 
 she was going, she motioned me for Philip ; and now 
 the tent was cleared for the sufferers only Col. An- 
 derson and Mrs. Farley remaining, beside myself. 
 
122 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 with an agonizing fondness which I feared to see her 
 so indulge, without a tear or groan. At length I stole 
 away to the door, and signed to Captain Landon, who 
 stood near in the shade. 
 
 " Is it over ?" he asked. 
 
 " Yes, and I wish Col. Anderson would bring 
 Philip in." 
 
 Ching was dispatched immediately to the beach, and 
 presently the two were there, both pale, but the child, 
 with the blessed elasticity of his years, very much 
 cheered and comforted by the absence and by what he 
 had seen and heard. He had a beautiful and rare shell 
 in his hand, which he offered to his mother, who took 
 it mechanically in hers, and in answer to my inquiry, 
 if she would now rest outside the tent, assented. With 
 my own and Captain Landon's help she rose to her feet, 
 but her limbs refused their office. In spite of her strong 
 will, they bent to the ground, and she was again raised, 
 and borne away, scarcely more alive than the form she 
 left there. 
 
 It was now almost sunset, and what a night of suf- 
 fering followed that day's close ! None who witnessed, 
 will ever, I am sure, forget it. Preparation for the 
 burial, next day, was made on one side of the tent, 
 and unbroken vigil kept with the dead and almost 
 dying on the other. Mr. Garth took Phil, after he had 
 been undressed and bathed, down to the store, and in 
 time brought him back, sound asleep ; which, in the 
 midst of all our pain and anxiety, was a mercy I could 
 scarcely be enough thankful for. Col. Anderson and 
 I sat by her till the moon was extinguished in the full 
 light of the succeeding morning. Silent she lay, with 
 never a moan or sigh of pain ; only when one held her 
 cold hand, or touched her arm or shoulder, a shudder 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 123 
 
 could sometimes be felt, or a convulsive movement 
 passing over the weary nerves ; but when we looked 
 into her face with alarm, after these signs of her suffer- 
 ing, she would appeal to us with such mingled entreaty 
 not to be so disturbed, and such feeble assurance that 
 she was in no danger, and would rather be left alone, 
 that I should have yielded to her but for the Colonel 
 and Captain Landon, who both forbade the thought. 
 
 " You must not trust her alone," said the former. 
 " In five minutes she might be beyond help." 
 
 So we sat, and when daylight came, it would have 
 been difficult for a stranger to tell which was to be 
 buried that day mother or child but for the little 
 coffin that stood inside the opposite door of the tent. 
 It had been made of rough boards, with few and im- 
 perfect tools ; but its finish, nevertheless, testified to the 
 patience and skill with which love furnishes the heart 
 and hand. To my surprise, too, it was lined with 
 a clear, transparent muslin, laid in folds about the 
 head. 
 
 "Where did they get that?" I asked, of Mrs. 
 Farley. 
 
 " I tore up the sleeves of my basque," she replied ; 
 " I couldn't bear to think of the little dear's face next 
 to those ugly boards." 
 
 I kissed her cordially, on the instant, fully appre- 
 ciating the sacrifice, and said : " I am very thankful, 
 Mrs. Farley ; it will look so much better when she 
 sees it !" 
 
 And now we went to uncover the body and lay it 
 in its last bed. Mrs." Farley preceded me, and as she 
 removed the cloth from his face, she said : " See, Miss 
 Warren, how handsome he is !" 
 
 And, indeed, I was startled by the clear, saintly 
 
122 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 with an agonizing fondness which I feared to see her 
 so indulge, without a tear or groan. At length I stole 
 away to the door, and signed to Captain Landon, who 
 stood near in the shade. 
 
 " Is it over ?" he asked. 
 
 " Yes, and I wish Col. Anderson would bring 
 Philip in." 
 
 Ching was dispatched immediately to the beach, and 
 presently the two were there, both pale, but the child, 
 with the blessed elasticity of his years, very much 
 cheered and comforted by the absence and by what he 
 had seen and heard. He had a beautiful and rare shell 
 in his hand, which he offered to his mother, who took 
 it mechanically in hers, and in answer to my inquiry, 
 if she would now rest outside the tent, assented. With 
 my own and Captain Landon's help she rose to her feet, 
 but her limbs refused their office. In spite of her strong 
 will, they bent to the ground, and she was again raised, 
 and borne away, scarcely more alive than the form she 
 left there. 
 
 It was now almost sunset, and what a night of suf- 
 fering followed that day's close ! None who witnessed, 
 will ever, I am sure, forget it. Preparation for the 
 burial, next day, was made on one side of the tent, 
 and unbroken vigil kept with the dead and almost 
 dying on the other. Mr. Garth took Phil, after he had 
 been undressed and bathed, down to the store, and in 
 time brought him back, sound asleep ; which, in the 
 midst of all our pain and anxiety, was a mercy I could 
 scarcely be enough thankful for. Col. Anderson and 
 I sat by her till the moon was extinguished in the full 
 light of the succeeding morning. Silent she lay, with 
 never a moan or sigh of pain ; only when one held her 
 cold hand, or touched her arm or shoulder, a shudder 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 123 
 
 could sometimes be felt, or a convulsive movement 
 passing over the weary nerves ; but when we looked 
 into her face with alarm, after these signs of her suffer- 
 ing, she would appeal to us with such mingled entreaty 
 not to be so disturbed, and such feeble assurance that 
 she was in no danger, and would rather be left alone, 
 that I should have yielded to her but for the Colonel 
 and Captain Landon, who both forbade the thought. 
 
 " You must not trust her alone," said the former. 
 " In five minutes she might be beyond help." 
 
 So we sat, and when daylight came, it would have 
 been difficult for a stranger to tell which was to be 
 buried that day mother or child but for the little 
 coffin that stood inside the opposite door of the tent. 
 It had been made of rough boards, with few and im- 
 perfect tools ; but its finish, nevertheless, testified to the 
 patience and skill with which love furnishes the heart 
 and hand. To my surprise, too, it was lined with 
 a clear, transparent muslin, laid in folds about the 
 head. 
 
 "Where did they get that?" I asked, of Mrs. 
 Farley. 
 
 " I tore up the sleeves of my basque," she replied ; 
 " I couldn't bear to think of the little dear's face next 
 to those ugly boards." 
 
 I kissed her cordially, on the instant, fully appre- 
 ciating the sacrifice, and said : " I am very thankful, 
 Mrs. Farley ; it will look so much better when she 
 sees it !" 
 
 And now we went to uncover the body and lay it 
 in its last bed. Mrs." Farley preceded me, and as she 
 removed the cloth from his face, she said : " See, Miss 
 Warren, how handsome he is !" 
 
 And, indeed, I was startled by the clear, saintly 
 
124 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 beauty that lay before me. All the flesh had faded to 
 a marble whiteness ; all the corrugation was smoothed 
 away ; all the shadow of pain that had been reflected 
 there the evening before was withdrawn, and the seren- 
 ity of heaven had settled upon the countenance, which 
 seemed to my eyes radiant with its lofty but severe 
 beauty. My heart was gladdened and thankful, for I felt 
 that this would speak to the mother's soul a language of 
 consolation. Mr. Watkins raised the body with a ten- 
 derness and reverence one rarely sees but in seamen, 
 and placed him in the coffin. 
 
 " It seems," he whispered, " as if he were an angel, 
 and I ought not to touch him with my rude hands." 
 
 Two of the sailors came with some green vines and 
 small blue flowers of the most delicate and perishable 
 beauty, which I laid in a basin of water till the latest 
 moment should come. Col. Anderson had been busy, 
 outside, having an awning erected over her, there 
 where she yet lay, silent and motionless as ever. But 
 she had spoken in answer to his inquiry, and chosen 
 the burial-place a miniature vale, scarcely more than 
 twice the size of the small grave, hollowed out on the 
 hither slope of Signal Point the one verdant spot 
 in our sight and there, when I looked, I saw a group 
 of the sailors, with Mr. "Watkins among them, scooping 
 out the tiny tomb. 
 
 Philip was sitting by his mother, who held his hand 
 fast and still in hers, as if she felt it was the only 
 anchor that could be trusted to detain her to earth. 
 How deathly was her aspect ! yet, when I went and bent 
 closely over, asking if I could bring her some food or 
 drink, she looked gratefully up from her once proud 
 eyes, and, with something that was almost a smile, 
 said : " No, dear friend, I can take nothing now ; but 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 125 
 
 I am entirely sensible of all your attention and tender- 
 ness. I am not so feeble as you suppose, but the shock 
 has so unstrung me, that I cannot yet command my- 
 self; only be patient with me a little longer, and I shall 
 overcome it. I am too much paralyzed," she added, 
 after a pause, " to suffer, except in the moments when 
 I remember all, as one must when sensibility comes 
 back ; so do not concern yourselves for me. I only 
 desire to be still and alone." 
 
 " But I have one question to ask, dear friend," said I. 
 " May I venture it now ?" 
 
 She nodded assent. 
 
 " You will see him, will you not ?" 
 
 " I cannot go," she replied. 
 
 " No, but he shall come to you once again." 
 
 I wished her to see the tranquil and assuring beauty 
 of that beloved face. I knew it would be so much 
 more grateful to the agonized memories, of the days 
 that were coming, than the last aspect which she had 
 to recall. And I was right, though both Captain Lan- 
 don and Col. Anderson even the latter, with all his 
 fine instincts and intense tenderness opposed my 
 opinion strenuously. It would rekindle, he said, the 
 destructive emotions which Nature had kindly struck 
 into a temporary torpor, and, he feared, endanger 
 her life. 
 
 " It will not," I replied, Col. Anderson ; I believe, 
 on the contrary, it may unseal the frozen fountain of 
 her tears, and that will be the surest and quickest 
 means of bringing her to a natural condition." 
 
 I had my way, and when we were ready to go out 
 to the burial, Mr. Watkins and Mr. Garth bore the 
 little coffin, covered with a white cloth, to her side, and 
 laid it upon the ground. The sailors stood at a little 
 
126 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 distance, and Captain Landon, with the prayer-book in 
 his hand, was near them. Col. Anderson, with Phil 
 in his arms, had already moved off toward the grave, 
 to spare the child, and himself, too, I thought, the pain 
 of witnessing that leave-taking. There was not a tear- 
 less eye that looked on it not one among us but hers. 
 As I raised her up and supported her head upon my 
 shoulder, I should have trembled, but for the specta- 
 cle she was to look upon. 
 
 I had brushed Harry's dark curls back from his 
 forehead and temples, and the vine-leaves, with the 
 flowers wreathed among them, lay in dewy freshness 
 just on the line where the marble whiteness swept 
 purely out from the brown shadows above it. His 
 blue-veined eyelids were lightly closed, as if in the 
 sweetest sleep, and his mouth had its tenderest and most 
 childish expression such as he sometimes wore in life, 
 when gayly mocking his mother's fears or playfully 
 rebuking Phil for some obstinate transgression. It was 
 as if the most loving, yet acute spirit of the child, wit- 
 nessed and would dissipate our grief for him. He wore 
 one of his own 'linen night-gowns, made, for coolness, 
 with a wide neck, so that his full throat, and fair, 
 rounded shoulders, were all uncovered, as we were used 
 to see them in his sleep, and his right hand held a little 
 nosegay of leaves and flowers. Nothing could have 
 been more beautiful or peaceful ; and Mrs. Bromfield, 
 after a long, earnest gaze, leant forward, and kissed his 
 brow and lips and throat, and then, covering her eyes 
 with one hand, motioned us decisively away with the 
 other. They moved off. 
 
 " Shall I stay with you ?" I asked, seeing Mrs. Far- 
 ley stand awaiting me. 
 
 " No, no," she whispered. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 127 
 
 I hesitated ; for if we went, there was no soul near 
 her. " I wish you to go," she said, firmly. " I am in 
 no more danger than you are, my dear friend, and I 
 would rather be alone now." 
 
 When we reached the grave, Col. Anderson said he 
 would return to the tent, for it was madness to leave 
 her thus. 
 
 " Then let Ching go," I said, " for I am certain she 
 would rather not have one of us with her at this time." 
 
 So he was sent, and told to watch her carefully, but 
 not to speak unless she first called him. 
 
 Captain Landon read the service, which had never 
 seemed so grand to me as at that burial on that lone 
 island of the ocean, where, perhaps, no other human 
 dust would ever mingle with that of our beloved one 
 where the solemn pulses of the sea beat eternal requium 
 where the sun and the moon and the majestic stars 
 would shine on, unhailed, perchance, by any eye, for 
 ages after we were gone. As the coffin was lowered 
 into the grave, and that chilling sound struck my ear 
 to which every soul has succumbed when the first earth 
 has fallen upon its vanishing idol, I became conscious 
 of the approach of some one ; and looking up, I saw 
 Antonio, drawing fearfully and timidly near, with an 
 enormous coral branch on his shoulder. He was evi- 
 dently relieved when he discovered that Mrs. Bromfield 
 was not present, and coming up to where we stood, 
 with Col. Anderson and Phil, he said, with difficulty : 
 Ma'amselle, I bring him for Harry so," setting the 
 beautiful marine tree up for a tombstone. " May I 
 put him ?" 
 
 " I will see, by-and-by, Antonio ;" and I looked at 
 the Colonel, who said I should say yes, but it would 
 be better to consult his mother ; and he motioned 
 
128 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 the wretched, heart-broken looking boy, to lay it 
 aside now. 
 
 Poor Antonio ! I thought ; there is but one who 
 could have suffered as he must, to have changed so 
 miserably. His countenance was cadaverous and 
 sunken, and his naturally cheerful, bright eyes, had a 
 wild, restless, questioning glance for every face and 
 sound, like those of a criminal, who dreads an enemy 
 in each rustling leaf and breath of wind. 
 
 When the sad task was over, and we were turning 
 homeward, I looked around for him, determined to 
 take him with me to the mother ; but he was already 
 gone, and a tender-hearted Scotch sailor, whom we 
 knew as Mac, assured me that he could not be pre- 
 vailed upon to go yet. 
 
CHAPTER XY. 
 
 "We found Mrs. Bromfield lying still as when we 
 left her one hand clasped upon her eyes ; and I was 
 startled on approaching her, for I remembered that 
 this was the position in which she had dismissed us. 
 Had she died without moving ? T stepped hastily for- 
 ward and touched her, with a paralyzing dread that I 
 should find her insensible. But no ; the hand, some- 
 what warmed by the returning life-currents, answered 
 the pressure of mine ; and then I saw that the tireless 
 Ching was squatted upon the sand at the corner of the 
 tent, where, by stretching his head forward, he could 
 see her face from above, and remain unseen himself. 
 And there he sat, like a faithful dog intent upon his 
 service, with a more sorrowful expression in his long 
 Asiatic eye than it was wont to wear, and a light 
 of tender sympathy overspreading his blunt, stolid 
 features. 
 
 "Thank you, Ching," I said, dismissing him, " you 
 are very good." 
 
 " No thankee me," he replied ; " I likee." And he 
 drew a little nearer, and said, in a low tone : " No he 
 diee, Miss, like Harree ?" 
 
 " No, we hope not now, Ching. She will be better 
 by-and-by." 
 
 " Oh, me hopee !" he exclaimed, apparently taking 
 intense comfort from my assurance ; " me so hopee I" 
 6* 
 
130 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 When Col. Anderson came with Philip, the latter 
 went straight to his mother, and twining his arms 
 about her neck, said : " Mamma dear, are you better 
 now ?" No answer. " Turnel Annerson say, mamma, 
 'at Harry's gone away to the angels, and now you 
 must wake up and love me. Will you, mamma? 
 Will you speak to me ?" 
 
 What sweet, penetrating entreaty, was in his tones, 
 and in those simple words ! and it prevailed, for she 
 let his little fingers remove the hand from her eyes, 
 and looked upon him, and spoke tenderly to him many 
 words which we did not hear, that were evidently words 
 of comfort to the child's heart, and which she also grew 
 stronger in uttering. 
 
 After a few moments Col. Anderson drew near, 
 and dropping on one knee, bent over her, and said : 
 " Is there any service I can do you now, Mrs. Brom- 
 field ?" 
 
 " I thank you, my friend my dear, excellent friend ! 
 I believe I only require quietness and rest for a short 
 time, to be among you again. You can do me no 
 greater service you and dear Miss Warren than get- 
 ting some rest yourselves. It seems to me a very long 
 time since you can have had any." 
 
 " But it is scarcely twenty-four hours. I pray you 
 will not concern yourself for us. I would not trouble 
 you by my unneeded presence, nor would I leave you, 
 if my remaining can in any way comfort or serve you." 
 
 " Thank yon, I do not know that it can. It is to 
 myself, and One who is above us all, that I must look 
 for the strength and help I most need at this time. I 
 am deeply sensible of your care and tenderness ; but 
 only God and my own soul can help me to bear this. 
 Go, now, and let me see you again by-and-by." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 131 
 
 " Yes," replied the man, moved to tears by the 
 steadfast power and fearful suifering that were con- 
 tending in that beloved bosom ; " yes, I will see yon 
 again, when the sun is getting low, and take Philip 
 a walk on the beach." 
 
 And so he left us to ourselves. Mrs. Farley, who 
 had exerted herself surprisingly, and was very much 
 exhausted, had lain down in the tent ; and I drew near 
 my friend and her child, and, after telling her of An- 
 tonio's appearance and request, and receiving her full 
 pardon to convey to him, I also, overcome by emotion, 
 fatigue, and heat, fell asleep. When I awoke, the sun 
 was low in the west ; Mrs. Bromfield had left my side, 
 but Phil lay there yet, in deep slumber ; and I heard 
 subdued voices within the tent ; I rose immediately, 
 and stepping thither, found Captain Landon and Mr. 
 Garth in conversation with her. She had walked, with 
 Captain L.'s assistance, she told me, and had no doubt, 
 that, by to-morrow, she should be quite able to help 
 herself. 
 
 " And we hope, Miss Warren," said the Captain, 
 " to have the pleasure of reporting a ship to you in 
 half an hour or so. Watkins has gone up with the 
 glass, to see what it is, and he will very soon be here 
 with the news." 
 
 " Have you any means beside the signal," I asked, 
 gladdened, under all our weight of sorrow, " of calling 
 her to our help ?" 
 
 " None of much avail, I am sorry to say. If we 
 had our cannon and the powder that has gone to the 
 fishes, we could signal, in this air, with a still sea, fifty 
 miles, I think ; and if they should be holding toward 
 us, we shall be very likely, by the means in our power, 
 to attract attention." 
 
132 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Oh, how my hope was kindled by this announce- 
 ment, and how rapidly the idea of rescue grew in my 
 mind to be the sole one worthy of entertainment ! 
 Captain Landon left us very soon, unable to remain 
 quiet, yet, as he confessed, unable to use his own eyes 
 reliably, since our long voyage in the open boat. 
 
 " If this sudden and vague hope should be realized," 
 said Mrs. Bromfield, " which I can hardly trust my- 
 self to think possible, we should, doubtless, leave the 
 island to-morrow morning, should we not 2" 
 
 " I suppose it would, at least, be early in the day," 
 replied Mr. Garth. 
 
 " In that case, might I rely on your kindness to bring 
 Antonio here this evening? Or, bring him, first, to 
 Miss Warren," she added, " and perhaps she will more 
 easily persuade him to come to me." 
 
 He promised, and we were sitting silent a moment, 
 when a shout came up from the beach, of " Ship ahoy !" 
 Mr. Garth started, and I saw Mr. Watkins there, glass 
 in hand, talking earnestly to Captain Landon, but not 
 hopefully, as it seemed to me. I went down, hurrying 
 impatiently for the news. Alas ! I need not have 
 hastened to learn our disappointment. 
 
 " She just brushed our horizon, madam," said Mr. 
 Watkins, " standing northerly. Her hull was not in 
 sight at any time." 
 
 " I could have wept, but he said, cheerfully : " She 
 was like the wing of hope to us, Miss Warren. The 
 next one will come a little nearer ; and if only a little, 
 it will serve us, if they are human that are aboard of 
 her. We are going to splice our signal-mast with 
 about fifteen feet additional hight, and every one 
 doubles our chances." 
 
 I was struck with the fact that there was the same 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. J 38 
 
 excitement and stir produced by this event that would 
 have grown out of the substantial expectation of imme- 
 diate release. People went about gathering up loose arti- 
 cles, and making mental inventories of the things to be 
 taken, and those to be left as if the vessel, instead of 
 being already out of sight, were then dropping her 
 anchor or heaving to in the offing. So there was 
 no immediate need, I thought, of looking up poor 
 Antonio. 
 
 When Col. Anderson returned, he sat down near 
 us, with a sadder and more depressed face than I had 
 ever before seen on him. Silent as well as sad, for 
 what could he say to her, or to another, in her pres- 
 ence ? Too earnest to utter consolations that could 
 not be received; too keenly loving to feel anything 
 but her sorrow ; too tender, with all that stalwart 
 manliness, to witness her suffering, without suffering 
 with her; and forbidden all approach to the aching 
 heart, whose pain he yearned to still in the strength 
 of his pure love, he seemed to me, as I looked upon 
 them both, the one most to be compassionated. There 
 were few words spoken between them earnest words, 
 bearing relation to her health and returning strength 
 when he rose, and asked Phil if he would come to the 
 beach. " And you, too, Miss Warren," he added ; to 
 which Mrs. Bromfield quickly joined her entreaty, and 
 a promise to be well enough to accompany us the next 
 evening herself. 
 
 On the beach Phil had his shoes and stockings off, 
 and ran gleefully up and down, his little feet looking 
 like water-lilies on the dark sand, where the lazy low- 
 water surf rolled gently in, and sometimes caught them 
 in its rambling, subtile motion. Then he would scam- 
 per, laughing, to me and the " Turnel," where we sat, 
 
134 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 and recount his wonderful escapes, expressing his be- 
 lief that he did not care if the water did catch him 
 it couldn't carry Mm off. 
 
 After sitting awhile, we rose, and sauntered along 
 the beach, talking of the sad events of the last twenty- 
 four hours, with only the briefest allusions to those of 
 the time longer gone. But now Col. Anderson drew 
 my hand within his arm, and said : "I see before me 
 a period of sore trial, Miss Warren a period of rack- 
 ing suspense, to be passed in total inaction hard to 
 the dullest nature, but to me consuming and keen be- 
 yond expression. There is no active toil, or danger, 
 or hardship, to be found anywhere, that I would not 
 gladly exchange it for, were not my life, my heart, 
 my soul, so bound in these bonds, which I must not 
 ackpowledge, and cannot break. Good God what a 
 man can suffer, and live ! You will think me weak, I 
 know, because you will compare me with her ; but I 
 care little pardon my apparent rudeness in saying it 
 for anybody's verdict, since there is one which I 
 cannot get which fate and heaven forbid me even to 
 ask. Phil !" he shouted, sternly, to the boy, who was 
 venturing too far out, " come in here, sir ; I must keep 
 you by my hand, if you go to the water." 
 
 " I won't any more, Turnel ; p'ease let me stay 
 here" coming above the surf-line " will you ?" 
 
 " Yes, if you are certain you won't go farther." 
 
 " Not when I say I won't," he replied, stoutly ; 
 " my mamma always lets me, then." 
 
 " Your mamma, I believe, might trust anybody who 
 should promise her. I doubt if Satan himself could 
 break a pledge to her." 
 
 This was for my ear, and I replied : " She would no 
 less think of breaking her own." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. . 135 
 
 " True," said my companion ; " or of changing her 
 mind, either, I fear. You must know her very well 
 by this time, I think, Miss Warren ; and, by the near- 
 ness of your lives, of late, there should be a perception 
 an intuition a revelation something which would 
 give you a glimpse, at least, into that deep heart of 
 hers. Be candid, now, and tell me if there is any- 
 thing there to give me hope. I ask you, because I 
 cannot ask her, and because, even at the risk of being 
 thought unmanly, I cannot always stifle this longing 
 of my soul. I could be steadfast as any old heroic 
 martyr nay, I believe I could die cheerfully, if need 
 were could I but know that she loved me." 
 
 Thus appealed to, what could I say ? Not for the 
 world would I have compromised the delicacy and 
 dignity of my friend, and yet I longed, with a real 
 compassion for the person at my side, to say some 
 words of cheer to him. I more than half believed, 
 too, that he had the best grounds for hope ; but whe- 
 ther or not I was right in this, there could now be no 
 opportunity of proving, till all our circumstances 
 should very much change. Her grief clothed both 
 heart and person with additional sacredness from all 
 approach, and it was, I suppose, the wretchedness of 
 this constraint to him that brought forth speech 
 to me. 
 
 I paused so long, in reflecting how I should reply 
 in a manner to satisfy my regard for both, that Col. 
 Anderson, shaking my arm, said: "Can you not speak 
 to me of her, Miss Warren ? Can you not, at least, 
 give me your own opinion ?" 
 
 " I have no other to give," I replied ; " and if 1 
 cared less for you both, I should, perhaps, trouble my- 
 self less to consider what it were best to say. But I 
 
136 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 will speak the thoughts of my heart, only begging you 
 to remember that they are mine, and that I have come 
 by them as one woman, seeing much of another whom 
 she loves and reveres, might, honestly and fairly, in 
 the exercise of her own observation and judgment. Do 
 not forget that I have no other data. Candidly, then, 
 Col. Anderson, I believe there is hope for you. I may 
 not be able to define the grounds of my belief, so that 
 they will appear to your earthy, unspiritual faculties ; 
 I doubt if I ought even to try ; but as you have asked 
 me earnestly, I will answer in the like spirit. It is 
 not, I think, in the nature of woman, so readily to give 
 expression to her love as man does. Or, perhaps, be- 
 cause she has fewer experiences, she delights more in 
 magnifying and coloring this in her own bosom, before 
 she commits it to the keeping of another. And my 
 friend whom you love is more largely womanly in this 
 sense, as she has a deeper and richer interior life, than 
 any one I ever before knew. If she loves you, and her 
 judgment or her taste decrees the concealment of it, the 
 attendant angels whom she believes in will not know 
 her feelings, much less I, till the hour for their revela- 
 tion comes. Perhaps I ought not to say so much ; I 
 think I should not to any other man; but I count on 
 your silence. You may make of the suggestion what- 
 ever it seems to justify, for your solace. To me it is 
 significant. But of one thing be assured of two, 
 indeed. She is keenly just, and withal tender, and I 
 believe that when she shall recover herself, and find 
 her external relations such, that the dignity and sacred- 
 ness of her feelings shall not be exposed to common 
 observation, from which she would shrink as from fire, 
 she will not inflict on you the pain of a needless day's 
 suspense. Are you satisfied ?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 137 
 
 " Satisfied !" he replied ; " would anything on earth, 
 or above it, satisfy me, but hearing from that voice the 
 little words how easily spoken which would fill rny 
 soul with diviner strength for the coming years ? 
 Would anything give my heart rest but such fire as 
 would flow into it from those brown eyes, should they 
 ever open upon mine to second such utterance ? Oh, 
 Miss Warren, I become a child in thinking of her !" 
 
 " An ungrateful one, I fear," said I, resolved to 
 attack his intense emotion, at any risk to my own 
 vanity. 
 
 " No, not ungrateful, Miss Warren. On the con- 
 trary, I thank you sincerely for the kind and reasona- 
 ble words of hope you have spoken to me. And I 
 must ask leave to say for myself that I know I could 
 bear the long suspense which must be borne before I 
 shall dare to intrude upon her grief, if I had any 
 chance for action if there were anything to work and 
 struggle for ; but this waiting waiting for time to pass, 
 and for fortune to be borne to us on the shifting waves 
 and fickle winds is like a canker to my life. I can- 
 not be much with you henceforth, Miss Warren. I 
 despise myself when I leave her presence for my want 
 of courage, and I condemn myself, in it, for the 
 almost irresistible impulse I feel to demonstration, 
 that would ruin the superfine peace there is now be- 
 tween us." 
 
 "Col. Anderson," I said, "I have been involun- 
 tarily taken into your confidence in this matter ; and, 
 as I have passed the years in which such experiences 
 may come to myself, and am curious to learn what 
 I may of the strange, inexplicable human heart, pray 
 answer me one question, will you ?" 
 
 " That will depend," he replied, his sturdy, honest 
 
138 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 English reserve coming up at the word, " entirely on 
 its nature. I will not refuse in unkindness, you may 
 rest assured." 
 
 " Tell ,me, then, if you will, as candidly as you 
 would speak to a trusted elder sister, have you ever 
 before loved any woman as you do my friend 2" 
 
 "Never !" he replied, with an earnest frankness which 
 won my instant belief. " I have had passing fancies 
 attachments, even and I remember the objects of 
 some of them with most kindly emotions to this time. 
 Once, indeed, I thought I was in love, and I was on 
 the verge of declaring myself ; but my good genius, I 
 think, must have prompted me to note my own emo- 
 tions more critically before taking that momentous 
 step. It was at Calcutta, and I got leave of absence, 
 and joined a shooting party going far up into the 
 mountains of northern India. But I hunted my- 
 self there more diligently than any of the fierce 
 brutes we encountered ; and in three months I went 
 back, an unshaven savage ; rough and torn externally, 
 but as heart-whole as a forest lion who has never heard 
 the sound of a rifle. The first visit I paid was to that 
 lady, and, Miss Warren," he said, fervently, " I call 
 God to witness, that, to this hour, I feel at times the 
 thrill of gratitude which ran through every nerve and 
 vein, while I sat talking with her, for the escape I had 
 made : perhaps I should say we, for if I had married 
 her, she could only have been a little less miserable 
 than myself. I shudder when I think of it.- For I 
 believe very earnestly and substantially in love, Miss 
 Warren ; and if I am so unfortunate as to love a wo- 
 man who does not love me I will not say who cannot, 
 for I fear I should despise her, if, from gratitude or any 
 other motive, she could try I would go, self-exiled, to 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 139 
 
 some distant country or some deep seclusion, where I 
 could idealize her ; she should thus become the central, 
 ever-recurring dream of my life." 
 
 " And would such an aimless career satisfy you, 
 Col. Anderson ?" I asked. 
 
 " Satisfy ? Pardon me, Miss Warren, you ask a 
 child's question. The world is not a toy-shop to me 
 life is not a show. I desire one experience one hap- 
 piness one career. If they are denied me, do not ask 
 if another will satisfy. Life has nothing that I would 
 exchange this possession for, were it mine the uni- 
 verse contains nothing that I can dream of, which 
 would purchase it from me." 
 
 " Bat if it should be denied you," I said, trembling 
 in sympathy with the intense and sublime heart of the 
 man, " do not think to lose your pain in idle dreams ; 
 
 " ' Still hope, still act, be sure that life 
 
 The source and strength of every good 
 Wastes down in being's empty strife, 
 And dies in dreaming's sickly mood.' 
 
 ISTever will your soul find rest in dreams, my friend," 
 I added, after a moment's silence; "if your heart's 
 prayer is denied, look to action. The world is broad, 
 and life is rich with promises to those who will enter, 
 as you might, its fields of labor." 
 
 "Perhaps you are right," he replied; "but say, 
 rather, its forlorn hopes. I should not care how fierce 
 the struggle, if it were soon ended." 
 
 " But I believe it will be better with you than that," 
 said I. " There is prophecy of a noble future for you, 
 in the devotion of your own heart and the grandeur of 
 her to whom you have given it. I shall see the day 
 when you will walk the earth a proud and happy man, 
 
140 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 beloved as you ask to be. Pray God you may be alto- 
 gether- worthy the blessing, when it comes to you." 
 
 "Amen to both the prophecy and the prayer, my 
 good friend with all my soul, amen to both. And if 
 that glorious burst of moonshine, drifting hither over 
 the water, could be accepted by us as an augury, I 
 would say, prophesy as great blessing for yourself, and 
 may it come to you here and hereafter !" 
 
 We rose, for. Phil had been long asleep, and walked 
 toward the tent. Before we reached it, he said : " You 
 must take care of her, Miss Warren. You can be all 
 tenderness and help, while I am forbidden to approach 
 her, but as a stranger, to whose humanity her suifer- 
 ing appeals. And yet, she belongs to me doubly now, 
 for I believe I recalled her to life the other day, by the 
 old Indian trick of breathing upon her heart, with a 
 strong will that it would beat again." 
 
CHAPTEK XVI. 
 
 Three days passed before Mrs. Bromfield was able 
 to walk out of the tent. "We were anxious about her ; 
 about our missing boats (poor Mr. Wilkes never more 
 to see the wife and daughter in their " own house " at 
 Milleville !) about our rescue, and our provisions 
 which were beginning now to be very carefully hus- 
 banded. 
 
 In our tent we had fresh fish every morning for 
 breakfast ; fish, beef, and fruits, with a biscuit each, 
 for dinner ; and generally there was no third meal, 
 except for little Phil, who went on bravely through 
 all, only now and then indulging some tearful reminis- 
 cences of Harry, and hovering about mamma with 
 questions or caresses, according to the moment's mood. 
 Captain Landon, it was very plain, began to feel 
 deeply concerned. He watched the waters, and when 
 his own eyes failed to assure him that there was no- 
 thing no vision of mercy unfolded where he thought 
 he had seen a white speck on the horizon he would 
 summon Mr. Watkins, or Col. Anderson, and give 
 them the glass, watching their faces eagerly meanwhile 
 for the first sign of rejoicing. 
 
 He accompanied us in our first evening walk on the 
 beach, supporting Mrs. Bromfield, while Phil led me, 
 and Mrs. Farley sauntered and sat alternately, seeming 
 more in danger of utterly extinguishing herself than 
 
142 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 ever. Col. Anderson was nowhere to be seen after we 
 left the tent, and when our patient was fatigued and 
 wanted to sit, the Captain left us alone, saying he 
 would return by-and-by, to walk up with us. 
 
 She was still very weak, and as she leant her head 
 upon my shoulder, I felt the blessed tears drop, one by 
 one, large and fast, upon my neck. " Thank God," I 
 whispered, " for those tears ! Through them your soul 
 will rise again to light and hope." 
 
 "I could not weep before, my dear friend," she 
 said. " Nothing has touched my heart but to stun 
 and chill it ; but Captain Landon has been speaking 
 so kindly and encouragingly to me, and so pitifully of 
 poor Antonio who, he says, still stays away, and 
 looks like a wild man, in his hungry, haggard despair 
 that I see how selfishly I have submitted to my own 
 pain, forgetting that there were others suffering as 
 much, whom I could relieve. You must bring him to 
 me early to-morrow morning, dear. Captain Landon 
 says he will have Mac persuade him to come to the 
 tent ; and he thinks he can, by telling him that I am 
 better, and wish to see him about a tombstone for 
 Harry. It seems the poor creature has wandered all 
 over the island in his wretchedness, and tells of green 
 grass and trees and rocks at the south-western extrem- 
 ity ; whither, Captain L. says, if the worst comes, he 
 will, by-and-by, remove our tents, and only keep one 
 here, for a lookout northward." 
 
 " It will be very dreadful if we have to remain here 
 much longer," said IT "I heard Mr. Watkins telling 
 Ching, this morning, that the men could have but a 
 biscuit a day, from this time, and there must be no 
 more coffee made, except when the Captain ordered it. 
 That looks as if we were threatened with what we 
 haye not yet known does it not ?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Yes, my dear Miss Warren ; but we shall not 
 starve here, you know, because we can get fish and 
 fruits when our own provisions are consumed. Let us 
 not anticipate evil. If worse is coming than we have 
 yet experienced, we shall be best able to bear it by en- 
 couraging each other to hope and cheerfulness. Per- 
 haps the vessel that will rescue us is but two days', or 
 even a few hours' sail hence. It may come any day, 
 you know, on that great highway, which is so wide 
 and long, that, like the regions of space, myriads of 
 travelers may pass and repass upon its face, each un- 
 conscious that he is not alone there. I will try, my 
 dear friend, to forget the sorrow you have been so 
 noble in you and others and help you in your turn. 
 Is Col. Anderson more anxious ? I have scarcely seen 
 him since since that day." 
 
 " He is very miserable with this waiting," I replied, 
 " as any active man of large life and sturdy purpose 
 like him would be ; but I do not know that he yet suf- 
 fers any increased anxiety for our final fate." 
 
 " I must see him to-morrow. He has been so gen- 
 erous and forgetful of all that was unpleasant in our 
 former relations, ever since our troubles began, that 
 that I must express to him my sense of his nobleness." 
 
 " If you had said your gratitude, dear Mrs. Brom- 
 field, I should have told you that you could scarcely 
 wound him more deeply than by expressing that senti- 
 ment toward him. He has, indeed, been very noble 
 and delicate throughout, considering well, yes, to 
 speak frankly considering how he is suffering ; but he 
 would loathe your gratitude. Do not summon him, 
 therefore, to pain him thus, nor acknowledge his gen- 
 erosity in any way, unless you have somewhat to say 
 that might truly and earnestly come from the heart of 
 a woman to a lover, to comfort him. 
 
144 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 At these words she remained silent, but I felt the 
 fresh, warm tears bathing my neck. I kissed her fore- 
 head, and said : " I should not have spoken to you so 
 frankly, dear Eleanore, but I know you are true and 
 noble enough yourself to wish to spare another pain, 
 and you cannot now understand Col. Anderson's feel- 
 ings as well as I do." 
 
 " Has he spoken to you ?" 
 
 " He has, but three nights ago." 
 
 " Then," she said, sitting erect, and drawing back, 
 as if fearful of some further word from me, " then, I 
 must not hear one of his thoughts from you. Do not 
 speak again of him, dear friend." 
 
 " I shall not betray his confidence," I said, " to 
 any one, least of all to an unwilling soul. I should 
 not have spoken so far, but that you knew already how 
 he loves you, and that, by speaking, I might spare him 
 the savage wrath which your acknowledgments could 
 not fail to kindle. One who truly loves is only pained 
 by all expression which shows him how far he is 
 removed from the life in which he seeks to merge 
 his own." 
 
 " I thank you for the words. I would not speak to 
 vex or pain him, surely ; I must be selfish, indeed, to 
 do that, and just now T. would rather be spared the 
 analysis of his or my own feelings." 
 
 There was a long silence. Phil was asleep, lying 
 across both our laps, and Mrs. Farley, just visible like 
 a shadow on the sand beyond me, sat as if she also 
 were in that blessed condition. " Can we not, in some 
 way, Miss Warren, pick up and cherish that little, 
 withering heart ?" asked Mrs. Eromfield. " I never 
 before saw a rational person so helpless and hopeless." 
 
 " She is, indeed, so," I replied ; " and I fear that 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 14:5 
 
 nothing we can do will relieve her. There are kind 
 impulses in the little soul, but it has been trained, like 
 a wall tree, in a sunny exposure, till all its native vigor 
 is wasted. Such a tree will produce well while the 
 artificial conditions are observed ; but take them away, 
 and nothing can save it from premature withering and 
 decay. Her wall and fastenings went to the bottom 
 in the good ship Tempest, and we can neither replace 
 them, I fear, nor offer any substitute for them. No- 
 thing in us reaches her, except the momentary kind- 
 nesses of every day, and I fully believe she is thankful 
 when we leave her to herself." 
 
 " Poor soul ! I pity her, truly, in her loneliness," 
 said Mrs. Bromfield ; " and I would willingly share 
 our scanty support with a fourth woman, if only she 
 could be to her what you are to me. It is the great 
 wealth of our mortal life this of companionship yet 
 how few possess it, in husband or wife, in parent or 
 child, in brother or sister or friend. We all sustain 
 these relations, but who of those that fill them is the 
 companion of our soul ? How many can measure its 
 rejoicings and mournings share its enthusiasms its 
 unuttered hopes its secret life ? One who is my com- 
 panion must know me by the language of the eye the 
 cheek the tone, which is not framed into words by 
 the clasp of my hand by the raised or drooping head 
 by the swift or slow step by the whole dynamic 
 utterance. When I have thrown down the walls of 
 my being to such a person man or woman the inte- 
 rior kingdom is as much theirs as mine. One who 
 will lovingly and clearly read me, is a part of myself ; 
 and such a soul, when 1 have found it, is never more 
 lost to me, though the material globe be between us in 
 the outward form. So you, dear Anna, will be help 
 7 
 
14:6 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 and strength to me in all the coming years, however 
 widely our mortal paths may diverge." 
 
 " Yet I cannot read you, dear Eleanore, as you 
 have said sucli an one must. I am in doubt, at 
 this moment, whether or not you can rise to an expe- 
 rience which is offered you. I feel, in certain hours, 
 that no woman I ever knew could meet it so equally, 
 and, again, I find myself questioning if you can. I 
 have not yet reached the depths of the nature which I 
 can doubt thus." 
 
 She had drawn my hand tenderly between hers 
 while I was speaking ; and, holding it so, she said : 
 " I have hidden from myself, Anna, that whereof you 
 speak. Do not refer to it now, my friend. My heart 
 is too sad and weary with suffering. Know you not 
 that the aching eye may shrink from the light of the 
 most brilliant diamond ?" 
 
 " Pardon me, dear friend," I said ; " I meant not 
 to press you, and for the moment, I was forgetful of 
 our sorrow. There is some one coming to us," 
 I added, as we both listened to the sound of approach- 
 ing feet. 
 
 It was Col. Anderson, who, stepping down the little 
 hillock of sand which separated the beach from the 
 tents, said : " Ladies, Captain Landon has commis- 
 sioned me to come to you in his stead. He is not 
 feeling altogether well this evening, and trusts you will 
 excuse him. What can I do for you ?" 
 
 " Here is Phil," I said, " to be carried up ; will 
 you ask Ching or Mac to come and take him ? and then 
 we can assist Mrs. Bromfield." 
 
 " Oh, thank you," she said, " Col. Anderson's arm 
 will be sufficient for me. I am no longer helpless. If 
 you will be kind enough, Miss Warren, to get that poor 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 little woman under your wing, it will be better than 
 any service you can do me." 
 
 And so when Mac came and lifted Phil in his 
 brawny arms kissing him as he did so, and muttering 
 some blessing over him I went to Mrs. Farley and found 
 her in a condition between sleep and stupor that quite 
 alarmed me, till, by shaking her gently, and repeating 
 her name, I at last succeeded in rousing her. She was sit- 
 ting with her hands clasped over her knees and her head 
 drooped forward upon them, the very image of forlorn, 
 despairing helplessness. I put my arm about her, and 
 we followed slowly after the Colonel and Mrs. Broni- 
 field ; and I rejoiced almost as I should have once, if 
 so noble a lover had stood at my side, when I saw his 
 proud head bent low to catch some murmured word 
 which the wind was bearing away from him. 
 
 He kissed her hand in saying good-night, when we 
 reached the tent, and I was happy to see that no rebuking 
 fire flashed from her eyes at the act. While we were 
 preparing for rest, Mrs. Farley moaned and com- 
 plained so much, that, after many kind words and 
 proffers of service which the little woman refused, 
 saying she was not ill, only very much exhausted 
 Eleanore went over and sat down beside her. 
 " I fear," she said, " you do not let us understand 
 your condition. It must be more than weariness that 
 brings forth these involuntary groans. Pray tell me 
 what you feel." 
 
 " Nothing, indeed," was the reply, " but extreme 
 and general weakness. I began to feel it just before 
 we went out. It is nothing, I am sure. I shall sleep 
 it all away before morning." And almost with the 
 words she fell into slumber. 
 
 Eleanore looked at me questioningly. "I do not 
 
148 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 understand it," said I ; " but whatever it is, I know of 
 nothing we can do that will be so good as to let her 
 rest." 
 
 " I do not like her appearance," said Mrs. Brom- 
 field, holding between her own one of Mrs. Farley's 
 passive hands, which she said was cold and deathlike 
 to the touch. " Do you think it would be foolish to 
 ask Captain Landon to come and see her ?" 
 
 "You remember," I replied, u that he sent Col. 
 Anderson to us, because he was not quite well himself. 
 He has no doubt retired before this time." 
 
 " Poor little creature !" said my friend, compas- 
 sionately, stroking her glossy hair ; " what a frail, 
 shriveled life it is ! There is nothing near which it 
 can appropriate to its support. I would gladly give it 
 strength and nourishment, if I could." 
 
 " But you cannot," I said, " and you need care and 
 rest yourself. Pray go to bed now, and in the morning 
 I hope we shall find Mrs. Farley as well as ever." 
 
 I was soon asleep myself it was one of the blessed 
 powers of my nature, that, when rest was necessary, I 
 could take it where and when the opportunity came 
 and I did not wake till Mrs. Bromfield touched my arm 
 at daylight, and asked me to come and see how very ill 
 Mrs. Farley looked. " She has slept all night," said 
 Eleanore, " but so uneasily that I have been up three 
 times, and lighted a taper, but its light was too dim to 
 show me how badly she looked." 
 
 She was very pale, and her countenance had a 
 sunken, clouded expression, that frightened me. 
 
 She is very bad, I am afraid," said Mrs. Bromfield. 
 " Shall we wake her?" 
 
 " I should 'think it better to let her sleep," I an- 
 swered, " till we can get Capt. Landon to come to her." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 149 
 
 But word was presently brought that Captain Lan- 
 don himself was very ill. This startled us very much. 
 We had before been free from anxiety of this sort. By 
 noon two of the men were reported on the sick list, 
 and Mrs. Farley so extremely ill, that we had given 
 up all hope of her. We were incessantly engaged with 
 her and Captain L., who was brought up to our tent 
 and laid under the awning, where his indefatigable 
 nurse herself had lain, so near to death, but four days 
 before. Mr. Watkins and Col. Anderson officiated as 
 physicians, without, and Mrs. Bromfield, by Mrs. Far- 
 ley's choice, administered to her. It was that ter- 
 ror of the world Cholera ! Before sunset our poor 
 companion expired, and one of the seamen. But the 
 Captain still lived, and we had hope of him till about 
 three in the morning, when his symptoms rapidly 
 changed, and at half-past five the good old gentleman, 
 who had become endeared to us all by his unpretending 
 and unfailing kindness, breathed his last. 
 
CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 The fruits of the island had been forbidden the pre- 
 vious day, as soon as the disease declared itself, and we 
 had now nothing to taste but salt boiled beef, sea- 
 biscuit, and coffee. This was hard fare for poor Phil, 
 who complained a little ; but seeing how his mother 
 tended the sick and watched the well, cautioning and 
 encouraging them, he, too, put on his heroic mood, and 
 declared, that, if " Turnel " and mamma wanted him 
 to eat beef and hard bread, he would do it. 
 
 The dead were buried next day near Harry's little 
 grave, and standing beside it, in the cool of the even- 
 ing, after the solemn reading was over, while the 
 graves were being filled, Eleanore gave her hand to 
 poor Antonio, now utterly broken down, who wept 
 upon it with the mingled joy and terror of a child. 
 
 " You must come to the tents, Antonio," she said. 
 " I want you to help me take care of Phil and nurse 
 the sick, if there should be any more ; and you must 
 come to be taken care of yourself, my poor boy." Still 
 he kneeled, holding her hand. " It was dreadful to 
 lose my dear Harry so, but I know you would have 
 died to save him if you could ; and I am not angry with 
 you at all." 
 
 " Not one leetle bit ?" asked the broken-hearted 
 fellow, in a trembling, hollow voice. 
 
 "No, not so much as that," she said, showing him, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 151 
 
 after his own fashion, the smallest visible point of her 
 little finger. 
 
 " Then I go," he said, joyfully, rising. " I take 
 the little king, Signorita " 
 
 " Yes, if he likes to go with you." 
 But the little king did not. He clung to the " Tur- 
 nel" with earnest protestations, and so was carried 
 home in his arms. 
 
 When we were alone within the tent, Eleanore 
 threw her arms about me, and, with a flood of grateful 
 tears, exclaimed : "God grant, my dear sister, we may 
 be spared to each other ! Think, if one of us were now 
 gone, instead of that poor, innocent, helpless little 
 body, what a dreadful lot would the other's be ! And 
 my darling boy !" she added. 
 
 " We are both mothers to him," I said. 
 
 " Yes, I know, dear. I understand and trust you 
 entirely. It is a great security and rest to me. But 
 we must keep ourselves as calm and cheerful as possi- 
 ble. We will not let fear or depression touch our 
 hearts with the tip of an idle finger. There are so 
 many in the world to whom we are necessary; 'there is 
 so much for us to do, by-and-by, when we go hence ; 
 and, with all the pain of this experience, there will be 
 so many beautiful, loving memories of this little world 
 clinging to our souls, that I was never less inclined to 
 surrender my courage. I wish Col. Anderson or Mr. 
 Garth would come, before we retire, and tell us that 
 Tom is better, and no one else threatened. They think, 
 if he goes on as he is now till nine o'clock, he will be 
 out of danger." 
 
 "And may be," I said feeling a heaviness of heart, 
 that belied my hopeful words, as I looked at Mrs. Far- 
 ley's vacant resting-place " may be there will no more 
 
152 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 cases appear, since the fruit is prohibited, and none 
 have occurred for more than twenty-four hours." 
 
 Phil had been undressed while we were talking, 
 and almost instantly fell asleep in his mother's arms. 
 
 " Thank heaven," she said, fervently, " he is not 
 yet in danger ! He sleeps so sweetly, and is so beauti- 
 ful !" kissing him long and repeatedly before she laid 
 him on his couch. 
 
 "We were about to prepare for our rest, when the 
 voice of Col. Anderson greeted us from without our 
 closed door. I unpinned the canvass, and invited 
 him in. 
 
 "I come to tell you only good news," he said. 
 " There is no other case with us, and Tom continues to 
 improve. I have been telling the men some of the 
 pleasantest stories of my hunter-life that I could re- 
 member, and now Watkins is spinning sailors' yarns 
 to them ; so that we hope to get them cheered up and 
 send them to bed with their blood holding its due 
 course. My chief concern now is for this household, 
 and most for you, under all this fatigue and excite- 
 ment " turning, as he spoke, to Mrs. Bromfield. 
 
 " I feel quite well, Col. Anderson tired, certainly, 
 but very calm and strong, above my physical weari- 
 ness. And Phil, you see," she said, holding her little 
 taper over him, " is altogether sound and comfortable." 
 
 " Yes, the dear little king is quite right, I see. I 
 hope in the morning to hear his accustomed shout for 
 " Turn el," early ; and while it is cool, I will take him 
 a stroll on the beach, if we have no more sick." 
 
 He moved toward the door as he was speaking, 
 but Mrs. Bromfield checked him by a motion of her 
 hand, and said : " Col. Anderson, I have among my 
 medicines the antidotes for this terrible disease. Those, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 153 
 
 I mean, which are most relied on by scientific men of 
 my faith in Europe and America. We have each of 
 us taken them twice to-day, and though you may be 
 disposed to think lightly of their efficacy, I most ear- 
 nestly recommend them to yourself and the men. 
 Will you let me prepare some ?" 
 
 " I certainly shall not refuse for the others ; and if 
 I have sometimes smiled at the sight of that pretty lit- 
 tle box, it has been less in irreverent skepticism as to 
 the virtue of its contents than in admiration of the ear- 
 nest faith of its owner. Pray let me be numbered 
 among those you care for in this wise," he said, smiling 
 into her deep, clear eyes, where a momentary flicker 
 of answering humor played and was gone instantly. 
 
 She handed him the glass cup and spoon, with direc- 
 tions, and kind, cheering messages for those it was sent 
 to ; and, bidding him not fail to notify us if any were 
 attacked in the night, she gave him her hand with a 
 fervent " God bless you," and the words, spoken with 
 thrilling earnestness and depth : " Do not forget how 
 much we all depend on you, my friend." 
 
 " Not more than on you, I am sure," he replied, 
 with eyes whose tender shining added volumes to the 
 audible meaning. 
 
CHAPTEK XVIII. 
 
 When I woke next morning, Mrs. Bromfield was 
 already on her feet, and Phil's shout of " Turnel ! Tur- 
 nel !" was ringing cheerfully from without. What an 
 immediate and strong uplifting I felt in those two 
 pleasant facts ! The next care was to hear if his call 
 were responded to as usual, and it was. I was looking 
 intently in Eleanore's face, and when we heard the 
 first cheery tones " Here, Phil ; are you ready for the 
 beach, my boy ?" I saw the gladness of peace steal all 
 over it, from the smooth hair to the throat, whose curve 
 had unconsciously become rigid in the waiting. 
 
 No other voice would so quickly daguerreotype peace 
 upon her face, I said to myself; and from this moment, 
 let her silence be never so obstinate, I know she loves 
 him. I was glad of the knowledge so glad that I could 
 scarcely forbear saying to her how happy it made me ; 
 but I did, for I had a prevision of the same counte- 
 nance changed by my words to quite another expres- 
 sion than that tender and beautiful one. 
 
 When Ching came in to lay our table, he brought 
 and delivered, in some wonderful, inexplicable manner, 
 Col. Anderson, Mr. Garth and Mr. Watkins' compli- 
 ments, and they would, if agreeable, breakfast with us. 
 Of course we were very glad not to sit down alone to 
 our beef, biscuit, and coffee ; and we returned a very 
 cordial acceptance of their proposal using all our arts 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 155 
 
 of cheering and entertaining each other, that the 
 haunting shadows might be banished from our scanty 
 board. 
 
 Mr. "VVatkins was a hale, mirthful man, with a good 
 flow of spirits, abundant courage and kindness, but lit- 
 tle culture. In Mr. Garth these traits were reversed. 
 He was both traveled and cultivated, but had a shy- 
 ness which, on such an occasion as this, was increased 
 to painful embarrassment in presence of Mrs. Brom- 
 tield. How he had ever found the nerve to declare his 
 sentiment to her, as I knew he had, on board the ship, 
 I could never make out. She had always since treated 
 him with the frankest kindness, but the most entire 
 respect, and he had fallen into a habit of remaining 
 almost silent in her presence, except when addressed. 
 Mr. Garth was unmistakably a gentleman, and yet, 
 paradoxical as it may seem, he lacked somewhat that is 
 essential to the man. 
 
 Our breakfast was very cheerful, for she who was 
 the central life to us all had resolutely Jaid aside her own 
 pains and sorrows from the hour when we found sick- 
 ness among us. To have seen her now, one would not 
 have thought she had looked upon the dead face of a 
 beloved child within a week ; and yet I knew when a 
 terrible pang went to her heart, on Mr. Garth's inad- 
 vertently quoting one of Harry's sayings before we 
 left the ship. She passed it kindly by, however, and 
 drew him on to describe the lake and mountain scenery 
 of northern New York, where he had spent the pre- 
 vious summer ; then appealed to Col. Anderson and 
 Mr. Watkins, in their turns, not forgetting me, with 
 my little quota of experiences, nor to contribute her 
 own, among the others ; and I do not remember ever 
 to have sat :it a breakfast-table where more grace and 
 
^ THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 cliarm and unaffected entertainment, of a grave yet 
 cheerful sort, were offered and enjoyed by all. She 
 obscured no one, and yet we all shone in her light. 
 I did not wonder that Col. Anderson, who, of our 
 three guests, could alone altogether appreciate this, 
 offered visible homage to her in his eyes ; nor that Mr. 
 Watkins found himself going on, as he would have 
 said, under full sail, with a fair breeze, though all un- 
 suspecting whence it came ; nor that Mr. Garth lost 
 himself, and did at times gaze worshipingly at the face 
 which at others he studiously avoided. 
 
 In regard to health, when we withdrew from the 
 table we were comforted with the assurance that Tom, 
 with a little care, was past all danger, and nobody else 
 threatened. 
 
 " It seems too much to hope," said Mrs. Bromfield, 
 that no one else should suffer, and so unaccountable 
 the sudden coming and going." 
 
 " JSTo, said Col. Anderson ; " or, at least, if unac- 
 countable, it is not unprecedented. I have seen the 
 same thing in India more than once. I remember that 
 a friend of mine was once loading an American mer- 
 chantman with black pepper, at Calcutta. He had 
 Lascars at the work, and when he left them, to go to 
 dinner, there was no complaint among them. In the 
 evening I walked down with him to look about a little, 
 and five of the poor fellows were dead and dying of 
 cholera, but there were no more cases in that imme- 
 diate vicinity for a long time." 
 
 And so it proved with us now ; for, though Mrs. 
 Bromfield and I were in painful expectation, every 
 time we saw any one approaching, for the next two 
 days, no case did occur, and we soon began to feel 
 secure in that respect, and to turn to the winds 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 157 
 
 and the sea again with longing eyes and anxious 
 hearts. 
 
 The dead some one may say did you forget them ? 
 Were there no sad hours no painful memories claim- 
 ing your thoughts, in spite of your care for the living 
 and your desire for release ? Ah, shallow mind ! blind 
 spirit ! which sees not under that calm exterior the 
 agonized workings of the mother-heart that reads not 
 in the rapturous caresses of the living child the wealth 
 of love, now turned to agony, in that heart ! Yet to 
 me, and to all, I think, who saw her, there was some- 
 thing sublime in her quiet endeavors to hide her own 
 suffering and cause us to forget it. In the growing 
 anxiety about our final fate ; in the concern we could 
 not help feeling for those who had left the ship with us, 
 but whom we had now ceased to look for ; in the inces- 
 sant stretch of mind, which grew upon us hourly after 
 we felt ourselves exempt from further horrors of pesti- 
 lence, for some efficient means of hailing a vessel when 
 another should bless our eyes, outward indulgence of 
 personal grief would have been not only painfully 
 out of place, but would, perhaps, have caused the for- 
 feiture of that respect, which, fortunately, each of our 
 little band enjoyed from all, and which amounted to- 
 ward Mrs. Bromfield to little less than worship from 
 the common men. 
 
 To myself and Col. Anderson she sometimes, for a 
 moment, unmasked her aching heart ; and at others she 
 rose as to the empyrean, bearing our less spiritual being 
 up and up, by her religious courage, till, for the time, our 
 imprisonments and fears were all forgotten. One such 
 season I remember, and ever shall. The day had been 
 more than usually oppressive till toward its close, when 
 a vast continent of showery clouds floated up from the 
 
158 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 south, and shedding their contents fitfully over sea and 
 land, piled themselves against the setting sun. What 
 inimitable islands of leaden and heavy purple swam 
 there in oceans of orange light ! what golden-topped 
 mountains planted their "airy feet in those gorgeous val- 
 leys ! what violet towers, coped with name, shot up 
 into the misty deeps ! what banners floated there, 
 mocking in their redundant glory the pageants that 
 stir men's hearts ! what melting vistas opened away 
 into the warm, ethereal grandeur of that upper world ! 
 and what a glowing, answering sea lay beneath it ! 
 
 We sat at our tent-door, gazing in silent wonder 
 and rapture, till the spectacle had faded into the sober 
 hues of evening. 
 
 " And so, according to the poets, fade the bright 
 hopes of youth, when earnest life draws on," said 
 Eleanore. 
 
 " And you agree with the poets, do you not f 
 I asked. 
 
 " No, Anna. I used to, and I have wept tears of 
 sentimental agony over that loss. I have mourned 
 through endless summer days and long twilights, and 
 counted the hours which removed me further from the 
 hope, the strength, and the joy of youth. I grieved 
 that the Father had, as I thought, given us in the 
 morning all the magic wealth that should have en- 
 riched the long day. I have suffered so, as child of 
 mine shall never suffer atheistical fears that the ill- 
 timed bounty was exhausted with my tasting only 
 pains of loss before I had realized possession fearful- 
 ness and desponding for the future, while I could but 
 imperfectly prize the joy and riches of the present. It 
 is not so now. I have found such wealth allotted to 
 womanhood such relations, such uses, such power ! 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAIiraD. 159 
 
 Dear Anna, I have such faith in God, that I grow old 
 gladly. I know he will not stint my late years, and 
 that he has given me capacity to bless myself in them 
 beyond the most fervent imaginations of my youth. 
 It moves my pity to see a woman shrink from the 
 touch of the unrelenting years. What hollowness and 
 poverty of heart must be hers ! What esuriences must 
 exclude the peacefulness and trust which ought to fill 
 and satisfy her soul ! What littleness of desire must 
 contend with the great current which bears her irre- 
 sistibly onward ! To dread to grow old, to shrink 
 from the sum of the years already past and to look on 
 each coming one as an enemy, to seek by poor falsity 
 to make their number seem less oh ! it is very pitiful, 
 is it not ?" 
 
 " It is," I replied, " and I am glad it moves you so 
 gently. Better pity than contempt for such weakness, 
 which we ought to grieve at rather than despise, since 
 the whole of human history has educated us to feel 
 that our power is in our personal charms. Take youth 
 and beauty from a woman, and you disarm her. She 
 appeals only to the high and grand few without them." 
 
 " I confess it, Anna," replied my friend ; " but her 
 lack of power in middle and advanced life comes less 
 from her having lost those than from her want of devel- 
 opment of unselfish loves of pure and rich interior 
 life. Her career has been a prolonged struggle to keep 
 what God has desired that she should give up. She 
 has been often insincere sometimes ignoble not un- 
 frequently bitter in her fruitless efforts. Her defeats 
 bring her hardness, instead of tenderness and humility. 
 She loses what she cannot retain, and in the strife, 
 becomes that dreaded thing, an l old woman.' Oh, my 
 heart burns with rebellion and shame at what that 
 
160 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 epithet expresses! As if God created us to decline 
 from admiration to contempt from power to puerility 
 : from love to loathing. I honor a man whose hoary 
 head and benignant furrows record the numerous years 
 of a well-spent life ; but I am impelled to worship a 
 woman whom I see grow old and wrinkled, with the 
 radiance of a warm, sweet, tender soul shining out of 
 the ruins of that beauty in which she delighted years 
 ago. I rejoice in growing old, Anna. The hopes of 
 youth may fade like the gorgeous colors of that evening 
 sky. Let them. I know that a good and loving Fa- 
 ther hath furnished higher delights for every succeed- 
 ing period : a harvest sown in the future, to be reaped 
 by the hand that is faithful in the present. I feel that 
 we can grow gracefully old by being nobly young." 
 
 Col. Anderson had approached the door before she 
 ceased speaking, and now he came forward ; and while 
 his eyes beamed with tender admiration upon the 
 speaker, he said : " The air is delicious, Miss Warren, 
 and the evening promises to be one of the finest we 
 shall ever see. Will you and your venerable friend " 
 bowing to her " walk on the beach ? The slight rain 
 has set free the odors of leaves and herbage, and the 
 south wind is coming to us freighted with them, sug- 
 gesting memories and hopes of other lands. Will you 
 come?" he repeated, looking into Eleanore's dreamy 
 eyes. 
 
 We rose and accompanied him. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 The tide was coming in, and its first advancing 
 waves lapsed and died in soft music far out there on 
 the brown sand, where it was scarcely distinguishable, 
 by the faint light, from the waters it fronted. There 
 were peculiar influences in the air, in the sea, on the 
 earth, and in the tinted heavens, on that glorious even- 
 ing strong, uplifting influences, which took hold upon 
 us, and made our silence as well as our speech expres- 
 sive of enlargement and emancipation of superiority 
 to the external. We were raised as by a beneficent 
 and potent hand, above the thraldom of circumstance. 
 
 " Only to live in an hour like this," said Col. An- 
 derson, " is blessing sufficient for the present time 
 is it not ? One cannot look in the face of the Father 
 and ask for more." 
 
 " One desires no more," she replied ; " because all 
 that God can give is for the moment ours. The capa- 
 ble soul escapes its limitations, and draws so near to 
 him, that its emotions and intuitions are the direct 
 echoes of his voice. The visible and the Invisible 
 meet, and our spirits, touched as with fire from the altar 
 of that high union, bow down in spontaneous worship 
 of both. The electric chords of harmony which bind 
 the universe, are swept by hands of the Unseen, and 
 vibrate from soul to soul, whereby each is, for the time, 
 made part of the Highest. The mourning cannot 
 
162 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 mourn now, for we know there is no loss no death 
 but only transfer to fuller life. The yearning soul 
 prays and becomes wise for all future time. We ask 
 for the beloved and gone, and we are told that the 
 trees and the grasses, the clouds and the waters, alike 
 embody the form we have lost. Already is it resolving 
 into all shapes of life. A few months, and it shall float 
 in the lily of the Ganges, wave in the cedars of Lebanon, 
 or make green this barren isle of refuge. It shall pass, 
 by the ever-working law of life, through growth and 
 decay ; it shall rage in the angry ocean or gayly deck 
 the couch of the setting sun ; it shall bloom in the lux- 
 uriance of tropical climes, or beautify the fair gardens 
 and fields of our more temperate lands ; but so, as the 
 ages lapse, shall it pass from kingdom to kingdom ; and 
 I accept joyfully and lovingly the forms which may 
 contain it, because so hath the Wisest and Best ap- 
 pointed that life shall perpetuate itself in change. 
 Beyond this, I only crave that the sweet spirit that 
 blessed me here shall be itself; that it shall grow in 
 identity as well as in power and love, and that on 
 whatever planes of life we may hereafter meet or part, 
 my child shall still be my child. And can one question 
 that the Love and Wisdom which have created order 
 throughout all the inferior kingdoms, will extend them 
 to the highest and holiest relations of the future world ? 
 Can we question that what the universal soul demands 
 with ceaseless yearning, for its vanished idols, will be 
 granted to it ?" 
 
 " Doubtless to perpetuate is a lesser act than to 
 create," said I, after a silence of some moments. " We 
 are here, and we find ourselves so related to other be- 
 ings, that nothing but their own and our immortality 
 can satisfy us. If we have not that, the larger and 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 163 
 
 nobler the life is the more heroic and worthy in all 
 human senses the greater its failure in this. If there 
 is not a future, the martyrs have been fools and the 
 wisest and best souls have been treated as children who 
 are cheated into taking some nauseous drug by a 
 promised reward which can never be enjoyed." 
 
 " And without individuality in the future," said 
 Mrs. Bromn'eld, " for that is the highest we can re- 
 ceive. I ask but that God will make me to be forever 
 myself, with such wisdom and love as he has shown in 
 my creation, endowment, and relations to him, and to 
 the world without me. What more can he do for me 
 than thus to give me to myself, with light to see my 
 way ?" 
 
 "And power to choose it," said Col. Anderson. 
 " That is part of the gift, I think. I cannot be myself 
 as from God, without a certain freedom, which must 
 also come from him. But do you, then, reject the re- 
 ceived belief as to the future life ?" he continued. 
 
 " Which of them ?" she asked. 
 
 " That of the most enlightened and developed por- 
 tion of our race the Christian." 
 
 " I certainly reject the dogmas that are taught in 
 the name of Christianity. Between me and the God 
 who made me I can see nothing but an open path- 
 way, which I shall travel slowly or rapidly along, as my 
 power otherwise all the conditions that help or hin- 
 der me will permit. What I do not gain here, I shall 
 hereafter, in that progress ; but my individuality must 
 remain to me intact, or no gain or loss here can affect 
 me there." 
 
 " Your opinions are somewhat new to me," he re- 
 plied ; " I have not for many years been where ideas 
 form any material part of the religious teaching, and 
 
164 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 I have only heard the echo, in journals and private 
 letters, of the daring analysis which you Americans 
 seem, by your unsettled, restless natures, specially 
 fitted to push on. But may I be pardoned a question 
 or two ?" 
 
 " Certainly, if they call only for my personal opin- 
 ions," said Eleanore. I know no system, and am 
 attached to no party. Perhaps in my own belief 
 would even be found inconsistencies, if it were fully 
 sifted through the web of testimony, but I entertain it 
 as a religious, hopeful, trusting, human soul not as 
 a controversialist. I hold it, not for defense, but 
 growth, my dear friend ; and so I hope you will not 
 expect logic where you will find only earnestness ; or 
 theology, where you will find only love, reason, and 
 faith." 
 
 " The last," he said, " are what I should particu- 
 larly wish to find ; for, outcast as I have so long been, 
 I have heard enough, first and last, of theological 
 statement and dispute, not to desire them now, and 
 least of all, from you. It is your own thought 
 I ask for. You admit the universal presence of sin, 
 doubtless ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And its origin in Eden ?" 
 
 " No. I believe nothing so trivial and arbitrary of 
 the Being whom I adore as supreme. I view God as 
 the One, Loving, and Just, and man as his creation ; 
 iind the relation between them as being to-day what 
 lie intended it should be unchanged from his original 
 purpose by any single man or woman." 
 
 " Did God, then, make man to sin ?" 
 
 " If he did, would not that be better than making 
 him with an opposite purpose, and having to sit down 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 165 
 
 at the very beginning defeated ? But I believe that 
 man was made the last of long series of steps in the 
 material creation ; that in his own being were the 
 latent elements of the highest he can attain to in the 
 flesh or spirit ; and that our whole existence is a 
 career of development of those powers, sin being their 
 unbalanced and discordant action." 
 
 "Are we, then, freed from moral responsibility?" 
 " My dear friend, put aside the theological lens, and 
 look at man as a normal being, sustaining a normal 
 relation to God and the external world, and you will, 
 I hope, see a higher and purer and more invariable 
 law of responsibility than that arbitrary one, which 
 represents our beloved Father as dealing with us on 
 the same terms that a fallible and passionate human 
 parent would. Our responsibility for sin is as inflexi- 
 ble and inescapable as any law of God. It is the rela- 
 tion of cause and effect, which is never broken." 
 " Then God's dealing with us is never punitive ?" 
 " I think it is never so in the human or common 
 sense of that term. It is, nevertheless, punitive in a 
 strict sense, because all wrong inevitably punishes it- 
 self in the most lamentable and mournful way in 
 stifling and choking the glorious power that would 
 grow in us from right willing and doing. And in this 
 sense there is no pity so profound and Godlike as that 
 we feel over the sinner the self-abusive soul that 
 gropes noisily along in error or degradation, uncon- 
 scious that it is buried in midnight darkness or wrapped 
 in chilling mists, where the pure sunlight of love and 
 truth can never warm and cheer it." 
 
 " And do such souls, holding their evil way down 
 to the grave, go on through eternity as they have 
 through time ?" he asked. 
 
166 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Oil ! do not impeach the love of our Father by 
 such a suggestion," she answered, reverently. " Have 
 you ever seen a man so wicked and cruel, that, at all 
 times and for every moment of three score and ten 
 years, he would deliberately hold in torment even his 
 personal enemy him only who had conceived and 
 done him harm? Have you ever met a perverted hu- 
 man spirit so perverted as that ? You will answer no, 
 I am sure. Then how can we attribute to our God 
 such an inconceivable cruelty and tyranny ? I believe 
 there is but one law of progress, and that is progress 
 toward good." 
 
 " But it is often palpably reversed among those who 
 surround us," said Col. Anderson. 
 
 " True," answered Eleanore ; " but we judge all sin 
 from its outward and material effects. There are 
 many wrong-doers, I have no doubt, who attain true 
 spiritual growth while we are concluding their ruin 
 and utter condemnation. The history of the illustri- 
 ous shows us many Pauls and Bunyans, and we know 
 not how many humbler souls are born into purer 
 life by the keen, consuming repentance which follows 
 their transgressions. Then, too, we may consider that 
 our earth-life is but a flash of morning light ushering 
 in the long day of being. And though we may per- 
 versely turn our faces from it through all the years, yet 
 it is not darkness because we do so. The light is here 
 for every human eye and soul, and it still exists in un- 
 diminished fullness and glory, though some refuse for 
 a time to see it. By-and-by it will touch them with 
 gladness, for relations are changeable, but creations 
 remain until they are replaced by higher, but never 
 by lower ones. I believe not only that death is no 
 termination to us, but that it ushers us into a future 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 167 
 
 which is strictly and inevitably consequent upon our 
 present life. There the sensualist, cut off from his ac- 
 customed and cherished pleasures, will find, in the 
 wretchedness of his lot, a necessity to seek other enjoy- 
 ments ; there the malignant and hating will be deprived 
 of much of the power they have possessed here to grat- 
 ify their exaggerated passions; there the selfish and 
 mean will find no possessions to covet, and no advan- 
 tage to be gained by baseness ; there the ignorant and 
 darkened souls will see a little more clearly than 
 through the curtain of the flesh ; and there the merci- 
 ful, the wise, the pure and the loving, will find abund- 
 ant occupation for the powers they have developed 
 here. That is a rude, poor sketch of my heaven, dear 
 friends, and it will not much matter what articles of 
 faith we adopt, if only we adopt them, and do Godlike 
 work from Godlike motives and aspirations ; we shall 
 reach it some day." 
 
 " God grant it !" ejaculated the Colonel, earnestly. 
 " You are rising to go ; and indeed it is time ; but I 
 could wish for another hour on this theme." 
 
 " I fear we shall have more of them here than we 
 shall wish to occupy thus, Col. Anderson," was her 
 reply ; " but in any case, enough, probably, to enable 
 us to discuss these matters as fully as you may wish. 
 How calm is the ocean ! and what a majestic reign is 
 yonder golden cross holding in the still blue deeps of 
 the air ! Oh ! that we were at sea, with the hope that 
 would then be before us !" 
 
 " But how sacred, dear friend, with all our impa- 
 tience of its limits, will this little isle be to us ever- 
 more !" said I. 
 
 " Yes," said Col. Anderson, " not only for what we 
 shall leave here, but for what we shall some of us, at 
 
168 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 least take away from it : higher hopes, clearer pur- 
 poses, and larger views. How many wasted years I 
 can look back upon !" 
 
 " I know not what years your memory may be stored 
 with, and therefore speak not to your individual expe- 
 rience," said Mrs. Bromfield ; " but I think no year 
 is misspent that carries us a year further into true man- 
 or womanhood ; that records accession of strength, a 
 fuller completeness of character, growth in true ideas 
 whether drawn from the forest, the jungle, or the 
 ocean a truer perception of the Divine, and a more 
 merciful, loving relation to the human. If we had 
 ever a clear standard of character before us, and by 
 steady approaches neared that through all experiences, 
 the fret and toil of life would fall away beneath us, as 
 the desolate raging of that sea is stilled to-night below 
 the tranquil moon and everlasting stars." 
 
CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 We had walked past the tent, and were near to the 
 graves. Col. Anderson led us, as with a purpose, to 
 them. " I knew, my dear friend," he said, " that you 
 were strong enough to come here to-night without pain, 
 and see what Antonio, with a little help from me and 
 the carpenter, has done." 
 
 And there we stood before a very neat slab of brown- 
 stone, erected at Harry's head. It must have been of 
 the softest, certainly, for by the light of the rising moon 
 and the aid of my fingers, I read this inscription, in well- 
 shaped letters : 
 
 "H. B. 
 
 OBIT APRIL , 185 . 
 JiJtat 7 years." 
 
 " Poor Antonio !" she said ; and turned away, step- 
 ping slowly up the slope, toward the signal-staff. 
 
 I knew her tears were flowing, and I took Col. An- 
 derson's arm, and led him away to the other side of the 
 hillock, that we might leave her alone for a little space. 
 We were but a few yards away, separated by the little 
 hight, and were walking silently along on the noiseless 
 sand, when I heard her voice. 
 
 We both turned instantly, and hurried toward her, 
 alarmed. " I thought she was stronger," said my com- 
 panion, " or I should not have brought her here." 
 8 
 
170 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 And the next words we heard, as we rose to the top 
 and looked out to sea, in the direction of her hand, 
 were : " A ship ! a ship !" 
 
 I thought she had been mistaken, for I could see 
 nothing ; and Col. Anderson looked very steadily a 
 full minute before he confirmed her words. " Where ?" 
 I asked of her, for he was already gone to the tents. 
 
 " There ! very far away it looks, but I see it dis- 
 tinctly in the moonlight ; and we shall hail it, Miss 
 Warren," she said, in a tone of quiet assurance that 
 both surprised and gladdened me. "It must have 
 been shown me," she continued. " I was not looking 
 for it. I think I could not see it now except it had 
 been shown me. I was leaning against the staff, look- 
 ing down on the surf here, close in shore, when it 
 seemed to be said to me, in a voiceless speech, i There 
 is a ship which will come to you ;' and I knew where 
 to look for it when I raised my eyes, though they were 
 dim with tears. We shall go now, dear Anna." 
 
 What irrepressible joy I felt ! I was so light, that 
 I could have risen and danced, with the sudden elasti- 
 city of my spirit. There was a noise and rush from 
 the tents a shouting and hurrying a calling for fire 
 and guns ; and on they all came all but good, patient 
 Antonio, who had been left early in the evening to 
 watch Phil. It was now past midnight, and when 
 Mrs. Bromfield and I hurried to the tent, there sat the 
 creature, looking like a wild deer caught and hopelessly 
 fettered. 
 
 " Go, Antonio," said Eleanore ; " go, and make all 
 the noise you can ; and when she answers, come and 
 tell us." 
 
 He was off like the swift wind. There was already 
 a fire kindled on the summit of the elevation ; there 
 
THE IDEAL, ATTAINED. 171 
 
 had been two gun-shots, and tremendous shouts follow- 
 ing each ; then a long silence and breathless listening 
 for a returning signal. But none came. 
 
 " Once more, boys !" we heard Mr. Watkins say, in 
 his hearty tones ; " all together, now !" and there was 
 another peal, closing simultaneously with another gun- 
 iire ; then silence again : and slowly and heavily there 
 came, at last, over the water, the boom of a cannon. 
 I heard that, and I remember feeling a sinking and 
 darkness come over me after it, and nothing more till 
 I saw dear Eleanore's smiling face above mine, and 
 found my hair lying wet upon cheeks and throat. 
 
 " Dear, foolish child," she said, when I opened my 
 eyes ; " why did you faint ? I told you the ship would 
 be hailed ; and only that joy seldom kills the strong in 
 soul, I should have been frightened you have been so 
 long gone." 
 
 " Well, here I am now," I said, raising myself on 
 her arm ; "and the shock of gladness is past. Kiss me, 
 dear friend, for I am weak-hearted to-night, and must 
 have some of your strength, or I shall make a fool of 
 myself at last, and cry, I do believe." And in spite 
 of her caresses and kind words, the tears did force 
 their way from my eyes. 
 
 " Do not check them," she said ; " there will be 
 sturdier cheeks than these soft ones wet to-night. But 
 I am not in the mood for tears. Tears of men and 
 women must flow, I think, from unmixed emotions, 
 such as yours, which is one of simple and unclouded 
 joy. I do not feel that, and my tears will be more 
 likely to spring when I lift my foot for the last time 
 from this consecrated bit of earth." 
 
 Col. Anderson came as pale as either of us, and 
 more breathless. " She has answered us," he said, 
 
172 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " and, beyond a doubt, will come in. Mr. Watkins is 
 launching and manning his boat, and will go outside 
 the reef to speak her." 
 
 "You have no anxiety about her coming, have 
 you ?" said Mrs. Bromfield, approaching him where he 
 sat, looking very white. 
 
 " I cannot deny that I have a little," he replied ; 
 " some seamen are savages in their nature brute in- 
 stead of human ; but he answered us so promptly, that 
 I cannot really fear he will behave ill now." 
 
 " You are all too much moved, my dear friends," 
 said Mrs. Bromfield. " Here has Miss Warren actually 
 fainted, and but that your manhood would scorn the 
 imputation of such weakness, I should say you look as 
 like that as possible yourself." 
 
 He turned his eyes upon her, and his lips moved, 
 but no sound came forth. 
 
 " Bring me some water, Miss Warren, quickly !" 
 and she received his drooping head in her arms, and 
 lifted the dampened hair from his bloodless brow. 
 " What can ail you all to-night, to be going on in this 
 way ?" she said, bathing his temples, while she ordered 
 me to prepare some ignatia. " Here is our famous 
 lion-hunter," she continued, blushing, as his eyes 
 opened and looked into hers, from her shoulder, where 
 his head rested ; and then she added, mercilessly : 
 " Take a spoonful of that medicine, Miss Warren, 
 yourself, and bring the rest to me, for this patient !" 
 
 " Say the sauciest words you like to, madam," he 
 said, raising himself up with difficulty. "I admit 
 that a man deserves the worst a woman's wit can 
 invent, when he so far gives up his self-control as to 
 faint in her presence. If I had hastened away " 
 
 " You would have hurt me so much, that I fear I 
 should never, never have forgiven 3-011, my dear 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 173 
 
 friend," said Eleanore, quickly ; " whereas you, with 
 all your magnanimity, will at at once forgive my un- 
 feeling words will you not ?" and she offered him her 
 hand, with large, glistening eyes fixed on his. 
 
 He took it, and raised it to his lips in silence. 
 
 " That," she said, " is a piece of world's politeness 
 which may mean much or little. Is there no way in 
 which I can win back what I lost by those idle words ? 
 I would not have you think me unfeeling for the world. 
 I am not so ; but it is one of the vices of my tongue, 
 rather than my heart, that I seem to be at times ; and 
 I did wish," she added, with a daring frankness in her 
 face and eyes, as well as her speech, " to bury the idea 
 of position in sound." 
 
 " In other words," he replied, now thoroughly him- 
 self again, " you wished I should remain as I had been, 
 for the moment, unconscious of my resting-place ?" 
 
 " Frankly, yes." 
 
 " Then believe that I am entirely so." 
 
 " It is enough," she said, and loosed her hand, which 
 he still retained. " I offered you a remedy for faint- 
 ness, but I have no doubt that a glass of this wine 
 would be of more service ;" and she produced the bot- 
 tle from which some had been poured for herself, and 
 afterward for Mrs. Farley. " I am sorry it was 
 broached some days ago for a less worthy person " 
 meaning herself " but it may have some virtue yet." 
 
 Pie drank the cup she offered him, and then, 
 rising, said : " Come, let us go out, and see what 
 our prospect is." 
 
 It was now half-past two, and the moon as good, 
 the sailors said, as daylight, for boarding the ship. 
 We walked with the Colonel up to the Signal, and 
 there he loaded and discharged Mr. Garth's rifle again. 
 The sound went rolling over the still water, and after 
 
174 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 it had almost died away in the soft, distant airs, an 
 answering shot came. 
 
 " We are sure of him, now," said he. " He is 
 nearer than he was, and must be standing very close 
 to the wind." As yet I could scarcely see any change 
 in the appearance of our welcome visitor. The white 
 spot was a little more visible, but it seemed hardly 
 distinguishable from a cloud floating low on the water. 
 "While we were gazing anxiously toward rather than 
 upon her, we heard the shout, " There she goes," which 
 announced that the boat was afloat, and very shortly 
 the dip of the oars, a sweeter music to us than Paga- 
 nini or Ole Bull ever discoursed. Mrs. Bromfield and 
 I now repaired to the tent " to pack" not a formidable 
 business, certainly, and one wherein we had respect 
 rather to time-honored usage than necessity. Poor 
 little Harry's things as they came in hand ! alas, they 
 were few enough ; but the pain they cost, how dreadful 
 that was. How the hope and excitement of the hour 
 laded from her face, before those dumb witnesses 
 little gowns, and shirts, and trowsers, with the name 
 Harry written on some noticeable outside part, and 
 one dark warm suit that had been kept for colder lati- 
 tudes when we should reach them. 
 
 Tell me of any agony bitterer than that of a mother 
 in such an hour. Tell me of heroism greater than that 
 which firmly closes and clasps this suffering heart 
 against expression. Yet I was glad to see the still 
 tears fall, thick and fast, among the sacred garments 
 as they were laid away. She had come now to the 
 simple emotion of grief, and it was wholesome she 
 should weep. 
 
CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 When everything was finished, we sat down to 
 wait ; and Eleanore said, " Since last we filled these 
 trunks we have lived enough for an ordinary life-time. 
 I cannot get it all as one whole before my mind the 
 wreck, the escape, the boat-voyage what a terror 
 that was to me because of the boys the landing, the 
 happy days before I lost him, and the terrible ones 
 since. When I think along the course of all these 
 events, I feel that the Tempest must have been gone 
 years instead of weeks, and that we must be grown 
 old people, dear, since the cheerful, peaceful days we 
 spent on her. And where are we going now ?" I asked. 
 " This vessel may be bound to China or Australia instead 
 of eastward." 
 
 " Yes, it may ; but it does not seem to me proba- 
 ble. Do you know I believe its being near us was 
 revealed to me by the same means that Harry's death 
 was foreshadowed to him ? I was not looking for or 
 thinking at that moment of a vessel ; and I believe if 
 any person had told me there was one there, I could 
 not have seen it at that distance, by the faint light ; 
 but when I lifted my eyes I knew exactly where to 
 look for it, and just how it appeared. Harry," she 
 continued, her voice growing husky and low, " saw his 
 father twice after we left the ship ; but it did not affect 
 him then as it did the first time, so I said nothing to 
 
176 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 you about it ; but I ought to have known that he was 
 going to him when he was so firmly impressed with 
 the idea himself." 
 
 "Was he?" I asked. 
 
 " Yes, you remember his appearance that last night, 
 and his whispering to me ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Well, he told me then he had seen his father, and 
 was going to him soon. Our wreck and subsequent 
 safety enabled me day by day as we came along, to 
 dismiss the fearful thought from my own mind in a 
 measure, and partly to overcome it in his; but two 
 nights before we reached land, he woke in the dark 
 and whispered me again the same thing, and also here, 
 in the tent, the second morning before his death. 
 Dear child, he was not alarmed the last time ; for he 
 trusted firmly in me and my assurance that it was 
 only a dream. If so terrible an experience should ever 
 again be mine, I should open a view of the future to 
 the child, and endeavor to prepare him for the change 
 by familiarizing his mind with the beauty of that 
 world the pure joys the love the tenderness that 
 await him there. I should give him the thought that 
 to die was only to go to a pleasanter home in a world 
 as real as this. I should feel less pain now if I had 
 treated Harry so." 
 
 " He has gone very noble and pure," I said. " I can 
 not imagine a higher character in so young a child. 
 Whatever the inherent power of that gift in coloring 
 the immediate destiny of the future, he will have all 
 that could belong to so immature a spirit." 
 
 " Yes, I know," she replied, " he was born noble. 
 There was not a base atom in him. His father was 
 pure, and conscientious, and loving. My children 
 could not be ignoble, Miss Warren." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 177 
 
 "I well believe you," I rejoined "as my know- 
 ledge of you entitles me to. It is a growing belief, I 
 think, that character is, in the main, more likely to be 
 derived from the mother than the father. I fully enter- 
 tain it myself; so fully that if I were offered the choice 
 of a lot in life, I would rather be born of some mothers, 
 in right circumstances to give their natural powers 
 harmonious play and use, than Empress of all the 
 Russias. Your children are eminently blessed in this 
 respect, my dear friend, and, so far as a mother's grief 
 can be mitigated by such a thought, I hope it will 
 comfort your heart in the sad and heavy hours before 
 you." 
 
 " There is great and noble consolation in it, Miss 
 Warren, when one can claim it. It is a Godlike joy 
 to know that the being derived from our own is not 
 vitiated or enfeebled by any act of ours; that the 
 health and power which we have inherited, fortunate 
 if they were in generous measure, we have transmitted 
 to them, enlarged and strengthened by worthy use. Oh, 
 not for worlds w^ould I have it now to remember that I 
 had ever deliberately, or consciously, or ignorantly, if 
 the ignorance were not unavoidable, done an act that 
 could diminish my power and value to my children as 
 their mother." 
 
 We were interrupted by a distant shot apparently 
 from over the water, and stepping outside, were joined 
 by Mr. Garth and the Colonel, with the glad tidings 
 that the boat and ship had spoken each other ; for the 
 shot which was to be the signal of that event had just 
 been fired. What intense and peaceful gladness we 
 felt at every new assurance that deliverance had come. 
 Both the gentlemen asked for Phil, as they had before, 
 
ITS THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 anxious each to communicate the glad tidings to him 
 that the long expected big ship had come at last. 
 
 But his mother, prudent of excitements and loss of 
 sleep, objected to rousing him till the boat should 
 return. So alternately, we sat and walked, and talked 
 and were silent, till the banner of the coming day 
 shook out its gorgeous folds in the eastern sky, and 
 the great round moon began to fade, in the growing 
 light, before the oars came dipping in the still water 
 within the reef. There had been telegraphing by 
 shouts between the men aboard and ashore, but now 
 here they were, and our companions left us to get the 
 news. 
 
 "From Hong Kong, bound to Callao," was the 
 report, " three passengers on board, and our accommo- 
 dations very indifferent for you, ladies," said the good 
 natured first officer as he was introduced to us by Mr. 
 Watkins ; " but we will do our best for you. You will 
 not be difficult, I dare say, after all you have gone 
 through." 
 
 We assured him it was needless to take thought for 
 us in these respects. We were too thankful for the 
 escape to consider the manner or comfort of it. 
 
 The orders were now to get ready for the boat. 
 " The freight first, and the people next," Mr. Wat- 
 kins said. There was something almost melancholy, 
 like the rude breaking up of a home, in the haste and 
 confusion with which the place we had lived in was 
 deserted, and the things displaced that had made us 
 call it home. 
 
 Phil was roused, and in the joyous hurry, as neither 
 Antonio nor Ching could be spared to dip him in the 
 surf, the Colonel took him, and when he came back 
 delivered him, a very little Cupid, to his mother, to be 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 179 
 
 dressed ; when lie was " to doe wiz Tnrnel," he said, 
 " to the big-big ship." Trunks were carried away, sail- 
 cloths gathered up, tables recklessly knocked down, 
 and tents struck ; some full casks of stores were rolled 
 to the beach ; Ching's utensils hustled into an empty 
 one ; and at last, with infinite shouting and heartiness, 
 the first boat was off. The remaining one, which Mr. 
 Watkins had ordered launched, was next got into the 
 water, and by the time the sun was a hand's breadth 
 above the horizon, the other had returned and we were 
 all afloat, Phil in a state of intense satisfaction, at 
 leaving " that bad little land," as he said, and his silent 
 mother divided between joy in going and pain for what 
 was left. How white and steadfast was her counte- 
 nance, how dim her yearning eye, as she watched the 
 receding land, where she was leaving forever that 
 precious dust. How protecting the form and face at 
 her side. 
 
 It had been to me also a heartfelt experience, 
 but so crowded and confused, that I could not then 
 review it. There was a future too to think of a 
 startling one, if I were to be landed thus destitute 
 among strangers in a foreign country, whose language 
 I could not speak, with only the few garments I had 
 saved for the naked necessities of peril. Truly there 
 was much to be considered in the future as well as 
 the past. 
 
 The vessel we were approaching was the bark 
 Garonne, scarcely half the size of our noble ship^ and 
 looking so much less beautiful on the water, that grate- 
 ful, devoutly grateful as I felt for her presence, I could 
 not avoid contrasting them. The mate told us they 
 had seen our fire first, and was not a little amused at 
 the idea of the men shouting so vehemently, when a 
 
180 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 rifle-shot, lie said would be heard over that smooth 
 sea at least six miles. " They liked it," said Mr. Wat- 
 kins, " and I think you would, too, if you had been 
 in our places." 
 
 We were very courteously received by Captain 
 Dahlgren and his passengers and crew. The small 
 after-cabin which he occupied contained three state- 
 rooms beside his own, which their occupants vied with 
 each other in their zeal of resigning to us. They were 
 quickened to every imaginable sacrifice at sight of Mrs. 
 Bromfield and Phil, who walked about in a lordly 
 contempt of his poor surroundings, and in spite of his 
 mother's constant watchfulness, did more than once 
 give broken utterance to disparaging comparisons be- 
 tween this and his " big fine ship ;" for our lamented 
 Captain, as well as the rest of us, had inflated his young 
 soul, occasionally, by speaking of the Tempest as his 
 ship, so that he now felt himself injured by the ex- 
 change which had been made without his choice. 
 
 Captain Dahlgren was a Swede an educated man, 
 who spoke our language, as well as the French and 
 Spanish, very purely, but with a strong accent. He 
 was a gentleman, with much of the manner of the old 
 school about him, and when he gave us courteous 
 " good morning " at the table, with a friendly clasp of 
 the hand, there was that in the ceremony which made 
 the place brighter and more cheerful around us. For- 
 tune had behaved liberally in sending him to our 
 release. 
 
 His passengers were, a corpulent German of the 
 middle class, who smoked and drank beer assiduously, 
 but was good-natured, and two English gentlemen, 
 both old residents of China, and men considerably past 
 the middle period of life. The earnestness with which 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 181 
 
 they insisted upon placing us at once in possession of 
 their comfortable rooms, and making over for our use 
 their boxes of bed-linen, towels, soaps, and other per- 
 sonal comforts, really touched our hearts. We would 
 gladly have deprived them of but one room, leaving 
 the other for their joint use, and making a temporary 
 bed for Phil ; but Mr. Hart protested that he could 
 not remain on such terms, and Mr. Mackay declared 
 that he should esteem himself unworthy the name of 
 gentleman, if, after all our trials, he could selfishly 
 appropriate to his own comfort any accommodation 
 that would contribute to ours. With a slight tendency 
 to pomposity in words and to make set speeches, with 
 his hand on the well-filled organ that lay just below 
 his heart a mistake which doubtless originated in the 
 negligence or ignorance of his anatomical instructors 
 this gentleman did, if it must be confessed, often amuse 
 us, though he never forfeited our gratitude and respect 
 in doing it. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield was at once, notwithstanding the 
 sadness which overpowered and suppressed her, 
 assigned her natural position here, as everywhere else. 
 Nature claimed it for her, when she did not for herself, 
 and enforced the claim in all hearts. They laid their 
 homage at her feet in silent deeds when words were in- 
 appropriate. And even her suffering, pallid face, did 
 sometimes relax into a smile when Mr. Mackay, with 
 his right hand disposed as I have said, his left thrust 
 gracefully beneath his coat-skirts, and his large round 
 spectacles looking up to heaven from the top of his 
 head, as if to attest the fervor with which he spoke, 
 stood before her to deliver himself of some speech or 
 sentiment wherewith his heart was big at that moment. 
 
 " The original Pickwick, Miss Warren," she said, 
 in a whisper, one day after he had bowed himself out 
 gravely from one of these performances ; "a little 
 thinned by the anxieties and perils of foreign travel, 
 but with not a spark of his gallantry extinguished. 
 Seriously, we are most fortunate to find people so kind, 
 agreeable, and altogether satisfactory." 
 
 Phil was a treasure from stem to stern of the Garonne. 
 Captain, officers, passengers, and crew, welcomed and 
 petted him, till, with all his unconsciousness, he was 
 in imminent peril so Eleanore and I thought of be- 
 ing brought to need discipline ; not that he grew per- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 183 
 
 verse or forward ; but we felt rather than saw that a 
 child could not bear such constant deferring to without 
 being made willful and exacting. 
 
 Of our fellow-sufferers we saw little more than of 
 our new-found friends. Mr. Garth rarely entered the 
 cabin we occupied, and Col. Anderson, while bestow- 
 ing every attention and kindness which our situation 
 demanded from him, as carefully withheld every possi- 
 ble expression of more than that. Knowing his im- 
 pulsive nature as I did, and how his whole being 
 hungered for the sound of her voice and the spoken 
 word that should recognize him as in some relation 
 nearer than that of a stranger, I wondered daily at his 
 extreme and successful restraint of himself. 
 
 There was little opportunity for private conversa- 
 tion among us. The after-deck of the Garonne was 
 small, and encumbered with two boats, and if we took 
 the main-deck, as we were obliged to, for our walks, 
 we were never without near neighbors or companions. 
 This was the more annoying to me, because, in all the 
 confidences which had been between Eleanore and my- 
 self, neither of us had communicated to the other the 
 purpose which had led to this voyage. Before the 
 days of our misfortune came, she, calm, self-centered, 
 and self-contained, had never leant to the personal in 
 our conversations. That was a world by itself, lying 
 deep within always interesting me, because never 
 displayed ; always commanding my respect by the 
 visible rectitude and purity of her present life, as well 
 as by the refinement and elegance which attested what 
 it had been. After our trouble and sorrow, we seemed 
 to let go of the external future, and there had not been 
 a reference to the plans and hopes which now again 
 came to occupy their old place in our minds. I, at 
 
184 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 least, returned to mine with renewed interest, after the 
 long apathy to them. I had left my home for Cali- 
 fornia with the resolute purpose of applying myself to 
 money-making. I wished to enjoy leisure after I 
 should be fifty, and I had yet eight years wherein to 
 earn and husband the means of doing it. Thue I was, 
 I hope in an honorable and worthy sense, a fortune- 
 hunter. 
 
 But I could not judge that my friend was led by 
 any such motive or need ; for in everything that indi- 
 cated her pecuniary condition, there had been before our 
 calamity plenty, and even luxury. Everything worn by 
 her was subordinate, indeed, to herself, and so would 
 have been the jewels and robes of a queen, had she put 
 them on ; but it was evident that her womanhood had 
 never lacked externals befitting its nobility. 
 
 I began now to feel deeply interested in her future, 
 and when we found ourselves alone one evening, on 
 the starboard side of the main deck, full of hope that 
 the Captain would accede to our proposal to take us 
 first to San Francisco, I asked her directly of her ex- 
 pectations on arriving there. 
 
 " I am going to an uncle, Miss Warren," she re- 
 pjied, " who has acquired a large fortune, and sent 
 repeatedly for me to come to him. He is unmarried, 
 and doomed to remain so; and he wished to adopt 
 Harry and Philip. I refused his entreaties, which 
 came by almost every mail for a year or more for he 
 was here before the gold was discovered, and was 
 among the earliest enriched by that event; but at 
 length I felt it best to put away my repugnance to the 
 chaotic life of the country, and, for my children's sake, 
 and something like compassion for my lonely relative, 
 to come : somewhat of duty I owe to him, and much 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 185 
 
 I did owe to them an education and preparation for 
 manhood, which I scarcely could expect to give them 
 unaided. But now " 
 
 She paused, and I said : " Yes, it is changed now, 
 doubtless, since one is taken to God's higher school ; 
 but will you not be as likely to remain, for a time, at 
 least, as if it had not been so ?" 
 
 " I cannot tell, dear Anna. Yery much will de- 
 pend upon how and what I find my uncle to be. 
 I have seen little of him since I was a young child, 
 and men, in the strife and fret of the world, or the sat- 
 isfaction of triumph, are so unapt to put themselves 
 into their letters. I do not know my uncle, and until 
 I do, it is impossible for me to conjecture where an- 
 other year is likely to find us Phil and me." 
 
 Had this vagueness any reference to a possibility 
 that was always in my mind in looking to her future ? 
 Did any shadow of that devoted and matchless lover 
 fall upon the gray, misty field of conjecture whither 
 she was looking ? 
 
 There had been, as I have hinted, an application to 
 Captain Dahlgren, by Col. Anderson and Messrs. 
 Garth and Watkins, to change his course, and run first 
 to San Francisco. We were then waiting a breeze, 
 doing little or nothing, and often, when running a few 
 miles a day, going wide of our course. It seemed to 
 be our fortune to meet calms, or light baffling winds, 
 but we waited patiently and hopefully now, for when 
 a breeze should come, Captain D. said he would decide 
 whether to go to Peru, or first to California. On the 
 sixth evening out, there was a prospect of wind. We 
 were but little north of the latitude of Rescue Island, 
 but had made a considerable line of easterly departure. 
 About nine o'clock, when the welcome ripple of water 
 
186 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 at the ship's side had become a three- or four-hour old 
 fact, Captain Dahlgren, accompanied by Col. Ander- 
 son, entered the cabin where we were sitting, and after 
 seating themselves, the former gentleman said : " It 
 is necessary now to decide, ladies, whether we head 
 for San Francisco or Callao; and I requested your 
 fellow-sufferer and my good friend, Col. Anderson" 
 waving his hand with stately politeness toward that 
 gentleman " to come in with me and speak to you on 
 that subject. I am myself but part owner of the ves- 
 sel, and I must act, in so important a matter as trans- 
 cending orders, very advisedly, ladies very cau- 
 tiously." Here he paused. 
 
 Col. Anderson's countenance betrayed both per- 
 plexity and chagrin, but with the admirable directness 
 we always found in him, he came face to face with his 
 difficulties at once. 
 
 " Under other circumstances," he said, " we should 
 have settled the question and spared you this visit ; but 
 I act myself under embarrassments " his clear eye 
 lingered on Eleanore's as he spoke " which need not 
 now be mentioned, but which deprive me of the free- 
 dom and pleasure I should have felt in doing whatever 
 was necessary without troubling you. Our good Cap- 
 tain Dahlgren very properly wishes to know his ground, 
 and how far he can indulge his kind feeling toward us 
 without doing injustice to his owners. 
 
 " You have stated it profoundly, or precisely yes, 
 precisely, my good friend." 
 
 " Then," continued Col. Anderson, " it is necessary 
 to know what compensation can be made him for doing 
 us this great service. Watkins, Garth, and I, have 
 proposed terms to him, which he is, I believe, disposed 
 to accept, provided that you, ladies, are desirous or 
 prepared to enter into a similar arrangement." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 187 
 
 "Yes," said Captain D., "a similar one, or some 
 other that I could entertain." 
 
 Eleanore spoke first. " For myself," she said, 
 " Captain Dahlgren, I shall in any case be your 
 debtor for kindness that is above reward ; but for this 
 further service, if you can do it, I should most thank- 
 fully pay any price that you ask. I have but an im- 
 perfect idea of what would be just compensation, but 
 if you or Col. Anderson will tell me, I shall most 
 cheerfully and gladly engage to pay it on my arrival, 
 if it exceed the amount I have with me here. In the 
 hurried preparation for leaving our ship, I unfortu- 
 nately omitted to put into my trunk a wallet contain- 
 ing my principal drafts, but I have with me one for 
 five hundred dollars, on & ." 
 
 " The half of it will be sufficient," said Captain 
 D., promptly. 
 
 " Remember," she said, while her usual paleness 
 increased to a deathly pallor around her mouth, " there 
 are two included in my arrangement." 
 
 " No, no ; Phil, God bless him, should go round 
 the world and back with me without a dollar ! Allow 
 me that pleasure," he said, his face flushing with sym- 
 pathy for her distress, and earnestness to mitigate it in 
 some way." 
 
 " I will not refuse you," she answered ; " your 
 kindness forbids I should; but lest there should be 
 somebody wanting means to reward you for the ser- 
 vice we all shall share, please remember that I can, 
 without the slightest inconvenience, be set down for 
 the sum I have named. When I reach San Francisco 
 I shall have ample means." 
 
 I glanced at Col. Anderson, and his face was at that 
 moment whiter than hers. 
 
 Blind man. I said, mentally, not to know, that, if 
 
188 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 it were any such thing as you are thinking of, she 
 would be beheaded before she would allude to it. 
 
 It was my turn now, and I stated the simple truth, 
 that I had started with but two hundred dollars, in- 
 tending to seek employment as soon as I arrived in 
 the country ; that this was in gold and silver more 
 than half in the latter and that I had left it to go 
 down with the ship, fearing to encumber myself with 
 the weight, and thinking money of little value in that 
 hour of peril. " What I have," I said, " I will freely 
 give ; and if I had justifiable means of assuming fur- 
 ther responsibility immediately on my arrival, I would 
 cheerfully do so ; but I have no claims on any one 
 there, and at present can only offer you what I have." 
 
 Eleanore had laid her hand on mine before I 
 ceased speaking. " My dear friend," she said, " you 
 grieve me, in acknowledging that you need assistance 
 in your distress, while I am near you, and money, 
 when I have it, after all the obligations, which one 
 could never discharge with money. Pray, Captain 
 Dahlgren, do not let Miss Warren empty her purse 
 into your hand on landing in a strange city. This 
 draft, by your statement, will satisfy for both of us 
 will it not ?" 
 
 He looked at it. " Yes, madam, amply ; set 
 yourself at rest about that. And it is on a good 
 house, too." 
 
 " Oh, yes," she said, with a smile, which just hinted 
 that it was above all question. " I should scarcely 
 have offered it to you if it had not been." 
 
 I was thus constrained to accept her generosity, 
 which was enforced in so delicate and self-obliging a 
 spirit that only the most ungracious could have refused 
 it ; and I satisfied myself with simply saying : " I will 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 189 
 
 be so much indebted to you, for the present, Mrs. 
 Bromfield." 
 
 Col. Anderson was still very pale, and sat silent 
 from the moment when he had laid the matter open 
 before us. They now rose to leave us ; or rather, Cap- 
 tain Dahlgren, the arrangement being completed, rose 
 to give orders to stand northward. Col. A. remained 
 a few moments, speaking abstractedly in answer to our 
 questions as to the probable length of the voyage, and 
 other such matters ; but the pain of his spirit was too 
 great to be endured there. He had been stabbed as by a 
 poisoned blade, and he went away carrying the barbed 
 and cruel weapon in his heart. 
 
 Mrs. Bromfield, observing his wretched looks, in- 
 quired, with a most unaffected concern, if he were not 
 well ; and being answered, " Quite so, thank you," 
 offered him her hand with her good-night, as he was 
 going." 
 
 " I am sure something ails or affects Col. Ander- 
 son deeply," she said, after he was gone. " What can 
 it be ?" 
 
 "Shall I tell you?" I asked. 
 
 " Oh, no, no 1" she replied, looking about her ; 
 " if it is is what we have already spoken of, don't 
 name it here." 
 
 " There is no one here but ourselves. They are all 
 on deck ; and you shall know," I said, holding her 
 hand, as she was about raising it in expostulation. 
 " If you had had eyes, you could have seen it as well 
 as I." 
 
 "Is it some especial fact or circumstance?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "It is a horrible doubt, that is at this moment 
 eating into his very heart. You said you should have 
 
190 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 ample means in San Francisco, and he has never heard 
 of your having a relative there. Do you understand 
 now?" 
 
 " ISTot his right " she began. 
 
 " Right, dear Eleanore ! "What has right to do 
 with a heroic man dying at the feet of a hard-hearted 
 woman ?" I asked, warmly. " Does love ever question 
 its own right to suffer ? I see now that almost your 
 lip curls ; but you know as well as I that only a 
 strong, heroic soul, can so love and so endure. And 
 if I could believe you insensible to the manly passion 
 and the womanly delicacy with which, among these 
 common persons, he buries it from every eye, I cer- 
 tainly should love you less, and respect you less, too ; 
 for it would argue a lack of womanliness, which 
 I should be slow to attribute to you without such 
 proof." 
 
 Her eyes dilated while I spoke, their solemn gaze 
 fixed full upon my excited countenance, and so rest- 
 ing through a long pause, after I had done. 
 
 " Whether I am so insensible or not, dear Anna," 
 she at length said, gravely, but kindly, " is not for any 
 one scarcely for myself to know at this time. But 
 I would not consciously inflict such pain upon any 
 soul, much less that one ; and if you can correct his 
 misunderstanding without observe now, dear with- 
 out referring to me in any way, simply by stating what 
 you already know, pray do so at once." 
 
 " I cannot go alone to seek him," I said. 
 
 " I will go with you," she replied. "It is not too 
 late to take a walk, though I did not intend to go out 
 again to-night. I trust you, dear, with a very delicate 
 mission, for he must by no means suppose that I feel 
 any obligation to him in such matters." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 191 
 
 " He shall not. Do not fear." 
 
 When we did not find Col. Anderson on deck, I 
 began to feel more sensibly the delicacy of my task. 
 If I had to send for him, what should I say ? Eleanore 
 and I walked up and down two or three times, re- 
 ceiving polite greetings from Mr. Hart, and ceremo- 
 nious ones from Mr. Mackay and the Herr Yogelbert, 
 whose indefatigable pipe was on duty ; and when we 
 had got past all these little hindrances, she said : " I do 
 not like this double-dealing. I seem to be here merely 
 for a walk, and I must seem to know nothing of what 
 you have to say to our friend ; and yet I am not here 
 for a walk, and I do know all about it. My heart 
 scorns deceptions like these. Pray set about your mis- 
 sion, or diplomacy, or what not, as soon as possible, or 
 I fear I shall take it in hand myself." 
 
 " I wish you would. It would be worth my doing 
 it a hundred times over." 
 
 " But I wouldn't, if it were worth it a thousand 
 times. There is Mr. Watkins, is it not, coming this 
 way ?" 
 
 " Yes. I will ask him for Col. Anderson, and do 
 not doubt me." 
 
 " What am I to do with myself, meanwhile ?" she 
 fretfully asked. 
 
 " Go in, if you like." 
 
 " You are quite willing ? Then good-by." And 
 away she darted, with a quick, impatient motion, and 
 fiery toss of the head, that I had not seen for many 
 weeks before. 
 
 When Col. Anderson came, I made a dishonest pre- 
 tense of wishing to ask some further questions about 
 our voyage ; but I had not exchanged many words 
 with him before I found, that, if I had her, restive and 
 
192 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 almost rebellious, on my hands, I had him in a state 
 but little better. Of course he had forthwith pro- 
 ceeded, on the words he had heard, to argue and de- 
 monstrate to himself the agreeable truth that he had 
 madly and blindly committed himself to a pursuit which 
 had brought him half way round the globe, involving 
 loss of time, peace, and dignity, for a woman whom he 
 was now accompanying to her bridal. 
 
 Yes, I said, mentally, while he was moodily answer- 
 ing my idle questions yes, that is the argument you 
 have made ; and it is summed up, I have no doubt, in 
 about these words : And a precious fool I have made 
 of myself, after all. 
 
 Seeing that he would not allude to the subject, nor 
 to Mrs. Bromfield, nor our arrival in San Francisco 
 that, in short, he had, for the hour, sublimely ignored 
 all that he had lived for during the months of our ac- 
 quaintance I at last came boldly, and I natter myself 
 spiritedly, as became a gratuitous meddler in other 
 people's love affairs, to the question. 
 
 " Col. Anderson," I said, " you have more than 
 once honored me with some confidence in an affair 
 which I need not name here. I am now going to 
 honor you with a little of the same. I saw you to- 
 night, and I know what makes you moody and almost 
 rude to me now. Nevertheless, you shall have the 
 good I came to offer you. Eleanore is going to a rich 
 bachelor " 
 
 " Lover ! I knew it, Miss Warren. It doesn't mat- 
 ter to me." 
 
 " Doesn't matter to you ?" I said. " The Lord for- 
 give your untruth, Col. Anderson. I believe you 
 would rather we were all sunk to the bottom to-night, 
 than it was a fact." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 193 
 
 "I shall love her no less though she were 
 a hundred times another man's wife. Heaven .and 
 earth cannot deprive me of that right. I shall now 
 only learn to worship her at a distance, instead of liv- 
 ing, as I have, in the hope of seeing her, some day, 
 queen in my own happy home, and feeling my God ! 
 Miss Warren, do not speak to me do not stay to wit- 
 ness the agony I cannot always conceal !" 
 
 " But, my dear friend," I said, you you mistake 
 it is not so ; hear me, and take back your hope. She 
 is not going to a lover, but an uncle a rich bachelor 
 uncle, I was going to say, when you interrupted me." 
 
 " Do you know this ?" he asked, in an incredulous 
 tone. 
 
 " I know it from herself. She told me several days 
 since." 
 
 " Then she is the same star to my way that she was 
 before. I will not thank you, Miss Warren. You 
 have rolled a fearful darkness from my soul, and given 
 me courage in place of despair. It is a blessed hand 
 that comes twice to us with such a boon, and will have 
 its guerdon some day." 
 
 I hastened in after a few more words, and Eleanore 
 contented herself with the inquiry, " Is all well ?" 
 to which my affirmative response was received with 
 unmistakable satisfaction. 
 
 9 
 
OHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 We went on with a fair and steady breeze for many 
 days after it commenced, without interruption the 
 Trades, they called it and said it would take us to 
 San Francisco without more delay ; but they were mis- 
 taken ; for the Captain, from being unacquainted with 
 the coast, or from not having charts for this unexpected 
 part of his voyage, ran too far east, and found himself 
 much nearer the land, several degrees south of San 
 Francisco, than he expected or wished. Then there 
 was a weary beating up the desert-looking coast of 
 Lower California sometimes in view then Alta Cali- 
 fornia, with its golden hills, rising into the soft, trans- 
 parent light, occasionally dotted with green wood ; 
 and at last, toward sunset of a Sunday evening the 
 fourth that we had been on board of her the Garonne 
 dropped her anchor on the bar outside the Golden 
 Gate, in fourteen fathoms water. Antonio came aft, 
 and told us with delight our depth, and that next 
 morning we should get in with the tide by day-break, 
 and be ashore to breakfast. 
 
 Eleanore stipulated that I was to accompany her to 
 her uncle's, and remain there indefinitely : u at least, 
 dear Anna, till you get some clothing made. Remem- 
 ber we are all very shabby. And Phil and I could 
 not spare you at once, for then, I almost fear, we 
 should be destitute in heart, as we are now in person." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 195 
 
 I promised for a few days at least a week or fort- 
 night. 
 
 As always happens on reaching port, there was a 
 good deal of gayety that evening on board. Cap- 
 tain Dahlgren, by way of rounding off his hospitalities 
 handsomely, had ordered an especial dinner at six ; 
 whereat Ching, in a gorgeous white apron, officiated 
 as extra, to the great delight of Master Phil, who had 
 nearly laid down his royal title, since there had been 
 so much sadness among us. There were, beside soup, 
 fowls, fricasseed ; two Kanaka turkeys, roasted ; a 
 German salad, without a green leaf in it ; and endless 
 fruits, puddings, and pastries, for dessert. There was, 
 in short, much more dinner than appetite with us, at 
 least. Sad reminiscences of the past would steal 
 through the gay conversation ; and there were irre- 
 pressible anxieties for the future; to-morrow seemed 
 formidable if a happy day, it must also unavoidably 
 be a trying one. 
 
 I know no pleasure one shrinks from more in the 
 hours that bring it, than the pleasure of terminating a 
 sea voyage. You have desired, hoped, sighed, and 
 prayed for the end ; and now the end is come, you find 
 the joy it brings clouded with many little regrets and 
 concerns as the far-away, tranquil ocean of orange- 
 green in the sky to-night was dappled and shaded by 
 those innumerable islets of scarlet and gold and pur- 
 ple which floated in it. The old ship is suddenly be- 
 come dear and pleasant, instead of disgusting and 
 wearisome. You recall all the civilities and kind- 
 nesses by which officers and crew have endeavored to 
 mitigate your lot among them ; you think of parting 
 with your companions ; of persons who have been so 
 very much to you for such a length of time, becoming 
 
196 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 in twelve or six hours nothing at all, like the wind 
 that wanders past and is lost to you for evermore. 
 You look at the hurrying sailors sturdy, manly fel- 
 lows generally, on whose strength and endurance so 
 much of your safety has depended and in your gentle 
 mood, you feel inclined to say to one or two who are 
 idle for a few minutes, You have been good, faithful 
 fellows on the voyage. We are all pleased that you 
 have brought us safely to port. Now do not forget 
 that a sailor's manhood is worth as much to him as 
 any other man's. When you go ashore, do not say, 
 Because I am only a sailor, I may as well get drunk, 
 or fight, or go among the worst people, as not. You 
 do not speak thus, though you feel tempted to, because 
 the world would wonder if you did ; and the captain 
 or mate, if they saw you, though your words should 
 touch the hearts of the men, and perhaps be the most 
 effective sermon they ever heard, would suddenly and 
 sternly shout, " Lay forward here and heave at this 
 windlass," though the windlass was already manned, 
 perhaps, or would not be moved for half an hour. 
 
 You look about the cabins the places where you 
 have rested, read, talked, dreamed, wide awake to the 
 accompaniment of rushing waters and roaring winds 
 eaten, slept, meditated, and prayed. You find in your 
 heart an affection for them all, and only pleasant recol- 
 lections of what they have contained. How blessed 
 the power of that memory which clothes itself only in 
 the light and smiles of the past ! 
 
 When we left the dinner-table, the sun had just 
 begun to dip in the purple water to the south of the 
 Farallones, whose stern, ungracious forms, rose rug- 
 gedly in the rosy air, and seemed to say : " It's all very 
 fine, this ecstasy about those ragged patches of vapor 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 197 
 
 tip there ; but what would they be without the sun to 
 dye them ? Nothing but gray, tiresome clouds. You 
 would never know where or how you were to find 
 them ; while we we are always here always the 
 same so many feet of solid, respectable rock so 
 many, and no more towers, standing up just here and 
 just so, to shame these whiffling, changing clouds." 
 
 Alas, my reverend and respectable Farallones, it is 
 not unchangeableness that we want in this world in 
 this or any other, I think. It jars me to hear God 
 addressed as unchangeable. I do not crave unchange- 
 ableness, but harmony and growth in change unity 
 of purpose, and accord in the ultimations thereof. 
 
 Eleanore was very sad that evening ; naturally so, 
 considering what she had to remember since the voy- 
 age commenced ; the fear and peril, the suffering, and 
 that island-tomb, to which, by no possibility, could she 
 ever return. She and Col. Anderson had a long 
 tete-a-tete, on the after-deck, when the sunset spectacle 
 was over, but there was no intelligible language in 
 either face when they came from it. Mr. Mackay was 
 full of polite speeches about the dreariness to which 
 we were leaving them for the remainder of their voy- 
 age; and even the Herr Yogelbert did divorce his 
 meerschaum and lips long enough to say that he " Ver' 
 moch should want to see Mas' Feelip and the ladies." 
 
 The anchor was weighed next morning before we 
 were up, and by the time we got on deck the bark 
 was, as Mr. Watkins said, " hauling the old Fort close." 
 She entered the world-renowned Golden Gate just as 
 the first rays of the sun, whose last evening's frolic had 
 so glorified the air, earth, and ocean, came pouring 
 over the summits of El Contra Costa, and thence ran 
 gayly abroad on the ripened hills of Sancelito and 
 
198 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Angel Island. How swift the current! This is the 
 entrance to Nature's richest treasure-house, and she 
 says to all the weak and inefficient : " Stand back ! 
 Enter not here : for this race is only to the swift this 
 battle is only to the strong. The Lord is not in either, 
 and you are not sufficient." 
 
 Telegraph Hill, its station-house then painted red, 
 like the old farm-houses of our Dutch grandfathers ; 
 the lesser hills around North Beach and Clark's Point, 
 strewn with tents and canvas-houses among the dark- 
 green, tree-like shrubs of the manzanita and low live- 
 oak. No flowers except a small shrub, bearing at the 
 top a cluster of yellow or very light brick-colored 
 blossoms. On the right hand, sand-hills, alternating 
 with tracts of fertile soil, where the city is already 
 planting its rambling feet ; on the other, ripened har- 
 vest-fields, of an exquisite softness of color, such as 
 have charmed our eyes along the coast, fenced by the 
 ocean, the harbor, and the cliffs. 
 
 "We have rounded Telegraph Point ; been 
 boarded by two boats one bringing a marine re- 
 porter, who proceeds forthwith to take the details of 
 our case; and now we are in front of the bustle, 
 and profusion, and prodigality, and shamelessness of 
 this youngest city of the age, who bids fair to out- 
 grow, long before her majority is attained, many of 
 her far-famed elder sisters. After leave-taking and 
 a great deal of confusion, we, his waifs, as Captain 
 Dahlgren called us, were conveyed to the dusty 
 shore in his boat. We touched California soil 
 near the corner of Pacific and Montgomery Streets 
 a long, long walk to-day from where any boat can 
 convey you up Pacific to Kearney, along Kearney 
 to Clay, and up that ascending avenue to a ginger- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 199 
 
 bread looking hotel, called the House. Men 
 
 gazed at us as we passed : some gladly and kindly 
 others, impudently ; and more than once a little hum 
 arose in the groups we approached, which threatened 
 to swell into a shout, but was stifled before it reached 
 that. Captain Pahlgren led the way, with Eleanore 
 and Phil, while I was honored with the attendance of 
 Col. Anderson and Mr. Garth. 
 
 " By heaven, I should like to knock that fellow 
 down !" said the Colonel, as a man walked past us, 
 looking full into Eleanore's face, and then into mine. 
 
 " It seems to be the pleasant custom of these peo- 
 ple," said I ; " they all do it." 
 
 " It is because a lady is so seldom seen," said Mr. 
 Garth, apologetically. " Perhaps when we have been 
 a year here we may be tempted to the same rudeness 
 ourselves on meeting one." 
 
 When we ascended the steps of the hotel, Eleanore's 
 face was flushed, and her eyes blazing palpable black- 
 ness. " I wouldn't walk half a mile through these 
 streets again," she said, " for a fortune. Here we will 
 inquire for my uncle, and send to him." 
 
 We repaired to the parlor, while Col. Anderson, at 
 her request, went to the office to make inquiries. He 
 was gone very long, we thought ; so long that Captain 
 Dahlgren, who had been sitting to keep us company 
 till his return, rose and went out, saying that he would 
 see what the delay meant. Mr. Garth and Phil 
 shortly followed, and there they all staid. It was at 
 first unaccountable unless, as we suggested, a mes- 
 senger had been dispatched to Mr. Haydon, the uncle, 
 to surprise us. But even then, word ought to be 
 brought us before this time. 
 
 " What can it mean ?" exclaimed Eleanore, as, 
 
200 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 pacing up and down the room in a fever of impatience, 
 she drew her watch forth for the third time. " That 
 room is crowded with men, and we have seen enough 
 of them on our way, certainly ; but I cannot wait here 
 much longer." 
 
 She moved toward the door : " Don't go yet, dear 
 Eleanore," I pleaded, for the very long delay began 
 to impress me with a fear of something unpleasant. 
 " Don't go yet ; they must come soon." 
 
 And they did. By the time she had taken two or 
 three more fiery turns over the gay, costly carpet, the 
 door opposite ours opened then ours and the little 
 procession entered, with dreary faces, which told of 
 some misfortune before their tongues could name it. 
 
 Captain Dahlgren led the way, and spoke first : 
 " My dear madam," he began, " this unfortunate city 
 has suffered very much from fires." 
 
 " Fires !" she echoed. " It is not the city I care for 
 now. It is my uncle, dear sir. My, uncle, Mr. Hay- 
 don Richard Haydon." 
 
 " But he has ma'am has been, unfortunately" 
 
 " In the name of human patience," she exclaimed, 
 turning quickly to Col. Anderson, " tell me, will you ? 
 what it is !" 
 
 " Yes, do tell her, sir," said Captain Dahlgren, ap- 
 parently much relieved by her sudden appeal to the 
 other. 
 
 " Your relative, Mrs. Bromfield," said he, " lost 
 his life in a great fire here, about six weeks since. He 
 had a large amount of property exposed, and in en- 
 deavoring to save it, it is supposed he was caught in a 
 burning building too late to escape." 
 
 She sat down upon a chair near by while he was 
 speaking, and when the last word was said, her gaze 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 201 
 
 fell from the speaker to the floor, and tears sprung 
 readily to her eyes. " Poor Uncle Richard ! if I had 
 been a little earlier, he might not have run the risk he 
 did. But we will go to his house, Miss Warren and I. 
 I will at least go where he has lived." 
 
 " Indeed," said the Colonel, " I wish you could ; 
 but his house was burned also." 
 
 " Then," she replied, suppressing with great diffi- 
 culty, as I saw, her growing sense of desolation, " I can 
 at least see some friend of his. He must have been 
 well known : he was rich, and doing a large business. 
 Such a man would have some friends, surely, whom it 
 would be a satisfaction to see." 
 
 " Yes, doubtless," replied the Colonel ; " if you 
 will remain here, I will inquire at once, and bring some 
 one to you." 
 
 He left us, and Mr. Garth, having oifered a few 
 words of sympathy, and any service which he could 
 render, followed, saying that he should stay at this 
 house a few days, and if we wished it, he would send 
 the clerk to us, that we might arrange for apartments. 
 
 " I think you would better," I said, speaking for 
 both. " She will scarcely be able, for a few hours, to 
 consider what is to be done." 
 
 9* 
 
CHAPTEE XXIY. 
 
 When he was gone, I found Eleanore apologizing 
 to Captain Dahlgren. "Indeed, my dear sir," she 
 said, " I feel that I was rude ; but I am not naturally 
 patient under some circumstances, and all my self-con- 
 trol had gone from me, in the walk hither and in wait- 
 ing for the message you brought, which I could not 
 anticipate. It is an inexpressible disappointment as 
 well as a grief to me ; for, though I did not know my 
 uncle intimately, I had a high respect for him, and I 
 came hither solely at his entreaty." 
 
 " It is very unfortunate for you, madam, in every 
 sense, for pardon me : I speak as a friend, and a man 
 whose experience shows him consequences which yours 
 does not I cannot see how this loss is to be repaired 
 to you. I know already your misfortunes, and if I 
 mistake not, you put me in possession of the only funds 
 you had in hand, for your own and your friend's pas- 
 sage." 
 
 " Yes ; but my uncle, doubtless, left property. 
 I shall not be destitute." 
 
 " Not if he left a will in your favor, which is still 
 in existence ; otherwise the law, you know, if it does 
 not consume all, will at least hold all, until it is 
 divided among his heirs, and that would not serve 
 you at present." 
 
 I saw that she was now rapidly taking in the un- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 203 
 
 happy contingencies of her embarrassing position, and 
 I said : " You must in this case allow me to refuse the 
 generosity you offered me on the Garonne. I will pay 
 you, Captain Dahlgren, fifty dollars ; and my watch, 
 which is a valuable one, must make up the rest." 
 
 I took it off and handed it to him, but he refused it 
 almost indignantly. " Pray do not think I could do 
 so unworthy a thing, ma'am," he said. " Thank God, 
 you are here, living, and in good health ; yes, that is 
 well. Now, if it shall prove that, without incon- 
 venience, you can pay me while I remain, that will be 
 well, too. If not, do not think I will let you reduce 
 yourselves to destitution in this city." 
 
 " Perhaps, Captain Dahlgren," said Eleanore, " you 
 would better present the draft I gave you at once. It 
 is on Mr. Haydon's bankers. Would not they be able 
 to give us some information as to his affairs ?" 
 
 " Yery likely, ma'am ; and if you will indorse it, 
 I will go immediately and see them." 
 
 A pen and ink being brought, the indorsement was 
 made, and he left us, saying that he would return as 
 soon as possible. 
 
 This is dreadful, is it not, dear Anna ?" she said ; 
 " to find myself alone and penniless in this fearful 
 place !" 
 
 " It is not so bad as it seems to us, I am sure," I re- 
 plied, determined to keep the hopeful aspect before 
 her. "Your personal misfortune is irreparable, cer- 
 tainly ; but there is a better side to the humanity about 
 us than we see in this first hour. While you were 
 talking with Captain Dahlgren good soul that he is 
 I went up stairs and took a room. I should have con- 
 sulted you, but there was only one in the house, which, 
 fortunately, is a not very small double-bedded room. 
 
204 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 The clerk said there would be others vacant in two or 
 three days, and then we could change if we wished. 
 Will you go up now ?" 
 
 " No ; I will stay here," she replied, " till Col. An- 
 derson comes. It would be an effort to get up stairs 
 at this moment. See that blessed Phil, out there un- 
 der the window, absorbed and charmed with the sight 
 of this hurrying life. To me it seems, oh, how differ- 
 ent to what I expected ! "What a slender thread life 
 is, and when it parts, how much sometimes goes with 
 it ! Here is gone from me, in my poor Uncle Dick, 
 protection, home, plenty, rest, and perhaps affection, 
 which in the end I should have prized above them all. 
 A few moments' fierce struggle in the flames, and all 
 this was blotted out from my life. Poor soul, I would 
 he had died peacefully on his bed I" 
 
 When Col. Anderson came, he was accompanied by 
 a gentleman, whom he introduced to Mrs. Bromfield 
 as Mr. Hendrickson, the late Mr. Haydon's attorney, 
 and then left us, saying to me at the door : " I fear there 
 is bad news altogether for our poor friend. You must 
 not leave her yet, Miss Warren." 
 
 " And you " I asked. 
 
 " Oh, I I could not if I would. I am going now 
 for an hour, to see some business people ; but I shall 
 be here again." 
 
 " Shall I remain, or would you prefer speaking with 
 this gentleman in private ?" I asked Eleanore. 
 
 " Oh, remain, if you please, Miss Warren. Mr. 
 Hendrickson's account seems to be brief and conclu- 
 sive that Mr. Haydon's property was chiefly con- 
 sumed in two great fires in May and June, and that his 
 estate is consequently found insolvent." 
 
 " Yes, madam, that is about it. Business affairs 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 205 
 
 are very much confused here, and it is difficult to tell 
 with exactness, when a man dies so suddenly and has 
 a large outstanding business; but there was in our 
 office a general statement of his debts, credits, and 
 assets, real and personal, placed there about forty days 
 before his death. By this statement, at the valuation 
 affixed to his property, he was then a wealthy man, 
 but a very large proportion of it was in buildings which 
 were consumed afterward, and some of the heaviest 
 credits have been lost in the same way, so that now we 
 scarcely expect the sales of real estate to balance the 
 debts and pay the cost of settlement." 
 
 " Would a draft, six months old, on his bankers, 
 possibly be good ?" she asked. 
 
 " That would depend on who they were, and whe- 
 ther he left funds in their hands to meet it. Drexel & 
 Sather were his principal bankers, arid we have taken 
 their accounts and moneys into our hands." 
 
 " This was on & ," she said. 
 
 " For how much ?" 
 
 " Five hundred dollars." 
 
 " Oh, it is very possible they may have so trifling 
 a sum as that in their hands. As I said, business 
 matters are often always, indeed, more or less 
 confused here, and the fires have added very much to 
 the common disorder. We don't look very sharply 
 after trifles, and the sum you name might remain in 
 
 & 's hands a long time. Mr. Haydon was a 
 
 careful and correct business man, with plenty of means 
 to do with, and I should think it very likely he would 
 have kept the money on deposit with them till the 
 draft was paid. Can I do anything further for you, 
 ma'am ?" he inquired, with a movement as if he were 
 about to go. Time is very precious with us in busi- 
 
206 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 ness hours ; but after those are over, I shall be most 
 happy if I can serve you in any way. I will take my 
 leave now, and call on you, perhaps, to-morrow even- 
 ing, when there may be something further known." 
 
 " Thank you, if you will take so much trouble. 
 I may wish to make some other inquiries, when I have 
 thought a little more deliberately and referred to my 
 uncle's letters." 
 
 " Uncle ! he repeated, with quick and evident sur- 
 prise ; " was Mr. Haydon your uncle ?" 
 
 " Yes," she answered, her astonishment at the 
 question appearing in her face. 
 
 " I did not so understand your friend." 
 
 " You mean Col. Anderson," she said, with just a 
 shade of firmness in her tone which carried a correc- 
 tion of the word " friend ;" " the gentleman who was 
 kind enough to bring you to me." 
 
 " Yes ; but I did not understand him that you were 
 the niece of Mr. Haydon. He was long expecting you, 
 ma'am ; and he built the house he lived in last, ex- 
 pressly for you, he said. He was very anxious for 
 your arrival, and often told me, after he received the 
 letter announcing your departure, that he would rather 
 have gone to bring you, than wait for you to make the 
 long voyage. Indeed, he led all of us, his friends, to 
 wish for your arrival, too. He was enthusiastic about 
 the home he should have when you came ; and, if you 
 will allow me to say it, equally so, and justly, I am 
 sure" this with a bow " about its mistress." 
 
 Eleanore's tears flowed afresh at these words. 
 " You both pain and please me by what you say," she 
 replied. " I do, indeed, for very many reasons, wish 
 that I had complied with his frequent and urgent re- 
 quests, and come earlier, or come at last by the Isthmus ; 
 
THE EOF. AT, ATTAINED. 207 
 
 in which case I should have been some time with him 
 perhaps even now. But I dreaded the transit for 
 my children, and I wished to make a sea-voyage on 
 the distant ocean. I have paid dearly for it in both 
 ways. Excuse me, I am unfit for company now." 
 And as she turned away to the sofa at the back of the 
 room, Mr. Hendrickson took his leave. 
 
 " Let us go up stairs at once," she whispered, when 
 I drew near her. " "Will you tap at the window, dear, 
 rPhil?" 
 
 But when I looked out, there was no Phil in sight. 
 My heart leaped within me at the discovery, but I said, 
 indifferently : " He is gone up on the piazza. I will 
 bring him." 
 
 At the door I met a lady very gayly dressed, neck 
 and shoulders much exposed, and loosely covered with 
 a light silk mantilla. She was just bidding good morn- 
 ing to a group "of gentlemen, and saying that she had 
 promised to go out on horseback the next morning 
 with Col. S . 
 
 I thought I must not leave poor Eleanore exposed 
 to strange eyes here. I therefore turned back and 
 whispered : " There are strangers here, Eleanore. Go 
 with me to our room now, and then I will come down 
 and get Philip." 
 
 She lifted up her face, and encountered that of the 
 butterfly, who was fluttering her gay little wings, and 
 brightening her eyes, and giving the right flow to her 
 skirts, before the large mirror. The stranger looked 
 at her, too, and scarcely could there be a greater con- 
 trast seen between persons enjoying the same social 
 condition. I felt proud and pleased that my humble, 
 unimportant self belonged, as between these two, to 
 that majestic person and that grave, spiritual face, in 
 
208 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 which grief had softened and subdued the daring pride, 
 without clouding in the faintest degree the loftiness 
 of soul that spoke in it. 
 
 There was not a word spoken, but Eleanore took 
 her large gray shawl from the table, before which Mrs. 
 Lindley (so I had heard her called) stood, and we went 
 out, leaving her for once certainly perhaps the only 
 time looking at and thinking of another woman beside 
 herself. 
 
 I immediately came down stairs, full of a fear 
 which I had concealed from Eleanore, to look for Phil. 
 If I must confess the truth, I had a positive dread of 
 stepping upon the board sidewalk, which was thronged 
 with men, chewing tobacco and smoking, and where 
 the appearance of the two or three women I had seen 
 passing created a sensation such as in our older cities 
 some newly-arrived giraffe or elephant is honored with. 
 I did not know how long the young truant had been gone, 
 nor in which direction to look for him; but, glancing 
 both ways, I saw a show-window below me, and 
 thinking it as likely as anything to attract him, I 
 stepped quickly down to it. It was a cigar-shop, and 
 I suppose contained the universal bottles, but not Phil. 
 I turned back and went above, looking in at each of 
 the open doors as I passed, and thereby, I suppose, 
 jeopardizing my reputation for prudence among the 
 inmates, who generally came forward and honored me 
 with an alarming stare. One bold, large-faced man, 
 came near and looked into my face, as if he would say : 
 " If you did not wish me to do this, why did you chal- 
 lenge me ?" 
 
 " I am looking for a child, sir," I said, " who has 
 left the hotel a little boy." 
 
 " Oh, yes," he answered, kindly smiling, and 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 209 
 
 improving at once ; u a little dark-eyed, curly fellow, 
 who calls himself Phil?" 
 
 " Yes ; where is he ?" 
 
 " Up there, in the grocery, I think, now. We've 
 all had our turns with him. A child is a treat to us 
 here, ma'am. Is he yours ?" 
 
 " No, he is my friend's," I said, passing on. 
 
 " Well, you never need be frightened about him. 
 He's a bright, handsome fellow ; and he won't go far be- 
 fore he'll be picked up by somebody, you may be sure." 
 
 I hurried on, and going into the grocery he had 
 pointed out, found the little vagabond seated in state 
 upon the counter, on a raisin-box, with half its con- 
 tents apparently before him, and candies, figs, and 
 nuts in unlimited quantity at hand : with the proprie- 
 tor, clerk, and three or four idlers doing homage. 
 
 The moment he saw me he exclaimed : " Oh, Miss 
 Warren (he did not speak my name so that a stranger 
 could fully understand it,) these figs and raisins are 
 very nice ; but I haven't eaten but so many " holding 
 the hollow of his little hand out to me. 
 
 " But you must come to mamma, Phil, at once. 
 She will be afraid you are lost." 
 
 As he rose to go, the merchant filled his pockets, 
 and said : " Ask mamma to let you come again, Phil. 
 He's been a pleasure to us, ma'am. I have two such 
 little fellows at home ;" and his eyes brightened as he 
 spoke. " Never fear for him ; he won't go far from 
 the door before some of us will have him safe. He's 
 got forty thousand friends around him here, any one 
 of whom would divide bed and board with him gladly." 
 
 He kissed him and set him on the floor, and Phil 
 and I, thanking him for his kindness, started off. 
 
CHAPTEK XXY. 
 
 This little expedition reassured me much. There 
 was true affection in the people who hailed a child so 
 heartily. The Divine could not be extinct in bosoms 
 so keenly alive to the angelic. I felt encouraged for 
 myself and my friend, to whom I hastened to impart 
 my satisfaction. Phil was tenderly admonished, and 
 caressed for the danger he might have been in, and 
 then placed at the window, that we might confer un- 
 interruptedly. The news of the morning had linked 
 us more closely in interest and purpose than we should 
 have been in any other circumstances; for though 
 Eleanore, as mistress of a luxurious establishment, 
 would have acted the part of friend and patron as gen- 
 erously and delicately as any woman could, I was not 
 one to be easily patronized in that way. In a few 
 days, at most, I should have separated from her, and 
 gone alone to some employment that would have 
 afforded a prospect of realizing my hopes. "Whereas 
 now I had no thought of leaving her no idea of an 
 interest or care separated from hers. 
 
 Sadly and fearfully we talked over her position 
 the possibilities, in a pecuniary point of view the 
 social ones being, as you know, utterly buried to us at 
 that time. 
 
 " I had a slender income at home," she said ; 
 " enough, with industry and economy, to support 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 211 
 
 us ; but two months before I sailed, having decided to 
 come to my uncle, I took part of the principal to fit 
 out for school and college a young brother of whom I 
 have great hopes some day, and an orphan cousin the 
 dearest and best creature living and I will not now 
 turn back to deprive them. God has given me facul- 
 ties and hands, and I will make my way here in some 
 fashion. If we could only be together," she added, 
 putting her arm about me, " it would be a great help 
 and comfort to us both, would it not, dear Anna?" 
 
 " Yes, and we will be ; at least, if not together, near 
 each other. But let us think and talk, now, of what 
 is to be done, actually and practically. What can 
 you do?" 
 
 I can teach in an English school almost all branches, 
 with drawing and music. Mr. Haydon must have left 
 friends who would aid me in getting something to do. 
 I will see some of them." 
 
 " There is one thing, dear Eleanore, they cannot 
 aid you in," I said ; " that is, in getting scholars to 
 teach. The country does not contain them. Think 
 of this child being such a godsend to the eyes and 
 hearts of the men here." 
 
 " True," she replied ; " I did not think of that. 
 But there are some families here, and I might get pu- 
 pils for the piano and drawing. Even a few would 
 supply iny immediate wants. I am not an expensive 
 liver in any respect." 
 
 " No, but you are destitute now, as I am, of a ward- 
 robe. You have scarcely what would suffice a com- 
 fortable working woman, putting the lady teacher out 
 of view ; and I suppose everything is enormously dear 
 here." 
 
 While we sat thus, looking at the clouds and the 
 
212 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 sunshine in our near future, a servant came to say that 
 Captain Dahlgren was below. 
 
 We immediately repaired to the parlor, and found 
 him there, where were also three other gentlemen, with 
 Mrs. Lindley, and a gay, showy woman beside, all 
 chattering boisterously, like a company of parrots. 
 
 " I am very sorry, my dear sir, that we have not a 
 parlor to receive you in," said Eleanore. 
 
 " Do not concern yourself for that, ma'am," he re- 
 plied, wiping his forehead. " I have been gone much 
 longer than I intended when I left you. But for your 
 sake, hoping I might serve you in a measure, I stopped 
 
 and chatted with Mr. , the head of the firm, who 
 
 paid me the money promptly, and said he should do 
 himself the pleasure of calling on you. I told him of 
 your misfortunes at sea, and as he seems a gentleman, 
 I hope his acquaintance may be a pleasure and advan- 
 tage to you for I am afraid you will need all of the 
 last that you can get here. It is not my privilege to 
 counsel you, ladies, but from what I see in this strange 
 city, I fear that neither of you will find yourselves at 
 home in it, or get easily into employment suited to 
 your tastes and capacities." 
 
 " That is very probable," I said ; " but we are here, 
 Captain Dahlgren, and there seems to be no better way 
 now than to do our best. I came, indeed, expecting 
 to meet and overcome difficulties ; it is only my friend's 
 case that requires any consideration." 
 
 " Madam," he said., addressing her, " let me speak 
 frankly to you. I believe, from what I have seen in 
 the two hours I have been abroad, and from what I 
 have heard both here and elsewhere, that this is the 
 most wicked city of its size on the globe ; and I am 
 satisfied that a person of your habits and tastes must 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 213 
 
 suffer deeply in it. What is needed, is labor of the 
 hands, not the exercise of accomplishments and culti- 
 vation such as you possess or you, either, Miss War- 
 ren," he added, turning to me. " The useful and the 
 respectable women, who have not fortune here, must 
 be manual laborers, for which, I am sure, you are 
 neither of you at all fitted." 
 
 " I am in good health " Eleanore began ; but he 
 waved his hand, asking a moment's more indulgence. 
 
 " What I was going to add," he continued, " was 
 an offer a very poor and humble one, but the best in 
 my power a passage on the Garonne to Lima, where 
 I am acquainted in many families, and where you 
 will readily find employment in teaching or other oc- 
 cupations more womanly than anything that can offer 
 itself here." 
 
 " You are most considerate most kind," she said ; 
 pray believe that I am not ungrateful or inappre- 
 ciative, and that your suggestion may be a hope, and 
 even a reality in the future, should fortune fail us 
 here. But this is my country, and Peru, dear Captain 
 Dahlgren, though familiar and agreeable to you, would 
 be strange and foreign to us. These men, you say, are, 
 many of them, very wicked, and I fear you are not 
 mistaken ; but most of them are our countrymen ; and, 
 at the worst, a good woman can appeal to her country- 
 men with a confidence she can rarely feel toward 
 others. Our experience since we came on board of the 
 Garonne, ought, indeed, to enlarge our confidence and 
 trust in the hearts of strangers, and I am sure it has ; 
 but one always cleaves longest to the native land, you 
 know." 
 
 "Yes," he replied; "I approve and admire the 
 sentiment, but forgive me if I doubt its wisdom in this 
 
214: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 instance. However, I must not presume to argue the 
 case with you. In parting, permit me to say that I 
 leave you here reluctantly, and wish you both all 
 manner of good wishes, which, if I had the power, I 
 would convert to substantial blessings around you. 
 Fortune was beneficent to me, though unkind to you, 
 in bringing about our meeting. I shall retain happy 
 recollections of it to my last day. You will find in 
 this paper, dear madam " drawing a roll of coins from 
 his pocket " the balance of your draft." 
 
 He clasped her hand upon it, with glistening eyes, 
 while with the other he took mine, said good-by hur- 
 riedly, kissed Phil, waved acknowledgment of our at- 
 tempted thanks, and before we could utter them was 
 gone." 
 
 Our own eyes grew dim as we lost sight of him, and 
 both sighed, as we thought there is one good friend 
 and noble man gone from us in this wilderness. 
 
 By this time it was near noon, and we remembered 
 that we had had no breakfast. I ordered a lunch in 
 our room, and we went up stairs. There, on opening 
 the parcel of money, we found the good Dahlgren had 
 returned three hundred dollars ; which fact more than 
 dimmed our eyes again mine especially, when I re- 
 membered that he had not one dollar of my money : 
 which, in all the confusion of the eventful morning, I 
 did not realize until this moment. Honor to the be- 
 nevolent Swede and the humane gentleman ! 
 
 Eleanore was very much depressed. All this was 
 so different from the condition she had looked forward 
 to, in which her wishes would have been anticipated 
 and supplied almost before they were known to her- 
 self The teaching looked dubious. It was so grating 
 to her independent soul to have to apply to strangers 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 215 
 
 all men, too. "And nobody knows," she added, 
 " how perverted or distrustful they may be. Men de- 
 generate so frightfully even possibly good and respect- 
 able men when they are separated from good women, 
 or, worse still, when they mix with bad ones. Those 
 men are always best, noblest, and most harmonious, 
 in whom is seen the reflected influence of elevated and 
 refined women. Man is comparatively unaspiring 
 when alone. He reverences less than woman, and 
 therefore degenerates when she does not influence his 
 thoughts and emotions. You dread to separate any 
 but the noblest, loftiest, and most religious men, from 
 pure and refined women ; and I think we generally see 
 that those who sustain themselves best in this unfa- 
 vorable condition, are they who unite to a large and 
 rugged manhood the womanly traits of tenderness, 
 reverence, and sensibility. Such men are not degraded 
 by external circumstances, however gross. Their spir- 
 itual fineness repels taint, as polished steel reflects heat. 
 But how small is the number of such 1" 
 
CHAPTEE XXYI. 
 
 There was a dinner at two o'clock, and we were pro- 
 posing a plan of going out in the afternoon to make some 
 indispensable purchases, when Phil, at his post of obser- 
 vation by the window, suddenly shouted: "Oh, mamma, 
 I see Turnel I see Turnel coming ! Let me go down 
 to him, mamma ; do, p'ease, let me go." 
 
 "Yes, darling, but don't leave the house. You 
 know, when mamma trusts you, you are not to go 
 without asking." 
 
 " Yes, I know," he replied ; and away he ran, de- 
 lighted. 
 
 " Dear child," she said, " after having so many de- 
 voted to his amusement, even the confinement of the 
 ship was better than this will be, I fear." 
 
 " But this cannot continue," I said. I thought it 
 best, beside, that it was necessary to keep her faculties 
 edged up to immediate exertion. It was not kind, 
 perhaps, but my next words were : " Do you know 
 what our daily expenses are to be here ?" 
 
 " ISTo, but I suppose they will be large." 
 
 " Yes, for our purses, you may say they are enor- 
 mous fourteen dollars for you and Phil, and eight for 
 me." 
 
 " A day ?" and she looked in incredulous astonish- 
 ment at me. 
 
 " Yes twenty-two dollars a day." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 217 
 
 " That is not to be thought of. We must look at 
 once for a less expensive home and next, for some- 
 thing to do ; for I am sure nothing could be worse 
 than being in such a place without money or employ- 
 ment. How busy and eager this crowd of hurrying men 
 look ! all hopeful ; not an eye that betrays disappoint- 
 ment or depression not a foot but treads as if it trod 
 the way to fortune. Surely, dear Anna, where all 
 prosper so, we cannot fail." 
 
 " I have no fear of that, Eleanore," said I. " In- 
 dustry and capacity, of almost any sort, are sure 
 guarantees here. Our difficulty will lie in bringing 
 ourselves to do what will be offered us. According to 
 Captain Dahlgren's estimate, and my own, so far, we 
 are in the wrong market ; but the labor will grow to 
 us, in time." 
 
 u This open space in front of us is a park, or square, 
 I suppose," said Eleanore ; " a dreary, waste-looking 
 spot, is it not, Anna ? See the sand and dust drift 
 over it, and down those streets from the hills ! There 
 is a whirling cloud driving through that group of men, 
 and almost blinding them. Better they than wo- 
 men for out of doors here, if there are often such days 
 as this." 
 
 And wherever we looked, we saw them, and them 
 only ; eager, resolute men, with the sharp American 
 features, or the broader English, or the heavier Ger- 
 man, or the mobile French but all bearing one pre- 
 dominant stamp of the spirit of gain : not mean, nar- 
 row, sordid gains, such as wrinkle the miser, and bend 
 his lean body, and shake his nerves ; but large, hope- 
 ful, generous gains coming as a flood-tide rushes into 
 narrow, unsightly inlets, broadening their borders and 
 hiding their defects, till it recedes again and leaves 
 10 
 
218 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 them more ugly than it found them. The tide was 
 yet at flood here. At long intervals there went by, 
 hurrying timidly up the street or through the dusty 
 square, a woman closely vailed, with head bent low ; 
 yet even then rude men would manage, as they 
 passed, to gaze into her face, or attempt to do so 
 offending her delicacy equally in either case. 
 
 " You see, dear," I said, " we were not worse 
 treated than others. There now comes a group in 
 black hoods, and large China crape shawls flowing 
 carelessly over the richest silk and satin dresses, jewelry 
 blazing from hands, bosom, neck, and ears, talking 
 much and loudly. Ah ! it is easy to see how it is with 
 these unfortunate sisters !" 
 
 " Yet the day is theirs, now," said Eleanore. 
 " I am certain they are much more at ease than we 
 shall be. That modest woman, who met them and 
 hurried away, as if hers were the shame and not theirs, 
 tells the whole story of woman's life here in these days. 
 Shall I confess to you, dear Anna, that I feel very sad 
 and depressed and burdened with my condition, and 
 yours, too, for I think you are little better off than I 
 am ; the difference is mainly, that you are likely to 
 find all the hardships you have expected, and I none 
 of the comfort. You will have less trial of adaptation, 
 and fewer misgivings, perhaps, in these first days ; but 
 we are both, at this moment, trusting more to the 
 natural rebound of the spirit after this depression, than 
 to any well-defined hope are we not, dear friend ?" 
 
 I could only answer in the language of my suffused 
 eyes ; for, indeed, though I had uttered all along stout 
 words to her, my heart was like lead in my bosom. 
 
 " Never doubt, true, faithful soul," she said, encir- 
 cling me with her arm, and speaking very tenderly ; 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 219 
 
 " there is left us, at the worst, one comfort the only 
 one which avails at times the comfort of knowing 
 that life can bear, and, in the end, throw off its bur- 
 dens, or fit them to itself, and take joyously and care- 
 lessly to the sunshine again. You have seen such 
 seasons, and been thrown thus upon yourself, I know. 
 Try your strength again, now. "We must be in the 
 battle very soon, and then courage will lose its merit. 
 They say the most arrant cowards become brave sol- 
 diers in the midst of the fire." 
 
 " Keep me near you," I said, following up her 
 figure, and I shall not falter." 
 
 " Nay, nay, you shall not say that. I should be 
 lost without you, dear Anna. Come, let us go below 
 and see Col. Anderson." 
 
 " I wish there were another parlor," said I. " Those 
 noisy, brainless women, and popinjay men, with enor- 
 mous chains and seals, and rings, that would hold their 
 weight, are very disagreeable to me." 
 
 " Do not be bitter or impatient with them," she 
 said. " We may have to endure the presence of many 
 such people, before we can choose whose we will have." 
 
CHAPTEE XXYII. 
 
 Col. Anderson stood before the door, in earnest 
 conversation with a gentleman whom we both pro- 
 nounced to be English. He bowed to us as we passed 
 into the parlor, and sent Phil, who was at his knee, to 
 say that he would be with us in a moment. Fortu- 
 nately the room was vacant, and we each took an end 
 of the sofa ; but we had only a moment to wait, for 
 the Colonel came in, looking glad and cheerful, and 
 shook us each by the hand, as if we had been separated 
 days, instead of hours. 
 
 " Thank God," he exclaimed, fervently, " for the 
 blessing of work. The Church teaches us that it is our 
 curse : to me it is life, happiness, hope, salvation." 
 
 "A salvation much more easily attained, under 
 most circumstances, by men than women," said Elea- 
 nore, sadly. " It is just the salvation and hope Miss 
 Warren and I are praying for." 
 
 " He sat between us on the sofa, and at these words, 
 he turned to her and said, as if the thought were new 
 to him : " Do you want work ?" 
 
 "And why should I not ?" she answered. " Put my 
 unexpected necessities out of the case, if you please, 
 and still, if work is hope and happiness to you, it 
 ought to be the same to me, if I had as much life and 
 worth. The difference between us is only that of man 
 and woman." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 221 
 
 " But is not that enough to entitle you to exemp- 
 tion ?" he asked. 
 
 " You would not, surely, deprive me of blessings 
 which you enjoy so much," she said. " Something 
 which you expect to do now, has, in these two hours, 
 made another being of you. Your step is elastic, your 
 eye bright, your speech firm, and your tones full and 
 buoyant. You feel a power within which you have 
 not felt since we set out on this voyage. It is a bless- 
 ing and joy to feel and use such power. Why should 
 I, being a woman, be denied it ?" 
 
 " You should not," he answered ; " but it seems to 
 me that your use of it should be in a home a 
 household, where you would not only enjoy, but confer 
 such happiness." 
 
 " But the household is not mine," she said, sadly. 
 My theater is fallen, but all my needs remain ; and the 
 wrong we complain of, as women, is the inequality of 
 the treatment the world gives to you and to us. If I 
 had all the treasure of the mines, I could no more be 
 happy with idle heart and brain and hands than you. 
 But the world recognizes and allows your right to 
 labor, whether from necessity or choice. It permits 
 you to go, unnoted and uncensured, in and out of all 
 its market-places. It respects your earnest and per- 
 sistent purpose to have and to do your part to demand 
 and conquer it wherever it may lie : while I must 
 courtesy and take what I can hardly get, with ' By 
 your leave ' and ' Thanks.' 
 
 " You ought not to feel the need that would lead to 
 your asking its favors of this kind," said Col. Ander- 
 son. " If my will were the law of this globe, there 
 should no woman ever have to labor one day in her 
 life-time for outward goods or comforts. I would set 
 
222 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 the strong men at the work of supplying wants, and 
 women should, at the worst, only re-fashion and put 
 into new and more perfect combination the raw mate- 
 rials which their labor would furnish. I protest 
 against women as laborers. 
 
 " But not as workers, do you, my friend?" she said, 
 looking earnestly into his eyes. " You are willing, 
 are you not, that we should use and develop all the 
 powers that God has given us, and that can only be 
 done in faithful, persistent work. If I had found here 
 all the wealth and luxury which I expected, I should 
 still feel within me the same urgency to occupy myself. 
 I should desire work the same as now, the only differ- 
 ence being, that I should not then have had to think 
 of the recompense, which must now be a primary con- 
 sideration." 
 
 " It must not be !" he exclaimed, under his breath ; 
 " you are not fit for this strife. God forbid you should 
 think of it !" 
 
 "But I must, Col. Anderson. And I am fit for 
 anything which I have the power to do, as well as an- 
 other, without injury to myself. Nor do I complain 
 of the necessity which drives me. 'I only complain of 
 the world, which sees and knows this, in the experi- 
 ence of thousands of my sex, and yet converts itself 
 into a vast prison for us, appointing the well-furnished 
 and unneedy for our jailers. ' There,' say they, ' is 
 one thing which you can do, here is another, and there 
 another. We think you can live by any of these ; but 
 whether you can or not, you must not go beyond them. 
 If you desire to remain in harmonious relations to us 
 if you would not be marked, proscribed, and shunned, 
 do not seek further. You can eat, if not plentifully, 
 you can sleep, if not wholesomely, and be clothed, if 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 223 
 
 not suitably, by diligence in one or other of these em- 
 ployments. Therefore take it and be thankful, O gen- 
 tle woman, whom we cherish and care for ! As to the 
 soul which rebels against this, that you call slavery, 
 we have appointed the Church to take care of that. 
 She knows all its enmity and wickedness. She will 
 show it its bounds and limits, and so school it, that it 
 shall be grateful while you starve meek while you are 
 trodden to the earth.' r 
 
 " Your picture does not flatter man or his organiza- 
 tions," said Col. Anderson ; " yet I must admit it 
 has some true features." 
 
 " True features, my friend !" she replied ; " is it not 
 all true ? Does not the world, because you are a man, 
 give you full freedom to use all your powers in the 
 largest and most agreeable and lucrative field, 
 where you can find place ? Does it not, because 
 I am a woman, do exactly the reverse by me, though 
 my necessities may be even more imperative than 
 yours ? The world employs you, and undertakes, 
 by its theory, to provide for me. You, by the 
 development of your power and skill, become its 
 master I, through dependence and inaction of my 
 best capacities, its slave. That is the resulting dif- 
 ference." 
 
 He was silent some moments, and I waited for his 
 next words, with a strong feeling that they would be 
 special rather than general, and probably narrow the 
 conversation to the breadth of her personal prospects 
 and plans ; but her ideas, or the electrical earnestness 
 with which they were conveyed to him, had taken hold 
 of his heart and mind ; for, after a thoughtful pause, 
 he lifted his eyes to hers, and said : " If I feel 
 compelled to admit the truth of what you have said, 
 
224: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 what then ? Whence is the correction of these wrongs 
 to come ?" 
 
 " In the recognition," she replied, " of my moral 
 freedom and right of spiritual growth, which are as 
 dear to me as any man's can be to him ; in the acknow- 
 ledgment that rny integrity is as reliable, my virtue, 
 in all senses, as worthy of the world's trust and my 
 own, and that, in justice, I ought to be as free as you to 
 go to-morrow about this city, and seek the employ- 
 ment best suited for my support. I ought to be 
 respected, in going and coming, wherever a man 
 as good as I am could be seen without reproach, 
 and to feel entirely free in my choice, being re- 
 strained only by its worthiness and adaptation to my 
 abilities." 
 
 "Would you, then, have a woman do the same 
 things that men do ?" he asked. 
 
 " The same things that are suited to her. Where 
 it is dexterity of hand and clearness of brain that are 
 required, I think you will admit it may be no boast to 
 claim for myself and Miss Warren equal capacity with 
 any public or private clerk or bookkeeper. Yet, 
 which of us would dare apply for a situation in the 
 post-office, or go there, if it were given us ? Or what 
 self respecting woman would ask any merchant of this 
 city to give her employment at a desk or counter in his 
 warehouse ? And if the place were obtained, and one 
 had the courage to go and work in it, hour for hour, 
 page for page, with any man in the house, at the 
 month's end he would take two dollars for her one, and 
 her employer would still reckon himself her patron. 
 Yet we never lind that landlords and ship-owners, and 
 other proprietors, deal with us as with fractions of 
 men. We pay as much for all the privileges of our 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 225 
 
 half-life as you for your whole one. We go and come 
 at equal cost." 
 
 " I have no reply to all this, my friend, except that 
 it is true," said Col. Anderson. 
 
 " And wrong," she added. 
 
 " Yes, wrong, I admit ; but it is wrong as old as 
 the world ; and but for my faith in the right, I should, 
 perhaps, say remediless." 
 
 " Its remedy," she replied, " will lie in the true 
 thought and right feeling moving the minds and bo- 
 soms of honest, fearless, and affectionate men and 
 women. I did not mean, however, to attack your 
 opinions, for I do not know them ; but I feel the wrong 
 just now, and my poor cowardice, like that we often 
 see in the world, assumes a character of courage, and 
 makes a virtue of self-defense. Your rejoicing so 
 heartily and healthfully in the blessing of work, jarred 
 upon these strained chords of my heart ; but have you 
 not some better words for us ? I think you would not 
 readily find more grateful ears than ours." 
 
 " Miss Warren," said Col. Anderson, turning to 
 where I sat, " I shall make my peace on both hands, 
 I hope, if I say that I am not afraid of you, and there- 
 fore wish to ask a question or two assuming, as you 
 once said, that you are, for the moment, my sister ; on 
 which assumption alone I could possibly ground any 
 title. May I do so?" 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " We will suppose you absent," he said to 
 Eleanore. 
 
 " Would you not rather have the fact ?" she 
 asked, making a feint of rising. 
 
 " No, do not go. I particularly wish your pres- 
 ence after a few words, and I can imagine you away 
 10* 
 
226 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 till they are spoken. Now, Miss Warren, I think 
 there is no reason for your hesitating to tell me, 
 after what has necessarily been common knowledge 
 between .us, how affairs were arranged with Captain 
 Dahlgren ?" 
 
 I told him, and he agreed with us that it was ad- 
 mirable. " But you are not comfortable, and cannot 
 long remain here," he said. 
 
 " May I come in a moment ?" asked Eleanore. 
 
 " With anything pertinent to that remark, you shall 
 be heard," he said, with a mocking solemnity of man- 
 ner and tone. 
 
 " Then, as I know you love directness " 
 
 " Better than anything except the source of it at 
 this moment, he parenthesized. 
 
 "I will answer that question myself. Miss War- 
 ren is at this present hour the owner of eighty dollars 
 in money, a valuable watch, and a very small, much- 
 abused wardrobe. This humble speaker possesses 
 three hundred dollars in gold, a less valuable watch, 
 a wardrobe of about the same pretensions, and 
 one jewel above price. In addition to these, we 
 have both good health and resolute hearts and 
 while we have them, do not intend to eat and sleep at 
 twenty-two dollars a day, or consume any one's bread 
 but our own." 
 
 " Is that dinner ?" he asked, as a bell rang in the 
 passage at that moment. 
 
 "I think it is," said I. 
 
 " Shall I have the pleasure of accompanying you to 
 the table " 
 
 " If it please you to dine now and here," she an- 
 swered. 
 
 There was a great rush of feet in the passage, and 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 227 
 
 we waited till the press was over, and then Eleanore 
 said : " I must get my shawl, to cover the little king ; 
 he will be cold, lying here alone." 
 
 " I will go for it," said I. 
 
 When I returned, Col. Anderson was saying, with 
 the deepest earnestness : " Believe me, my dear friend, 
 your project is little less than insane for such a wo- 
 man, in a city like this. You call it corrupt ; your 
 childish imagination cannot conceive of its iniquities. 
 Even I, a man of the world, feel revolted at many of 
 the sights I have already seen. Perhaps it is not 
 that it is in fact so much worse than other or older 
 cities, but the vicious are unrestrained here by the 
 presence of the virtuous. For God's sake, be coun- 
 seled, and do not expose yourself to the rudeness 
 and insult you could scarcely no, not possibly es- 
 cape !" 
 
 " Self-respect, purity, and consciousness of right, 
 are a triple armor," she answered. 
 
 " I know they are," he replied, " in all fair war- 
 fare ; but the field is against you here." 
 
 " Then the field must e'en be braved !" she 
 said, firmly. " I may be defeated in it, but I cannot 
 be conquered." 
 
 " I know you will not," he said, his features 
 expressing the anguish with which he heard her 
 determination ; " you will bring out of the fearful 
 conflict before you, the same high and spotless 
 soul you carry into it strengthened, I know, by 
 all the pains and perils you will surmount j but why 
 will you do this thing ?" 
 
 " Simply because I see no other path open 
 to me." 
 
 She stood at the end of the sofa, resting her 
 
228 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 hand upon it, her eyes bent to the ground and I, 
 across the room, at the window, waiting to go to 
 dinner. 
 
 " Miss Warren," said Col. Anderson, " allow me 
 to wait on you to the table, if there you will excuse and 
 permit me to return to Mrs. Bromfield." 
 
 He did not ask her to grant him a private interview, 
 and when I turned, on hearing my name, I saw him 
 standing very near her, his tall, powerful form bending 
 over her, as one sometimes sees a tender mother 
 yearn toward a wayward child whom she does not 
 quite embrace. I felt that at that moment he had 
 asserted his natural power, and I hoped it would 
 prevail. 
 
 I therefore assented to his proposal, and after 
 being seated at the table, I whispered, as he bent 
 down : " God speed you I" 
 
CHAPTEE XXYIII. 
 
 That dinner-table shall I ever forget it ? that first 
 in-door assemblage of a population drawn from every 
 nation and class of civilized men ! "Were ever such 
 visible incongruities gathered at one board ? So much 
 youth, power, and life, running to waste and perver- 
 sion such legible records of these facts in the hand- 
 some, manly faces before me. I was near the upper 
 end of the table, and on the same side, above, were 
 Mrs. Lindley and her friend, with a man whom, from 
 his quietness and indifference to her, I immediately 
 concluded to be her husband. 
 
 Yery gay and demonstrative were these ladies salut- 
 ing gentlemen across the table taking wine with them 
 ay, and drinking it, too, with sufficient gusto and free- 
 dom. Opposite them sat a serious, thoughtful-looking 
 young woman, with a little girl, of about Phil's size, on 
 one hand, and a bright little yearling on the other. No 
 husband there no gayety, no salutations nor wine- 
 drinking apparently a stranger, like myself, or, at 
 least, not a participant in the life about her. 
 
 Below, on both sides, sat men of every shade that 
 the Saxon blood is capable of, and every conceivable 
 condition of person and garb, except the ragged and 
 patched. There was a very large majority of well- 
 dressed men well-dressed, that is, if wearing the new- 
 est clothes, the whitest and glossiest linen, the most 
 
230 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 striking of plaid and striped vests, and the most ex- 
 aggerated pins, chains, and rings, could be called 
 dressing well. 
 
 Next below me were three stately, slow-moving 
 Englishmen, who utterly refused to be driven by the 
 heat of the battle about them, and opposite them some 
 faces, that I knew were American, feeding with a like 
 deliberation. These were afterwards shown to me 
 as gamblers the richest men in San Francisco, it 
 was said. 
 
 There were middle-aged men and young men ; un- 
 washed and uncombed miners sitting next to perfumed 
 heads fresh from the hands of the barber. There were 
 splendid faces and heads, and bodies, too, in rough 
 carters' frocks, or blue or gray over-shirts. There were 
 men, who, you would have affirmed, had known Yale 
 or Harvard, looking, all below their chins, like respect- 
 able porters. 
 
 There was a confusion as at Babel of English, with 
 all the American and British idioms, French, German, 
 Italian, and Spanish. When I sat down, the table 
 was full, and in ten minutes, I think, half the seats had 
 been left and filled a second time. To some, there 
 came even a third occupant, before I was ready to leave 
 mine. For I had an appetite and leisure, and im- 
 movable British solidity in my long-abiding neigh- 
 bors aforesaid, to sustain me. So Mrs. Lindley and 
 her companion had carried their many flounces and 
 their fair necks and shoulders out of the room, and 
 the serious lady had led away her little ones, and our 
 waiter had looked impudently at me many times, be- 
 fore I rose. I took a plate of dinner for Mrs. Brom- 
 field and Phil, and two desserts, and with these, I went 
 straight to our room. As I passed, I heard loud voices 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 231 
 
 in the parlor, and I was, therefore, prepared to find 
 Eleanore up stairs. And there she was, alone, sitting 
 on a low seat, with her face buried in her pillow. 
 
 She did not look up, or wait for me to speak, 
 but asked, meekly, would I " go to the parlor for 
 Phil. I could not bring him up, dear Anna, when I 
 came." 
 
 I did not stay for a second word, but ran down 
 stairs, where I found the darling, fresh from his 
 sleep as a rose-bud, his hair tossed carelessly back, 
 and his great eyes filled with a solemn, infantine 
 wonder, that was almost weeping, at finding him- 
 self with the strangers. They were doing and 
 saying the kindest things they could Mrs. Lindley 
 and her friend and a profound gentleman whom they 
 called Jack; but Phil's lip had already begun to 
 quiver, and the moment he saw me, he flung himself 
 from the sofa and from them with " Oh, Miss War- 
 ren, take me to mamma !" 
 
 " The dear little fellow !" said Mrs. Lindley ; " he 
 wouldn't have anything to say to us." And she tried 
 to coax a kiss from him before he went, but he would 
 none of her. 
 
 " I love little boys," she said, holding his hand, 
 " and I haven't got any. Won't you come and be 
 my boy?" 
 
 No !" sturdily. 
 
 u Why not ? I would give you candies, and figs, 
 and everything you wanted." 
 
 " Because my mamma loves me, and she don't 
 talk so loud as you do." 
 
 At this they all laughed louder still, and Mrs. Lind- 
 ley seized him in her arms, and violated his lips with 
 a kiss, which he flung off almost as indignantly as 
 
232 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 his mother had, on another occasion, and with flash- 
 ing eyes and flushed face, said : " Don't you do that 
 again ! I don't like you !" 
 
 We got off now, Phil almost crying with vexation ; 
 which, however, he soon forgot, in the prospect of 
 his dinner, for he was very hungry, he said. After 
 he had kissed mamma, and congratulated himself on 
 finding her again, I took the dinner, which she utterly 
 refused to taste, to my trunk, in the farthest corner of 
 the room, at the window, arranged it, and seated the 
 little gentleman for his solitary meal. " Now," I said, 
 "Philip can eat his dinner, and see all the people 
 and horses go up and down. Mamma and I want 
 to talk." 
 
 " Yes," he replied, understanding that we were not 
 to be interrupted, except upon great urgency, and I left 
 him and went to his mother. 
 
CHAPTEK XXIX. 
 
 " Dear Eleanore," I said, " tell me now I know 
 what Col. Anderson took me to dinner for tell me 
 how you have arranged it." 
 
 " There is nothing arranged. It is just as it was 
 before." 
 
 Did he not" 
 
 " Yes yes," she interrupted, " he asked me to be 
 his wife." 
 
 " And you refused him ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Then," I exclaimed all my patience swept away 
 at that word " then, you are as little deserving of the 
 blessing you have as any honest woman can be. Did 
 you not tell me that you were free in heart and hand ? 
 You have not promised any one else " 
 
 " Promised !" she exclaimed, raising her face 
 suddenly upon me, and dashing the hair from be- 
 fore it. 
 
 " I know " I said " I know there could be no 
 promise from you without love nor with it, either, it 
 seems ; for you love this man, Eleanore." 
 
 " Love him !" she echoed. 
 
 " Then, why, in the name of all that is true and 
 honest, did you refuse him ? Why did you not, at 
 least, acknowledge a preference ?" 
 
 " Preference !" and she rose to her feet. " Prefer- 
 
234 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 ence ! Now, dear Lord, give me patience with her, 
 for thou knowest I love her ! Preference ! I should 
 prefer good Captain Dahlgren to Mynheer Yogelbert, 
 with his pipes and beer-pots ; but I should prefer sink- 
 ing peacefully, through the green waves, to the bottom 
 of the ocean, to marrying either!" 
 
 She moved fiercely up and down the narrow 
 space between our beds three or four times; and 
 then, stopping in front of me, resumed her low 
 seat, took both my hands in hers, and said, gently : 
 " Do you know, dear Anna, that I love this 
 man? and that means that his presence gives me 
 life, and his absence takes it away that I envy the 
 senseless air which embraces him that his footstep is 
 a joy to my inmost soul and his voice oh, his voice 
 interprets to me all Nature ! It is the master-tone, 
 wherein all others discords and harmonies are 
 melted into sweetness ! You do not know that 
 instrument, dear Anna. You have heard only its 
 hilarious or its earnest or its every-day utterances. 
 I have heard more, but only once only once. I never 
 dared trust myself again to that music. I am particu- 
 larly sensitive to the voice. I estimate and feel that, 
 of the commonest person who addresses me. I am led 
 to new friends by it sometimes, for a sweet, harmonious 
 soul does not flow out in rough or mean tones. I liked 
 this voice at the first word ; it had a manly volume 
 and fullness, with such clear, musical intonations 
 promises of deep tenderness ; but I never heard those 
 rare modulations till that evening you remember, 
 dear, that sad, yet happy evening, when we sat so long 
 upon the beach, talking of the future life, and the hopes 
 and aspirations it should crown. Then, when we were 
 walking up I was still weak, you know, and the deep 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 235 
 
 sand fatigued me ; but I would not lean on his strength, 
 as I should have on Captain Landon's, and involunta- 
 rily I betrayed my weariness he bent his head down, 
 and the clear, distinct words fell, one by one, close upon 
 my forehead, as if out of the divine heavens : ' Why 
 do you refuse my strength? Why am I strong, but 
 for your weakness?' And before I could recall my 
 soul from the bewildering trance of that moment, it 
 was added : ' If I dared if you were not in foolish 
 antagonism to God and our souls I would clasp you 
 to my strong heart, and you should never again know 
 weariness or feebleness.' 
 
 " c But you are a man,' I said, ' a strong and no- 
 ble man, and therefore I trust you.' 
 
 " But to-day, dear, I dared not let him speak so near 
 my heart. I told him I would only hear him if he 
 remained at the other end of the sofa, and I know he 
 was angered by my words, for that old fire of his an- 
 cestral race smoldered and darkened in his eyes, till I 
 said, kindly : ' You forget, my rash friend, that we 
 are every moment subject to the intrusion of strangers 
 here.' 
 
 " i You are entirely right, Eleanore,' he answered 
 it was the first time I ever heard him speak my 
 name 'I will do your bidding; but, in God's name, 
 now, be reasonable, and hear me with a woman's 
 heart, and not with the ear of a Fate.' 
 
 " And then he repeated the story you already know, 
 and asked did I but I broke his question off, and led 
 him elsewhere before it was framed. For you see, 
 dear, if he had asked did I love him, I could not have 
 avoided confessing, either by silence or words ; and I 
 would not, for my right hand, he should know it at 
 this time." 
 
236 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " This is so inexplicable to me," I said, " tliat I hope 
 you will be charitable to my dullness I am only a 
 common mortal and tell me why." 
 
 " Anna," said my friend, very earnestly, " could 
 you would you decide such a question, under circum- 
 stances like ours, to-day ? I am ill understood, indeed, 
 if severe judgment is to be pronounced for what I hon- 
 estly believe to be the wisest and most womanly act 
 of my life and which also costs me not a little pain. 
 I have confessed my love to you, but can you not see 
 and feel what is due to my heart to my inner life 
 to my outward dignity as a self-trusting, self-reliant 
 woman \ It would be possible for me to doubt myself 
 at some future day, I think, if in this haste, under the 
 pressure of the tempest without and the desolation 
 within which, God knows, is bitter enough I could 
 be tempted to cast my burden on another soul, how- 
 ever loving and true, as I know his to be." 
 
 " To confess your affection," I said, " would be a 
 simple act of justice to the object of it, and not neces- 
 sarily, it seems to me, a surrender of anything essential 
 to dignity and self-respect. I do not see your own 
 magnanimity and tenderness in this, Eleanore. Par- 
 don me if I pain you by saying it." 
 
 " I could more easily forgive your saying than keep- 
 ing it unsaid, Anna. That would be unworthy our 
 friendship. But, while I feel wholly clear in my own 
 soul, I see I shall find it difficult to bring you to my 
 point of view. There are questions, as deep as life and 
 death, affecting my relations to Col. Anderson, not one 
 of which has been so much as alluded to during our 
 acquaintance." 
 
 " You do not expect, or wish, I am sure, that your 
 husband shall entertain your opinions, and conform to 
 your views." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 237 
 
 " Not unless I were diabolic enough to marry a 
 man for the luxury of despising him," she interrupted, 
 warmly. 
 
 " No," said I, not heeding her blazing eyes and 
 flushed face, "but you know Col. Anderson well 
 enough, I think, to be quite assured that you entertain 
 common hopes, aspirations, and sympathies. Do you 
 not ?" 
 
 " Yes, if you make that as a general statement; but 
 I have views and purposes in life, with which, for both 
 our sakes, he must be fully acquainted, before we as- 
 sume any permanent relation, other than that of 
 friends. And if he has not such also, which I ought 
 to know, we shall be better as we are, than nearer 
 each other in the long walks of the future years. 
 I should inevitably jostle, and finally spurn, a man 
 who had not some adequate objects of his own, which 
 might be hindered or helped by me, but must, under 
 all and above all, be Ms testifying his individuality 
 and power, as those which I pursue shall testify mine. 
 I can predicate this of such a man as Col. Anderson, 
 but so I can of many others whom I know, between 
 whom and myself the globe is not too great a wall of 
 separation." 
 
 "We were silent some moments. I was beginning 
 to get a gleam of that interior light which she was 
 following, when she said, in a tone so tender and 
 changed from the last I had heard, that it arrested the 
 current of my thoughts at once: "Shall I confess, 
 dear Anna, that, hard as I know I seem to you, I 
 withheld all acknowledgment of my love in the midst 
 of these fearful trials and yearnings for the tenderness 
 and strength of such a soul as his, more because I dared 
 not trust myself to make it, than for any other reason ? 
 
238 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 You think I am strong, with a heart of iron ; but, had 
 I suffered myself to utter a word, or betray by a glance 
 the homage my soul pays him, my strength would 
 have become weakness, and I should inevitably have 
 taken refuge in his arms perhaps to despise myself 
 when the storm should be past, and he had brought me 
 to smooth and sunny waters. No, I must do that for 
 myself, or I shall never be worthy to be his wife. In 
 weakness and self-distrust, I withheld confession in 
 strength and self-discipline I will, with God's help, en- 
 deavor to become more nearly what he dreams that I 
 am ; and then, dear, when the life of realization comes 
 to us, not far off in the future " 
 
 " Ah, be careful, Eleanore be tender of that pre- 
 cious treasure a true man's love ! Do not let dreams 
 of the impossible or improbable dim or shiver the 
 bright casket that contains such a jewel for you ! 
 I tremble when I think, not of the danger of your loss 
 for I believe that is impossible, except by his death 
 but of his suffering, and the dreary banishment from 
 hope to which your silence has consigned him." 
 
 " I am not fearful for him, Anna. It may seem 
 ungenerous to you, but it is true, and being so, may as 
 well be spoken. I scarcely feel pain for him. You 
 look surprised : but do you not know that the noblest 
 maturity of character is in suffering ? And whenever, 
 turning from my own claims and position, I think of 
 him and his, I feel with all my love for him nay, be- 
 cause of it, and of my proud and perfect trust in him, 
 a secret rejoicing thrill along the deep and inmost cur- 
 rents of my being, that such a soul is going into the 
 furnace to prove its purity and individuality. I know 
 that he is so worthy of the gemmed coronet with which 
 experience will crown him, that I can be almost thank- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 239 
 
 ful to the inexorable hand which parts us. When 
 the heroic mood flushes over me, I am sorry for 
 nothing but that my share of the pain is not 
 greater. For him there is nothing to fear. He has 
 a large and beautiful and healthy nature, full of 
 wholesome activities, as you saw by the rugged 
 heartiness of that thanksgiving for work. He has 
 many sweet impulses worthy the most womanly 
 soul, and I know he will prove himself equal to 
 the great trust I repose in him. He is going away 
 this afternoon, to Sacramento, and thence to the 
 mountains." 
 
 " When will he return ?" 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
 " And you can thus treasure up heart and soul in 
 him, and let him go away to the wilderness, uncon- 
 scious of his possessions ?" 
 
 " I have told you, dear Anna." 
 
CHAPTER XXX, 
 
 How coldly and dismally the wind blew! Phil, 
 who had long left his dinner, was sitting, with his face 
 crushed against the window, watching the footmen, as 
 they fought their way against the dust and sand, and 
 the horsemen, as they caracoled up and down Clay 
 and Washington Streets, and along Kearney past 
 the great gaming-houses, whose music came to us in 
 fitful, wailing passages, as the dreary wind bore it 
 hither and thither. Phil's gayety was not boisterous, 
 but he rejoiced in the flying sarapas and jingling spurs 
 of the native horsemen, with their olive faces, black 
 eyes, and abundant raven hair : upon the very top of 
 which, the small, brown, conical hat, was held by a 
 string under the chin. The wide brim, standing per- 
 fectly and stiffly horizontal over the grave features, 
 gave them a formal, severe aspect, and an air of look- 
 ing with deep displeasure upon the bustling, hurrying 
 army of invaders that surrounded them. 
 
 Eleanore smiled as one passed who was more notice- 
 able by his prancing horse, rich mountings, and gay 
 dress, and said : " Recall our revered friend in New 
 York, Anna him of the white coat and auburn hair, 
 and great bald head, with a hat standing at an angle 
 of forty-five degrees to the line of his body and con- 
 trast him with that poor, unoccupied being ; his 
 earnest blue eye, beaming with the fire of thought and 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 241 
 
 the light of affection, with the unmeaning, unasking 
 glance of that little black orb; his benignant smile 
 with that sardonic elongation of the mouth and 
 tell me if the spirit, rather than the body, is not the 
 man !" 
 
 " Oh, mamma, mamma !" exclaimed Phil, " do 
 look ! Oh, Miss "Warren, come and see !" 
 
 We followed the direction of Phil's little hand, 
 which pointed down to Kearney Street. It was 
 crowded densely from side to side, and shouts and 
 screams and yells arose from the throng, and hats 
 were whirling in the air. 
 
 " But what is it all for ?" said Eleanore ; " I can 
 see nothing." 
 
 The music in the Parker House, the principal hell 
 of the city, before which the crowd had gathered, had 
 ceased, and as we looked, there rode out of the open 
 doors two women on horseback their heads uncovered 
 the wind tossing their short skirts willfully and 
 shamelessly out of place, and they reeling in the saddle 
 with intoxication. More vociferously than ever the 
 mob cheered them when they came forth, and their 
 spirited horses leaped down the three or four steps at 
 once. 
 
 " Oh, God's mercy !" exclaimed Eleanore, flushing 
 darkly, and then turning pale, " that one should be- 
 long by any tie of Nature to such as those. Well 
 might he say I could not conceive such shamelessness. 
 Heaven forbid me the power !" 
 
 " And those men," I said ; " they are not all vaga- 
 bonds, surely ! If they are, the country is filled with 
 such." 
 
 " There is no acknowledged class of vagabond and 
 worthless here, Anna," said my friend, sorrowfully; " all 
 11 
 
242 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 those men, except, perhaps, a very few, call themselves 
 respectable, claim a position among honest people, and 
 would repel indignantly the imputation of worthless- 
 ness or loss of character they have good wives and 
 daughters, or mothers and sisters and friends at home. 
 And yet witness their baseness how readily they open 
 their mouths to applaud that mournful spectacle !" 
 
 The unfortunate creatures rode off toward Wash- 
 ington Street, and we turned away from the disgusting 
 sight, sick at heart and fearful of soul. 
 
 " Shall we go out to-night 3" I asked. " It is al- 
 ready late." 
 
 " No, not to-night, Anna. I have no courage for 
 those crowds and the wind. It must surely be better 
 in the morning : and perhaps Antonio or Ching may 
 appear to us by that time. I should be very grateful 
 for a sight of either, for I have an unconquerable horror 
 of going out quite by ourselves with an object, too, 
 which must be accomplished, and which so forbids our 
 turning back when we would." 
 
 " This has been a hard day for you, dear," I said, 
 noting how very pallid was her face. 
 
 " Yes, I think I have lived a year since morning. 
 If life were to go on so, we should grow old very soon, 
 and weary, arid be glad to leave it." 
 
 " Let us leave this phase of it," I said, " for the 
 present, and if you feel able, read something that will 
 help us to forget it. This is not all the world, and 
 even these people, I doubt not, have veins of good and 
 helpful nature in them." 
 
 " What shall we have ?" she asked ; " or, rather, 
 which ? for, you know, our library contains but five 
 books the Bible, Miss Barrett, Tennyson, Sterling, 
 and Emerson's Essays." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 243 
 
 "Let us have the Essay on Heroism," I said. 
 " Every helpful word will come to us with power 
 now." 
 
 She took up the book and began turning the 
 leaves, while I, with needle and thread in hand, seated 
 myself to repair the best dress I owned. 
 
 " This is a precious volume," she said ; " not only 
 for the master-light whence it emanates, but for the 
 lesser ones that I have caught and fixed here. Look 
 at these fly-leaves. I like the plan of leaving several 
 at the beginning and close of a book. It enables me 
 to put my own mottoes there more than one, to suit 
 the meanings I find most pregnant in it. Here is Bry- 
 ant's sublime ' Battle-field ;' a piece of exquisite and 
 religious beauty on ' Prayer,' cut from an old news- 
 paper ; and two pages extracted from Theodore Par- 
 ker's ' Discourse of Religion ;' which are worth, I had 
 almost said, the whole volume, but that would have 
 been wronging the others. 
 
 "How strong one feels in the thought that such 
 men live and move, suffer and rejoice, now, among us ! 
 Years ago, when I was awakening to the glory of the 
 religious life learning that it was actual to my soul, 
 instead of an opinion or a creed, which I might 
 accept or leave alone, at my will, I remember a long 
 period of painful dissatisfaction that my day should 
 have had no Christ. I felt certain that his life would 
 have been more potent, to me, witnessed, than reported, 
 as Lafayette, whom I then saw, seemed ever after more 
 real than Washington. I had seen the arm that had 
 been generously uplifted for liberty, and the eye 
 that had flashed along the thunderous line of battle. 
 
 " My strong, sensuous life, makes its demands always. 
 In the matter of persons whom you ask me to re- 
 
244 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 vere, give them to me; or else what will show to 
 me the daily common life of the man or woman. I do 
 not care so particularly that the biographer of the sage, 
 poet, hero, or lover, should furnish me with the dates 
 of the great events in his life ; and even the events 
 themselves have less interest than a week's daily jour- 
 nal of this man's doing and being as, how he lived ; 
 in what sort of house; his gardens and fruits, and 
 the care he gave them ; how he entertained and re- 
 pelled his children; his joy at their birth and his 
 grief at their death ; how he talked with his friends ; 
 how he was related to his wife, and wherefore he chose 
 her. These items, and such as these, would bring us 
 nearer to that soul, which is now become only a name 
 and a thought to us, than the knowing when a certain 
 book was written ; whether at thirty or forty ; when a 
 victory was won, or a defeat nobly sustained. In the 
 case of the lover, as that is a purely interior experi- 
 ence, and can only be shadowed forth in the external, 
 the narrative is always the poorest and coldest, though 
 the subject is the divinest which our human life pre- 
 sents. Who would not rather hear the first low-spoken 
 words of love and pride that fell from Hero's lips the 
 first murmured demands of Leander to be acknowledged 
 as her chosen one than have repeated, on the most un- 
 questionable authority, the assurance, that, nerved and 
 strengthened by the sweet thought and hope of her, 
 he had conquered the surges of the Hellespont ? "We 
 would rather know what coldness, scorn, or anguish, 
 were in the last interview of Sappho and her lover, 
 than merely that the Leucadian leap was taken the 
 wild waves below being more merciful than the cruel 
 tortures above. 
 
 " It is the life, dear Anna, that we crave, not the 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 245 
 
 record of its outward doings. It is the soul-life that 
 appeals to our soul : and hence the great charm of 
 those few, rare biographies, and rarer autobiographies, 
 which melt the heart before us. Our writing and read- 
 ing and remembering have, for centuries, been cold and 
 unnatural in this respect ; the ancients were truer to 
 the affections in their thought and expression : and the 
 late moderns are becoming so. Emerson explains it 
 beautifully the old fidelity, I mean somewhere in 
 this Essay on History ; I read it but the other day. 
 As I remember, there seemed at bottom the idea, which 
 we all have, of the eternal identity of life, and of hu- 
 man experience in its highest and strongest traits ; and 
 then he said that the charm of the ancient literature, 
 in every sort, was the simplicity and healthy 
 naturalness with which persons spoke or were de- 
 scribed. The sensuous life was strong, and, whether 
 pure or not, as you and I might demand, was yet un- 
 shamed. 
 
 " Since then there has been a long transition an 
 ascension from the natural toward the spiritual plane, 
 in which, with Pisgah before them, men were ashamed 
 of the Egypt behind a period, I think, of concealment 
 the heart almost disclaims its love : at best, is not 
 ruggedly independent in proclaiming the presence of 
 this divine light in its chambers, and draws the cur- 
 tains closely, that it shine not forth. Ah ! never look 
 so accusingly at me, dear friend ; my time has not yet 
 come ; when it does, then see if I have not a touch of 
 the old Greek wife in me" and smilingly she went on. 
 " ISTot only does the heart shrink and crouch and 
 plead before its master-passion for concealment, but 
 the soul shuts up its religious exercises, speaks in faint 
 whispers only to the friend or the minister of its hopes 
 
246 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 and fears, and has no healthy natural courage to stand 
 before the world and say that God is its Lord and Pat- 
 tern, whom it purposes to approach by all right and 
 true uses of pleasure as well as pain. There is a sickly 
 and unprofitable foundation of shame and mortification 
 underlying our religious life, which Christ did never 
 place there. It is the work of later lives than his, and 
 I thank God daily that there are sturdy hands that 
 have digged their way to this substratum, and are 
 casting it forth such men as these among us, and 
 Strauss and De Wette among the Germans, and Car- 
 lyle and Wilkinson among the Britons. 
 
 " I see a new day dawning, dear, on the darkened 
 religious life a day of health and hope and peaceful 
 growth." 
 
 Thus we had talked, or, rather, she had ; for I had 
 listened, with only now and then a question, to lead 
 her on ; and we had heard no heroism but our own, 
 when poor little Phil came to us and said : a Mamma, 
 dear, won't you take me and tell me a story ? I feel 
 so sorry." 
 
 " Sorry for what, darling ?" 
 
 " Betause I am all alone." And with the words 
 came the irresistible tide of tears. 
 
 " No, no ; not alone, dearest little one. Here is 
 mamma, and there is Miss Warren." 
 
 " But Turnel isn't here, nor Misser Darf, nor An- 
 tono, nor Ching, nor " 
 
 "Who else, dear Philip?" 
 
 " Nor Harry, mamma " weeping bitterly on her 
 bosom ; " and the wind blows, and its all gray 'tween 
 here and the other houses." 
 
 " Dear Philip, does the little heart want cheering, 
 too? It shall have it. Mamma is large and strong, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 247 
 
 and she loves Philip so dearly there, like that" 
 clasping him closer " and he shall not be sorry ; " for 
 to-morrow morning the wind won't blow, and we will 
 have a pleasant walk, and, may be, see Antonio; and 
 the gray fog will be all gone, and how happy we will 
 be in the sunshine !" Already the child's face 
 brightened. 
 
 " It was dreary to be watching so long and still, alone 
 there, my darling. Very soon we will have a lamp 
 lighted, and then we will shut out that ugly-looking 
 fog. He shan't shake his dirty gray curtain in our 
 faces any longer." 
 
 " No," said Phil, laughing ; " he shan't look into 
 our nice room, shall he ?" 
 
 " Not a bit, darling. Shall I sing ' Lady Moon ' 
 very softly ?" 
 
 a Yes." 
 
 And she sang, low, but clear and distinct, every 
 syllable, those beautiful crystal lines of Milnes 
 adapting the words to her own musical conception 
 as she went along. She had a sweet, ringing voice, 
 and I was even comforted myself by the simple per- 
 formance. 
 
 The tea-bell rang. " I cannot go to table," said 
 Eleanore. " Let us be extravagant for once, and order 
 the supper in our room. I must have some food, for to- 
 morrow, you know, dear, this play will be at an end, 
 and there will then be no place for weak hearts and 
 fainting stomachs." 
 
 " Shall I go down and give the order ?" 
 
 " If you would not rather have me do it. I don't 
 intend to put all the disagremens upon you, and you 
 have certainly taken a large share so far." 
 
 " Well, then, I will take this one more ;" and I 
 went. 
 
248 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 I had a mind to have a nourishing, yet light and 
 wholesome supper for her, who had but tasted of 
 luncheon since our last dinner on the Garonne ; a time 
 that seemed long enough gone to have starved and 
 buried a person in. I asked for tea, some dry toast, a 
 bit of nice beefsteak for one, and a boiled egg. 
 
 " Don't know as we have any eggs, ma'am," said 
 the waiter. " They're very scarce." 
 
 " How dear are they ?" prudence inquired, using 
 my tongue. 
 
 " We charge half a dollar a piece, ma'am." 
 
 " Then get one, if you can, and send for the child a 
 glass of milk. Is that dear ?" 
 
 a Three bits a glass, ma'am." 
 
 " Let us have it," I said, in a kind of momentary 
 recklessness of expense, which I seemed to have im- 
 bibed already in the air. 
 
 I took a lamp and returned, asking him to send the 
 supper as soon as it could be prepared. " We had 
 better go with cheerful hearts to our first night's rest," 
 I reasoned, " if it does cost something." 
 
 Eleanore agreed in this, and while we were waiting, 
 I tidied the room in further respect to our gastronomy, 
 while she told fairy stories to Phil, and kept him awake 
 for supper. At last it came. The egg was from over 
 seas, and could not be eaten ; the milk had a strong 
 flavor of water, and the butter had not come from the 
 dairy that week, certainly. But the steak was tolera- 
 ble, the bread good, and the tea worthy the nearest 
 neighbor of China delicious, aromatic, subtile ; on the 
 whole a very good supper, we agreed : the most sub- 
 stantial satisfaction to all, I think, being derived from 
 Phil's exceeding joy over his milk. 
 
 "That idea was an inspiration, Anna," said his 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 249 
 
 mother, " and I am very grateful to the kind spirit 
 who gave it you ; for we were needing some sound 
 comfort very much. I should not like to see any de- 
 pression or heart-sinking there, not even for a day ; and 
 we have to supply the place of many devoted friends." 
 
 When the supper was over, Phil went around the 
 bed to his mother's basket, and returning with his box 
 of dominoes, said, with a smile that was half shame at 
 the demand, and half pleasure at feeling warranted in 
 making it : " JSTow, mamma, I believe you can play a 
 game with me can't you ?" 
 
 " Yes, love ; but if I should beat S" 
 
 " Oh, you won't. Turnel never beats me." 
 
 And so a mock game was gone through, with alter- 
 nations of great solemnity and mirth ; and then, with 
 more stories and " Lady Moon " repeated, Phil was 
 laid asleep. Eleanore and I sat and talked long after, 
 partly of speculative, but more of practical and near 
 affairs ; and finally parted to our respective beds, with 
 a warm embrace. 
 
 " Our first night here," she said ; " and it closes in, 
 dreary and lonely, upon us does it not ? This damp, 
 chilling fog, assails my cheerfulness sadly. It would 
 be much easier to weep than refrain." 
 
 " Don't you think of it," said I ; " but let us sleep 
 early, that we may begin the day clear and strong to- 
 morrow." 
 
 I have not mentioned one feature of our position 
 a very disagreeable one which was, that, as to sound, 
 there was no privacy in the house. We heard the 
 incessant hum of talk from the bar-room, rising occa- 
 sionally into loud and revolting profanity ; every word 
 spoken in the passage leading to our room ; and, when 
 the inmate of the next apartment came in, every move- 
 
250 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 nient there was as audible to us as if he had been in 
 our own. I had not thought so much of this during 
 the day, but now, when I laid down to sleep, and 
 went to thinking instead, it seemed a fearful thing 
 to be thus, as it were, under the inspection of so many 
 surrounding ears, and the involuntary hearer of so 
 much that one would gladly be ignorant of. Separa- 
 tion effected by walls of cotton-cloth and paper ! said 
 I, mentally. It is not wonderful that coarse people 
 should become coarser here. 
 
 I lay long awake, hearkening to the horrid sounds, 
 with a kind of fascination for them which I seemed 
 unable to resist the talk from below and from the 
 street, and when these died away for a moment, the 
 heavy breath of sleepers in our neighborhood. At last 
 I was relieved by hearing near me a soft, but measured 
 breathing, in the lengthening pauses of other sounds, 
 and then I knew that Eleanore slept. 
 
 " Poor Eleanore !" I said, with a heart-ache for her; 
 " poor Eleanore ! What a brave soul it is ! and how 
 thick and fierce the storm that beats upon it !" 
 
CHAPTEK XXXI. 
 
 I was awakened by the touch of a hand upon my 
 forehead, and I opened my eyes to see by the dim, soft 
 light of the early morning, Mrs. Bromfield standing 
 by me, already dressed, and with a cheerful, calm, al- 
 most happy face. 
 
 " Dear Anna," she said, " rise. The morning is 
 like a dream of Fairy Land. It is the hour of God's 
 own reign. Let us go out early, before the streets are 
 again filled. I see the flush of day over those hills be- 
 yond the water, and the air has the peace and stillness 
 of heaven. Such a contrast to the dreary raging of the 
 evening !" 
 
 I rose, and while I was making my toilet, Phil 
 was awakened and brought to a sense of the pleasure 
 before him. There were few people yet moving in 
 the streets, and when we stepped out into the delicious 
 Sabbath stillness, an earnest thanksgiving for that hour, 
 and its beauty and peace, went up from my soul. 
 
 " Where shall we go ?" I asked. 
 
 " Up the hill, by all means," was the reply ; and 
 we turned to our left. 
 
 The grocer my own and Phil's acquaintance of the 
 day before was just opening his shop, and he accosted 
 us with such interest and satisfaction, that his little 
 friend was fain to stop a moment. 
 
 " Fine morning ladies," said the man, bowing. 
 
252 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Very beautiful," replied Eleanore, assured by his 
 honest face and unquestionable voice and manner ; " it 
 is a great change from last evening, sir." 
 
 " Yes ; but that's the regular way here, madam. 
 Such mornings and evenings all summer. One half 
 the day makes up for the other, ma'am ; so I say it's a 
 fine climate, though I don't like the wind." 
 
 " Does it blow so every afternoon ?" I asked. 
 
 " Every one, ma'am, as sure as the sun rises. But 
 we're just as sure of such a morning after it. You are 
 right to be out early with this little fellow ; and if 
 you want a pleasant walk, and are strangers, as I guess 
 you are, I'll tell you of one that you won't often find 
 the equal of anywhere. Just go up this street till you 
 come to the third one running across it ; that's Stock- 
 ton ; and then turn to your right. It'll lead you to 
 the water, just outside of Telegraph Hill, and there 
 isn't a prettier sight, of a morning, in all America." 
 
 " Thank you," said Eleanore. And we moved 
 along. 
 
 " Stop a moment, ma'am, if you please. My little 
 friend here will be glad of a cracker before he gets 
 back." And he led Phil inside, who, when he re- 
 turned, looked like a perambulating commissariat in 
 miniature. 
 
 " I've got such a lot, mamma," he said. 
 
 " But, my darling, you should have taken only three 
 or four." 
 
 " But he did put them all in ; he would, dear 
 mamma ; don't you think he's very good ?" 
 
 " Yes, Phil, very good, indeed ; but you must 
 tell him, next time, not to give you so much ; and 
 you may tell him that mamma doesn't wish you to 
 take it." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 253 
 
 "I will," he said, " but I believe he likes to do it." 
 
 This was always Phil's ultimatum ; his final argu- 
 ment lay in " I believe," which seemed to express an 
 inmost and irrefragible truth. There was no gainsay- 
 ing that. 
 
 " Is not this beautiful beyond imagination ?" said 
 Eleanore, as we rose the hight, and turned to look 
 down upon the city and the bay, and the hills beyond : 
 over which the sun was just rising, through a sea of 
 daffodil and rosy air. 
 
 We passed Brenham Place, at the head of the 
 Plaza, and the large zinc post-office on the corner, 
 which we knew by the waste wrappers and rubbish ly- 
 ing heaped in all the little sheltered nooks and angles 
 about it. This reminded us, that, in the multiplied 
 experiences of the day before, we had entirely forgot- 
 ten that there existed a mail and post-office in the 
 country. " There were no signs of any one moving in 
 it yet, or I should wish to go in," I said. 
 
 " Not till we come back, dear," said my friend ; 
 " with all this before us, we can well afford to defer for 
 an hour any pleasurable tidings ; and we do not want 
 any painful ones now." 
 
 Past Dnpont Street, where already the fantastic 
 figures of beings who might have sat for the pictures 
 on our mothers' old-fashioned china, were gathering to 
 their own exclusive kingdom ; past a few smart-look- 
 ing new houses, and many cloth and rough board 
 shanties ; and here, at a good elevation above the bay, 
 we are in Stockton Street. 
 
 We turn to the right. There are some fine brick 
 buildings going up on the upper side of this broad 
 avenue, which, from its position and width, looks as if 
 it might by-and-by become the Fifth Avenue of San 
 
THE* 
 
 IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Francisco. We walk along, still rising a little, and 
 passing butchers' stalls, groceries, and drinking-shops, 
 on the steps of which stand young men whose eyes 
 plead for rest, and whose neglected, debauched faces, 
 tell a painful tale of the last few hours. No women 
 but ourselves yet in sight, and every eye scrutinizing 
 us every door occupied as we pass. Now we leave the 
 buildings behind us, descending toward North Beach, 
 and there before us lies the passage into the harbor 
 a broad belt of peaceful blue water, dotted with sails, 
 and just bordered, under the bold hills opposite, with 
 the golden light which lies upon them. The water 
 and its sails, with Angel Island and the environing 
 shore beyond, are a picture, framed ruggedly on the 
 right by Telegraph Hill, and on the left by the rising 
 land of Clark's Point. 
 
 " How entirely calm, how beautiful, how pure it 
 is !" said I. 
 
 " Yes," said Eleanore ; " and seeing it, I wonder that 
 even common natures can lay hold upon degradation 
 with such relish, when a sermon like this is preached 
 daily to them in this grand cathedral. See those white 
 gulls skimming the water, suggesting the near neigh- 
 borhood of the awful but unseen sea. I never felt my 
 heart so wholly satisfied with Nature as at this mo- 
 ment." 
 
 We went quite down to the beach, where the surf 
 of the incoming tide lapsed upon the sands, in a music 
 gentle and sweet, as became the place and the hour. 
 Phil sat down upon a pile of boards and munched his 
 crackers, while his mother and I stood and filled our 
 souls with the scene. 
 
 " I am always a Pantheist at such hours as this," 
 said she. " God smiles upon me from the water, and 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 255 
 
 the floating clouds, and the fair earth. I feel him in 
 them. The whole universe is quick with his presence, 
 and breathes it into my heart. I do not wonder that 
 the sentiment of the Beautiful in those wonderful old 
 Greeks culminated in their Pantheon their temple to 
 all the gods. Their climate must have been like this, 
 Anna; and one could fancy them present, drawn 
 hither, after the ages of their unfolding, by sympathy 
 with an earth-life, which is destined, perhaps, to re- 
 produce, on the developed plane, the perfect type of 
 which they were the archetype." 
 
 I smiled at the fancy, and she said : " I give it only 
 for what it may be worth to you, as, indeed, we must 
 take all fancy and all thought ; but for me, I love to 
 feel that the glorious spirits of old, made more glorious 
 by their super-earthly experiences, do sometimes hover 
 near us, retaining their ancient sympathies with this 
 life, as we with infancy, because we once were infants. 
 I think it might be reasonably and beautifully so ; but 
 whether Phidias and Sophocles are near us at this mo- 
 ment or not, this earth and this sky and this air 
 seem to me palpitating with life, and the power to im- 
 part it." 
 
 " One could certainly bear a good deal in a country 
 of such rich and perfect compensations," I said. 
 
 " Yes, anything," she replied ; and her eye glowed 
 with an enthusiasm that beamed from its depths, as 
 the cool darkness of the waters before us was visible 
 through the sunshine that lay upon their surface. 
 " I would not call martyrdom by that name, if it 
 befell me here, with the Father's smile thus beaming 
 upon me." 
 
 " Nevertheless," I said, " we shall find trials here." 
 
 " Oh, trials enough heavy and sad enough, dear 
 
256 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Anna, to make us at times indifferent to what we feel 
 so keenly now. These high hours come to us only 
 when the soul is attuned by courage which means 
 resignation not in the meek, but lofty and uppermost 
 sense. I am never resigned to life, as a whole, but at 
 such moments, and then I am entirely feeling the lit- 
 tleness of human effort in the midst of so much grand 
 work already done ; feeling, too, that nothing can ulti- 
 mately fail which is shaped and wrought by the Power 
 and Love that speak to us there." 
 
 " I suppose," I said, " that all natures have ex- 
 periences of corresponding rest and hopefulness. 
 Every soul must be consciously so addressed, at times, 
 by the visible ; and how, then, can we solve that base- 
 ness, which, like a relentless and virulent disease, 
 returns to seize again and again upon the life ?" 
 
 "It is not penetrated," she said. " The air of 
 purification and kindling only plays upon and over it, 
 as the rays of that morning sun go rioting joyfully over 
 those far hills, but do not stay to search out and illu- 
 minate the valleys between them. That is the office 
 of later and mature hours which, alas! never come to 
 the debased soul, in the brief audiences it gives to Na- 
 ture. But I believe that sermons could be preached 
 to sinful hearts before this altar, that would touch them 
 more deeply and effectually than those which are 
 uttered upon printed texts, within buildings made of 
 men's hands." 
 
 There were people approaching us some laborers 
 and some idlers and so our hour of tranquillity ended. 
 It was long till we saw another such. 
 
 Passing homeward, at the corner of Jackson Street 
 we met a troop of little children, with books in their 
 hands. Phil's eyes dilated with joy, and we were 
 scarcely less gladdened at the sight. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 257 
 
 " Where are you going, my child ?" I asked of a 
 little girl, rather untidy and neglected-looking, but 
 with a frank, clear face. 
 
 " To school, ma'am," she replied, dropping the very 
 ghost of a very little courtesy. 
 
 " To school ! Where, pray ?" 
 
 " There, ma'am," with the same motion, pointing to 
 a good-sized house, that was painted brown, " in Mr. 
 'Unt's church." 
 
 " Who teaches you ?" 
 
 " Mr. and Mrs. Marsden, ma'am." 
 
 " But it isn't school-time by a great deal," I said, 
 looking at my watch. " What are you going to do till 
 your teachers come ?" 
 
 " Play, ma'am. We always plays in the morning." 
 
 " Are there many of you ?" 
 
 " A 'ouse-full, ma'am." 
 
 And even while we stood talking, the gathering 
 troops came thronging around the steps. 
 
 " Oh, mamma," said Phil, delighted immeasurably 
 by the joyous sight and sound of frolicsome childhood, 
 " won't you take me to 'cool ?" 
 
 Mamma endeavored to explain, but the coveted joy 
 was too great for poor Phil to understand any reason 
 why it should be denied him ; and at last he said, very 
 sadly, as feeling himself wronged : " Well, I believe 
 Turnel will take me there." 
 
 How quickly her eyes suffused at the words ! " It 
 is only for the child," she said, as I glanced at her. 
 " I am more pained now for him than any one of us. 
 If I could secure his comfort and welfare, it would 
 take a heavy burden from my spirit. 
 
 As she spoke, we were drawing near our hotel. At 
 every step, we met men who looked into our faces, as 
 they had the day before (but how much less it wound- 
 
258 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 ed us now than then !) some rudely, some inquir- 
 ingly, and some with open admiration of Eleanore, I 
 mean. You understand that I do not claim to have 
 been admired ever, though once there was one who 
 loved me, thank God ! 
 
 The steps in front of our house were crowded, but we 
 made our way without looking up, with Phil between 
 us ; and just as we reached the threshold, we heard our- 
 selves saluted with : " Bon jours, mesdames ! Buenos 
 dias !" and, last of all, our own old English " Good 
 morning, Mrs. Bromn'eld Miss Warren !" and there 
 stood, tidy and smiling, Antonio, with a stout round 
 parcel in his hand. 
 
 You may be sure our greeting was not less cordial 
 than his. He followed us into the parlor, demon- 
 strated over Phil, and handed me the parcel, which 
 was directed to "Master Philip Bromfield, care of 
 Miss Warren." I suspected immediately from whom 
 it came, but Antonio did not speak. He stood aside, 
 while, at Phil's request, I opened the accompanying 
 note, and read to him as follows he listening with the 
 most becoming and serious gravity : 
 
 " DEAR PHIL : 
 
 " I send you this box of figs because I know you 
 like them ; and Antonio, too, because you like him. 
 Antonio is going to live with a friend of mine a man 
 as good as Captain Dahlgren who will let him go an 
 hour every morning and take you a walk. Tell your 
 mamma not to be afraid. Antonio will be very careful, 
 and he wants to do it " (these last words underscored, 
 in vague and tender reference, I suppose, to the past.) 
 " So now good-by, Phil. Don't forget me, nor how 
 much I love you. 
 
 Your friend, THE < TURNEL.' " 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 259 
 
 Beneath was written as follows : 
 
 "To Miss WARREN: 
 
 " For the sake of our common experiences in the 
 time that is gone, and for another, which I could not 
 disguise from you if I would, I shall take the liberty 
 of writing you, after I shall have reached my place of 
 destination, and looked about myself a little there. 
 Until then, I am 
 
 Yery respectfully and truly yours, 
 
 J. LEONARD ANDERSON." 
 
 This little gift and note comforted us greatly ; 
 but also pained Eleanore, who, thanking Antonio, 
 fled to our room faster than I could follow her ; and 
 was fiercely struggling to beat back the emotions they 
 had awakened, when I entered. 
 
 " Don't talk to me, Anna," she said ; " don't tell 
 me of his kindness and magnanimity in thinking of 
 so substantial a good to the child ! I cannot bear it 
 now. The gift I make nothing of it is such com- 
 mon kindness to offer a child what will gratify its 
 palate ; but the thonghtfulness of sending Antonio 
 every day, is so like a generous, noble woman and 
 like him, too ! And he did not think fit to address the 
 note to my care ! I know he had no reason to, and 
 the strongest for not doing it ; and yet and yet I 
 no, I ought not " 
 
 " No," I said " I think you ought not to expect or 
 desire any further evidence of how entirely he studies 
 your happiness, while you ignore his as bravely as any 
 heartless, conscienceless coquette of them all !" 
 
 " No, I do not," she said, rising by a great effort 
 above her emotions, and speaking more calmly ; " I do 
 
260 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 not forget his happiness any whole hour of the day ; 
 but I yield, perhaps, too wholly to my subjective rela- 
 tion toward him, which is as sacred and inseparable as 
 toward God. I shall clear it all up some day, Anna, so 
 that you will be satisfied with me, which I know you 
 are not now. 
 
 " But we must not talk of what will take away our 
 courage for the day. Let us go to breakfast, and then 
 to our work ; and pray do not speak again of what 
 will call this up, till we can better afford it." 
 
CHAPTEE XXXII. 
 
 There was great scarcity of water, and what we 
 had was of abominable hardness and flavor ; but 
 as I said of our supper, there was delicious tea for 
 breakfast ; and though Eleanore ordinarily was very 
 abstinent, she now braced herself with a large cup of 
 it. Antonio still remained, for he was not to com- 
 mence his service till next day, and would stay with 
 Phil as long as he wished him to. So we sallied forth, 
 leaving them in occupation of our room, with the free- 
 dom of the passages and parlor. The first quest was 
 a boarding place, and I, with a sort of amour de corps, 
 proposed going to see the school-teachers. " They 
 must have been here some time," I said ; " they must 
 be respectable and safe persons, and have a large ac- 
 quaintance." 
 
 " Really, Anna, for practical matters not to dis- 
 parage you in others you fall little short of perfect at 
 times," said Eleanore. " That, now, is a lucky and 
 sound idea, which, I suppose, would never have oc- 
 curred to me." 
 
 We proceeded to prove its value at once. The 
 school-doors were open, and the hum of voices greeted us 
 at the corner, several yards off. It was a welcome 
 sound to me, for I love a school. 
 
 " In the future world, I think, your employment will 
 be teaching," said Eleanore, as we went up the steps. 
 
262 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " I hope so." 
 
 The little English girl had told us there was a 
 u 'ouse-full " and so it was : running over, indeed. 
 
 Mr. Marsden came forward and received us, as if 
 accustomed to see visitors there. He was engaged with 
 a class in the front part of the room, while his wife 
 heard one from the desk below the pulpit. We stopped 
 a moment at his place, and then availed ourselves of 
 his polite invitation to walk back and take seats. 
 
 As we passed along the aisle, between the ranks 
 of little faces, Eleanore said : " It was nothing less 
 than an inspiration that sent us here. Look at the 
 sweet candor and purity of that woman's counte- 
 nance !" 
 
 We sat down, and talked in her moments of leisure, 
 which were few and short, till a class was called to 
 read. " Anna," said my friend, as they were taking 
 their seats, suppose you indulge yourself in the luxury 
 of hearing those children, and let me speak to Mrs. 
 Marsden." Then, turning to her : " My friend, Miss 
 Warren," she said, "is an experienced teacher, and 
 she proposes to rest you for a little space by hearing 
 that class." 
 
 " Thank you," was the willing reply ; and she gave 
 me the book. 
 
 Before the exercise was done, I saw, by glancing at 
 them from time to time, that they had settled all in- 
 quiries, at least to Eleanore's satisfaction. Her face 
 was bright, and Mrs. Marsden seemed equally pleased, 
 as they announced to me that they had arranged, and 
 we were to go at once to her own house, she fortunately 
 having a vacant room. 
 
 " And no boarders," said Eleanore. 
 
 " I had, perhaps, better speak to my husband," said 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 263 
 
 the good lady, coloring at our enthusiasm. " Can you 
 give me any reference ?" 
 
 " Mr. Haydon Kichard Haydon." 
 
 " Oh, he was a friend of Henry's," she said ; and with 
 the word, she summoned him by a look, and told him 
 of our arrangements, and that we were acquaintances 
 of Mr. Haydon's. 
 
 " He was my uncle," said Eleanore. 
 
 Hereupon Mr. and Mrs. Marsden both offered cor- 
 dial hands, as to an old friend. " We ought to know 
 you," said Mr. M., " for we have heard often enough 
 of you, from your uncle, who was a good friend of ours. 
 We shall take pleasure in making you both feel your- 
 selves at home, as far as is in our power." 
 
 After a little further friendly talk, we took leave, to 
 go on our shopping ; and at noon Mr. Marsden was to 
 come to the hotel and accompany us to his house. 
 Mrs. M. had given us directions where to go, and shown 
 the utmost kindness in everything ; and we went away 
 from her very much cheered and encouraged. 
 
 " How fast the world loses its hard, unfriendly as- 
 pect," said I, " when we see it through the medium 
 of kind hearts, and feel there is a spot near us that we 
 can call home !" 
 
 " Yes," said Eleanore; " the wind" which was al- 
 ready sending forth short but sharp blasts of warning 
 " will not be so dreary by many degrees to-day as it 
 was yesterday. Even these men look better to me, and 
 I feel less put down by the sight of that group of unfor- 
 tunates flaunting through the square than I did before 
 I saw that dear, good creature." 
 
 In short, we were very much lifted out of onr anx- 
 ieties and depression by this fortunate meeting. We 
 stopped and saw Phil and Antonio a few minutes, and 
 
264 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 called for our bill, that we might know how much we 
 had to pay out before making further expenditures. 
 " For we must not let our finances become deranged 
 or complicated," said Eleanore, laughing in her re- 
 newed spirits. 
 
 The clerk came and delivered it, with a gentle- 
 manly bow, and had his pen in hand, ready to receipt 
 it. As I had bargained for the room, I took it into 
 my own hand. It was " lumped " all together two 
 and a half days' board, thirty dollars. 
 
 " That is not according to the charge I agreed on," 
 said I, " when I took the room." 
 
 " It is No. 9 I think you have ; a double room is 
 it not?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Eight dollars a day for each of you ; six for the 
 child. Luncheon and supper in your room, with 
 milk and eggs, extra thirty dollars ! That's right, 
 ma'am." 
 
 " Do you mean to tell me," I asked, determined 
 not to be imposed on without resistance, " that our 
 having supper in our room, with an egg which could 
 not be eaten, and a glass of milk extra, makes an addi- 
 tion of eight dollars to your bill ?" 
 
 " That's the bill, ma'am," he replied. 
 
 Eleanore had taken out her purse and counted the 
 money, which she gave him, saying, " Such things 
 seem a little strange to us, because we are fresh from 
 the country where shillings stand for dollars here. 
 I think your charge is unjust, but that is more your 
 concern than mine." 
 
 " Pray, madam," he said, deferentially, touched, 
 I suppose, by a certain loftiness in her tone which 
 challenged his pride, instead of his avarice " as I 
 had" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 265 
 
 " Not a word more," she said ; " we will call at 
 noon for our things ; and meanwhile I will leave my 
 little son and the boy here." 
 
 " Certainly," he said, " anything that would ac- 
 commodate us." 
 
 And I have no doubt he was more anxious at that 
 moment to get rid of three or four of those eight 
 dollars, than he had before been to get them. 
 
 We had been directed to Clay, below Kearney 
 Street, for our shopping ; and there we found half a 
 dozen or more stores, filled mostly with goods of very 
 costly kinds elegant silks, satins, velvets, laces, and 
 embroideries, worthy the notice of duchesses, rather 
 than of two poor women like ourselves. 
 
 " The difficulty we find, sir," said Eleanore, to a 
 pertinacious and almost impudent shopman, "is not 
 that your goods are not elegant ; they are too much 
 so for either our taste or means. I do not want those 
 costly pattern-silks, but a plain, handsome black silk, 
 which is good." 
 
 " Here it is then a German boiled silk, ma'am 
 yard wide splendid shade and quality eight dollars 
 a yard." 
 
 u It is too good and too expensive." 
 
 " Then, I think, ma'am, we couldn't suit you "- 
 with a palpable sneer. 
 
 " There is a piece of Gros de Naples," said an- 
 other and more respectful young man, laying a piece 
 before us. 
 
 " Would you have the goodness to remain and serve 
 us ?" she asked him. 
 
 " Certainly, ma'am." And the other fell back with 
 a mortified scowl. 
 
 There was an opposite counter, where some of the 
 12 
 
266 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 hooded sisters, with enormous purses, filled with large 
 gold coins, were buying the most expensive em- 
 broidered robes, at a hundred and a hundred and fifty 
 dollars a piece, with as much non chalance as we would 
 have selected cotton cloths. It was plain why the 
 young man with the sneer could not patiently serve 
 ladies who were avowedly unable to buy even a forty 
 or fifty dollar dress. 
 
 We at last succeeded, with the help of the civil 
 clerk, in finding that which pleased us well, and which 
 we could afford to purchase each of us a black silk, 
 and then, in colors, two patterns each of what best 
 suited us. 
 
 One of our unfortunate neighbors came across by 
 way of amusing herself, I suppose and stood next to 
 Eleanore, almost crowding against her. She did not 
 draw back haughtily, as I expected to see her, but 
 yielded gently the room required ; and, after standing 
 so a moment, turned her face full upon the girl who 
 still pressed toward her and looking seriously into 
 her eyes, asked, in a quiet, and not unkind tone : 
 
 " Would you like to look at these goods ?" 
 
 " No, thank you," was the pert reply. 
 
 " Then, perhaps you will be kind enough to give 
 me and my friend room for a few minutes more." 
 
 And her unpleasant neighbor walked away in silence 
 to her companions. 
 
 We had still the milliner and shoe-stores to visit 
 both formidable undertakings, as well to our patience 
 as our fast-diminishing purses. Eleanore, indeed, had 
 insisted, or, rather, in her usual way, without insist- 
 ing, had paid all my purchases at the first shop ; and 
 when all was settled, she had something over a hun- 
 dred dollars left, and I about fifty. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 267 
 
 " Not a large capital, dear Anna, to begin to live 
 with even at the prudent rate of sixteen dollars a 
 week. We shall have to find something to do very 
 soon." 
 
 " Yes ; but, first, we must get ourselves into better 
 garments. "We will not think of work outside our 
 own room for the next ten days ; for now you must 
 prove the artistic skill you once boasted to me as a 
 mantua-maker. It would leave us penniless to hire 
 these dresses made up." 
 
 " I did not think of doing it," she said ; " for Mrs. 
 Marsden, whose word has already become a canon 
 with me, said, in answer to my question about those 
 things, that the heaviest expense of clothing, here, 
 was the making. So we will even sit down to it our- 
 selves." 
 
 " And when it is over, dear Eleanore, I have hope 
 of your getting pupils in music. Poor Mrs. Farley, 
 you know, said her sister had two daughters here, and 
 I have no doubt they are people of condition. When 
 we call to see them, why, something may come of it 
 who knows ?" 
 
 " Ah ! who knows ? But here we are. Now, I 
 hope Mr. Marsden has come, and that there will be no 
 delay in getting to our new quarters." 
 
 He was there already, and we found also a vast 
 politeness awaiting us from the clerk, who had evi- 
 dently taken some data from our new friend. 
 
 " Mr. Haydon was as much respected here," said 
 this gentleman, " as any rich man who had the mis- 
 fortune to be thoroughly honest could be. The hour 
 of his death made him poor, I suppose ; but you will 
 always find his name secure respect among those who 
 knew him." 
 
268 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " That is a valuable legacy to have left those who 
 cared for him," said Eleanore, seriously. 
 
 " The young man here tells me," said Mr. Mars- 
 den, " that Mr. , your uncle's former banker, called 
 
 this morning, during your absence. Shall I leave your 
 address here?" 
 
 " Thank you, no. I know nobody, and the few 
 persons that I may wish to see, I will send to." 
 
 " Mr. Hendrickson," I suggested. 
 
 " If I wish to see him," she said, " which is very 
 improbable, I can send for him. I do not care that he 
 should feel himself generally invited." 
 
OHAPTEK XXXIII. 
 
 Thus leaving the ways closed after us, as we 
 thought, we departed to the new home. Antonio led 
 and carried Phil indefatigably, with baskets, parcels, 
 and shawls, which he insisted upon taking from us ; 
 and Mr. Marsden, who was really exceedingly kind, 
 bore sundry other parcels, and gave us an arm each ; 
 and at last we had mounted the sand-hill high up Cal- 
 ifornia Street, and stood at his door. 
 
 What a magnificent view from it ! The labor was 
 well repaid, though it was severe. 
 
 " It is better doing it now," he said, " with this 
 wind, than in a warm morning. You complain of the 
 wind, but it is very useful to Mrs. Marsden and me." 
 
 We entered. There was the dear, good lady, with 
 her dinner ready, and a nice, tidy-looking Yankee girl, 
 who had cooked it, darting in and out, laying it on the 
 table as much like home as we could imagine it to be 
 in so far-off and peculiar a country. We had a nice 
 room up stairs, with a little temporary bed for Phil ; 
 and there we sat down and worked without ceasing for 
 nearly two weeks ; seeing nothing of persons, except 
 the quiet family of which we were a part ; and little 
 of anything, but the city which lay beneath our eye, 
 and grew visibly from day to day. Forests of shipping 
 crowded the magnificent harbor, wharves were shoot- 
 ing out at the foot of all the principal streets, and the 
 
270 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 clang of building, pile-driving, excavating, and filling, 
 resounded from early morning till dark. Every day 
 dawned right over against us with the same majestic 
 tranquillity we had felt on the first, and closed with a 
 wind that only varied a little from one to another in 
 fierceness, and sometimes brought back the fog, which 
 Phil called the gray air. 
 
 We felt that we were part and parcel of a wonder- 
 ful life, concentrated on this hitherto unknown spot, 
 and of a development equally wonderful. For not- 
 withstanding all that was disheartening, and even 
 shocking and disgusting, in much that we heard 
 chiefly through Mr. and Mrs. Marsden one could not 
 but feel, in the energy that was here putting itself 
 forth, a root of soundness which would anchor the life, 
 despite the raging sea of selfishness, sensuality, and 
 greed, that swept over and threatened to obliterate it. 
 
 But what grand affirmation sprung from Eleanore's 
 strong hope in those dark days ! " I have no fear," 
 she would say, " but ultimately there will be found 
 here the grandest outgrowth and illustration of the 
 Republican Idea. For where should all the men of a 
 State come up to that standard so naturally and uni- 
 formly, as in such a land and clime, which neither 
 pampers nor impoverishes neither enervates nor 
 stints? Depend upon it, dear, though we may not 
 live to see it, there will one day throng these plains 
 and hills and valleys, the noblest people on the globe. 
 Art will flourish, because the love of the Beautiful will 
 grow into all souls, and wealth will nourish it with 
 culture and refinement. There will be a sound and 
 perfect physical life free from the lassitude of the 
 warmer climates and from the destroying diseases en- 
 gendered in our Atlantic colds and heats. They will 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 271 
 
 have all the advantages of a commercial people, which 
 our rich Western States are deprived of; and, living 
 where the generosity of Nature forbids the idea of 
 etint or limit, they will be provoked to emulate her. 
 Civilization, marching westward with the ages, has 
 now encompassed the globe. Some of its best religious 
 life, its highest courage and largest aspiration for free- 
 dom, came to the rugged eastern shore of our conti- 
 nent two centuries ago, and thence the movement has 
 been steady into better and better natural conditions : 
 richer soils, lands more easily reclaimed, larger ex- 
 panses more generous causes, with results of corre- 
 sponding character ; which, if they produce in the first 
 generations a rudeness and careless obliteration of the 
 sharply graven lines of the perfect character, do also 
 forbid the exiguities that have stamped the Atlantic 
 man the world over. The Yankee sharpness and assi- 
 duity were a valuable root on which to engraft the 
 heedless largeness of the Western soul ; the two may 
 be several generations in blending into a harmonious 
 and beautiful one, but they will ultimately while here 
 we have, it seems to me, all the elements of an early 
 development. Physically, the healthiest people of 
 every nation come here : no invalids mix with and per- 
 petuate their imperfect life among this people. The 
 mingling of nations which will inevitably take place, 
 would alone have a powerful tendency to raise up a 
 fine people, and the sensuous influences of the country 
 will, as it settles into a fixed character, take off the in- 
 tense strain upon the American brain and nerve. The 
 man and woman will become handsomer, the features 
 less angular, inharmonious, and tense ; and I believe 
 whoever lives to see the Californians of the third or 
 fourth generation, will see a race of men and women 
 
272 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 imequaled in personal endowments and rounded com- 
 pleteness of character." 
 
 "It requires faith," said I, "to feel that; faith 
 which must be truly the evidence of things not seen. 
 Nothing in the actual life of the country forecasts it 
 now to me." 
 
 Nothing in its visible life of to-day argues for my 
 highest claims, I admit," she replied, "because the 
 people are wasting themselves in a mad riot. But 
 to-day is not forever, and conditions are not perpet- 
 uated far beyond their producing causes. The peo- 
 ple will, in time, recover, and many of the men who 
 hailed that spectacle of shame we witnessed on the 
 day of our arrival, will hereafter shudder in their better 
 hours at the humiliating recollection." 
 
 Thus she encouraged herself and me, keeping a 
 brave heart and a hopeful one for the worst that might 
 come. Phil's daily walk was an inestimable blessing 
 to us all, and never was it omitted. At ten o'clock 
 every morning Antonio rapped upon our door, and 
 within five minutes of eleven they were there again 
 often with some trifling purchase or waif, picked 
 up in the streets or on the hills, that enlarged his 
 museum and helped to entertain him in the in-door 
 hours. 
 
 There was waste enough, at that time, of cast-off 
 clothing, superfluous utensils, and the refuse of the 
 fires, lying about the streets and the little unoccupied 
 valleys, to have furnished a considerable hamlet of 
 peasantry. Ah, had the rag-pickers been there then ! 
 There were scores hundreds nay, stacks of shirts, 
 lying scattered over the streets and in the by-places, 
 which had been worn once and thrown away ; it being 
 cheaper to buy a new one, at a low price, than get the 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 273 
 
 soiled one washed, at a risk of its not holding together 
 through that trying process. There were coats fine 
 coats, often nearly new in which a rent had been ac- 
 cidentally made ; no neat hand there to repair it, and 
 away it went out of the window. 
 
 I was led into this by speaking of Phil's waifs. At 
 one time they found a fancy box, of sandal-wood, 
 with a landscape, very beautifully done in India ink, 
 on its lid ; at another, a silver tea-spoon ; at others, 
 knives, books, bullet-molds ; then a small pistol, of the 
 tmcient sort; and Antonio declared that he could 
 pick up scores of candle-sticks and flat-irons, with 
 other such hardwares which had resisted the fires, or 
 been brought carefully all the way from home, to be 
 finally rejected there. 
 
 Thus it went on with us till our second Sab- 
 bath when we attended service in Grace Church a 
 neat little edifice for so new a city, in Powell Street. 
 
 The pastor, Rev. Dr. L , was a man whom it was 
 
 impossible to look on without feeling in him the life of 
 a true apostle. He spoke with a strong foreign accent, 
 which it was difficult at first to understand ; but there 
 was such fervor and exalted earnestness in his 
 thoughts and utterance, that one could not resist their 
 influence. His congregation were small, but evi- 
 dently composed of persons of culture, taste, and in- 
 tellect ; and Eleanore found the performances of the 
 choir admirable : a fact which surprised us, but which 
 was accounted for, Mr. Marsden said, by the great 
 number of artists in the country. 
 
 " There, you see," she said, " is another seed 
 already sown in this soil, which I did not reckon." 
 
 Subsequently we often attended the services of this 
 church, and I believe never without feeling ourselves 
 
274 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 nobly appealed to and warmed in soul by the excel- 
 lent minister, though neither of us accepted his the- 
 ology. In truth, he always seemed to me a better 
 Christian than theologian himself. I learned to enter- 
 tain a very high respect for him, and to recognize his 
 face and figure with pleasure, as afterwards I fre- 
 quently did among the sick and suffering, where the 
 consolations of his pure faith and tender heart were 
 never asked in vain. 
 
 It began now to be very necessary that we should 
 find employment. In regard to teaching, Mr. Mars- 
 den was very discouraging. " Schools were not yet 
 organized," he said ; " scarcely could be for two or 
 three months. Do not smile : when I speak of months 
 as a period affecting the population or the organization 
 , and growth of such institutions, I name a period of 
 time equal to as many years in any of our thriftiest 
 Eastern communities. And you would have seen how 
 that was, had you sat in our room on any day when 
 the boom of a steamer's gun came up the harbor, and 
 seen the wharf which her black length was laid along- 
 side of, an hour after, swarming with the exodus of 
 men, women, and children ; the women being about 
 one to thirty or forty, and the children perhaps 
 double that. Such a young population pouring in 
 semi-monthly, a portion of which remained in the city, 
 would justify the remark that schools which could not 
 be filled this week, would not be sufficient eight or ten 
 weeks hence." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Marsden's was a free public school, 
 then under the patronage of the city ; hence its 
 crowded condition. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Early in the week after our second Sabbath, we 
 went to call on Mrs. Holman, the sister of Mrs. Far- 
 ley. They lived in a smart house, pretentiously and 
 showily furnished, in Powell Street a little out of the 
 best part of the town, Mrs. Holman acknowledged, 
 but she preferred it on account of the wind, or the 
 noise, or the dust, or the water, or something else, 
 which might mean anything or nothing, and was of no 
 consequence, whatever it meant. This was after the 
 detailed narrative given partly by myself and partly 
 by Eleanore of our voyage and her sister's death. 
 
 " What a pity 1" she said ; " and she and Matilda 
 had been looking so long for her; and all the mer- 
 chants had wondered so much what had become of the 
 ship so her husband told her when he was down, 
 four or five weeks ago." 
 
 " There was a report of our voyage in the papers 
 the day after we landed," said Eleanore. 
 
 "Was there } I don't read the papers myself. 
 Matilda sometimes reads them ; but we didn't see 
 that." 
 
 The little woman shed a few tears, sighed, and 
 groaned decorously ; folded her hands upon her lap, 
 and said that she and Matilda would " have to go into 
 mourning now immediately. And such a pity," she 
 added " that all her clothes should be lost ! though, to 
 
276 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 be sure, they wouldn't have been of any use to us 
 now; for, I suppose, they were pretty much all 
 colors. Did you ever see them ? Were they all 
 colors ?" 
 
 I confessed my ignorance ; and as I heard her talk, 
 and looked into Eleanore's grand face, which seemed 
 turning into a splendid piece of statuary, filled with a 
 silent soul, I almost forgot that I was not again talk- 
 ing with Mrs. Farley herself: got up on a new scale 
 a larger and more elaborate one than our life at sea 
 had ever admitted of. There were the same detaifs of 
 features, proportions, colors ; the same movements, the 
 same voice, but a perfect ear and a life enlarged be- 
 yond the other by the smallest and most external fact 
 of motherhood. She referred to her eldest daughter, 
 Matilda, who was included in the mourning scheme, 
 frequently ; but their lives seemed, each, purely ob- 
 jective to the other. Matilda was a being whom she 
 conferred with whom she shone upon or received light 
 from, at times, according to their respective positions ; 
 but Matilda was fact-reached no deeper than her 
 senses and perceptions. If Matilda had died, she 
 would have been in a measure comforted next day in 
 repairing to the milliner's and the mourning store. 
 She begged us to wait to see Matilda, because she 
 would wish so much to hear about it from us, which 
 I did not wonder at, considering the sort of narrative 
 she was likely to get from her mother. 
 
 Eleanore had been silent some time, but at length, 
 in a pause, which the little lady carne to, she said : 
 " I see you have a piano, Mrs. Holman a fine instru- 
 ment, I should judge from the maker's name. Would 
 it distress you if I played something ?" 
 
 " Oh, no," she replied, " I am very fond of hearing 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 277 
 
 it ; though, to be sure, all Tilda's pieces are lively, and 
 she won't be able to play 'em now." 
 
 Eleanore drew off her gloves, and laid her bonnet 
 on a chair. 
 
 " I never can play with anything on my head," 
 said she to me. " I lack room here" laying her hand 
 whimsically above her forehead. 
 
 "Well, that's curious, now," said Mrs. Holm an ; 
 " for Tilda often sits down and plays with her hat on, 
 when she comes in ; and I never heard her, nor any 
 one else, speak of that before, that I know of." 
 
 Eleanore went to the instrument. I had never 
 heard her touch one, but I knew she had an artist's 
 soul, and I expected something not less noble and grand 
 than she was herself at times. I saw by the gloomy 
 radiance of her eye that she was in the mood for 
 it. All our talk had brought back Harry, and the 
 lonely island, and the life and the deaths there, and 
 the vast solitude of those tombs. It was a time to 
 soothe her silent heart with glorious music. 
 
 Just as she touched the keys, calling forth the first 
 soft, quavering chord, little decorum hopped up to her, 
 like a staid, foolish canary about to interrupt the over- 
 flowing song of its mate, and said : " Don't play any- 
 thing lively, if you please ; I couldn't bear it now ;" 
 and then, with her eyes in her cambric, hopped back 
 to her perch. 
 
 Again she struck the keys, with a little more force, butf 
 in the same chord ; it was repeated the third time, each 
 a little more decisively and less prolonged ; and then, 
 sweeping over the whole board, as if with fairy fingers, 
 so soft and blended were the notes, she seemed to take 
 it, with that action, fully into her power. There was 
 a short prelude of sweet concord?, gentle and soothing, 
 
278 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 which imperceptibly passed into a quicker movement, 
 with a continuous under-toning in the bass notes as 
 mournful as the perpetual winds or seas. I could not 
 hear it without being strangely affected ; but it was 
 maintained with increasing effect till it seemed too pain- 
 ful to endure, when there came a great shock of heavy 
 sounds, short and fearful to my excited nerves, fol- 
 lowed by total silence, for an instant, and then by a 
 wail a wild, wandering wail gathered up from the 
 moaning keys, as she went drearily over them, and 
 suggesting such utter desolation of heart, that, with 
 my own tears flowing, I wondered at seeing her sit 
 there unmoved. 
 
 At last she ended, in a funeral strain that would 
 have moistened eyes the most unused to weep. 
 Never had I heard an instrument express so much 
 music ! 
 
 There had been an addition of two to her audience 
 during the performance, a fact of which she remained 
 insensible, till she arose and was about putting on her 
 bonnet, when we were formally introduced to Mrs. 
 Walker, the mistress of the house. 
 
 Mrs. Walker was an over-dressed, low-bred, inso- 
 lent looking person, whose very quietest aspect re- 
 pulsed me ; what her worst was, I should not like to 
 have had proved. She took occasion immediately to 
 inform us that the piano was hers ; that Mr. Walker 
 had procured it for their daughter to learn on, and 
 that the interesting young lady before us was the indi- 
 vidual so favored. She added, that she " didn't like 
 the style of music the lady had played, so well as good, 
 old-fashioned pieces and songs." 
 
 At this stage of her self-development, Eleanore had 
 resumed her bonnet and gloves, and walking nerv- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 279 
 
 ously toward the door, she bade the ladies " good 
 morning," and saying, " Come, Anna," was gone. 
 
 I followed in a moment, and when I joined her, I 
 asked : ' What have you been playing, Eleanore ?" 
 
 " Life," she replied ; " a little passage of it." 
 
 " Do you mean it was an improvisation ? It was 
 our voyage, then !" 
 
 " I suppose so, Anna. It never was written. It 
 came to me. Perhaps it was not an improvisation ; 
 but I could not play it again, whatever it was. That 
 is a noble instrument. It has a soul the only one in 
 the house, I think. It understood and answered me." 
 
 " There is no teaching for you there," I said. 
 
 " Teaching ! My dear Anna, I would rather clean 
 any tidy housekeeper's floors and scour her knives !" 
 
CHAPTEK XXXY. 
 
 Other things were proposed and discussed ; there 
 was sewing for good Mrs. Marsden, which helped to 
 "pay our expenses ; a week's service in the school, to 
 rest her infinite hope and a little discouragement 
 the difficulty all lying, not in finding occupation and 
 good pay, but occupation that was at all suited to our 
 habits and capacities. 
 
 " It is as Captain Dahlgren told us," said Eleanore. 
 64 We have not brought the right power to this market. 
 If we could wash or cook, there would be no difficulty ; 
 but something either the right or the wrong thing 
 I am determined upon undertaking within three days. 
 I am going to look at the newspapers every morning." 
 
 That day Mr. Garth, whom we had seen but twice 
 since leaving the hotel, called to bid us good-by. He 
 also was going up the country to one of the principal 
 mining towns. He was cheerful exhilarated by his 
 excellent health and the miraculous climate, which he 
 seemed unable to satisfy himself with praising, and not 
 less by the entire freedom which men enjoyed in their 
 choice of occupation. 
 
 " I find there is no loss of caste," he said, " by la- 
 bor. A learned professor from one of our Eastern 
 States, who came here an invalid, is driving a team 
 with merchandise out of Sacramento, twice a week ; and 
 here are Englishmen, with the manners and language 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 281 
 
 of peers of the realm, handling the pickax and shovel. 
 All this argues," he added, " rugged self-respect, which 
 I enjoy very much." 
 
 Eleanore and I agreed that it was admirable and 
 encouraging ; and after he had gone, she showed me 
 an advertisement for two women who were wanted 
 to take charge of a large lodging-house, near the foot 
 
 of Street. " If we could go together, would it 
 
 not do ?" 
 
 I smiled, and said: "I am afraid, dear, it would 
 hardly be the sort of business we want." 
 
 "We are not likely to get that," she replied, 
 quickly. "All my applications for pupils in music 
 have failed, except those two girls, to whom I have 
 given four lessons, in Pine Street, and the family are 
 going to Stockton this week. It is folly, I am satis- 
 fied, to depend on any such thing at present, and I am 
 inclined to think of this advertisement, and see, at 
 least, what it offers. We could get Mr. Marsden to 
 inquire about the duties and the pay, and also about 
 the character of the proprietor ; for, of course, every- 
 thing would depend on that." 
 
 I agreed to this, and in the evening Mr. M. told 
 us that the house was new, just opened, and but half 
 furnished ; that they wanted persons who could put it 
 in order make carpets and bedding and beds do, in 
 short, all that was required to keep a good lodging- 
 house, except the washing, which would be done out ; 
 and one would have to keep the books and accounts. 
 He had seen the place, and its proprietor. The rooms 
 were all on the second and third floors, with respecta- 
 ble stores underneath ; there was a neat little office at 
 the head of the stairs, with a lodging-room adjoining 
 it ; and Mr. Peters, the proprietor, was a shrewd, 
 
282 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 money-making Yankee, a thoroughly reputable man, 
 who had business elsewhere, and wanted persons who 
 were competent to take charge of this themselves, and 
 who could be trusted to do so, with his seeing them 
 once a day. Finally, he would give the head employe 
 two hundred and fifty dollars per month, and her assist- 
 ant one hundred and seventy-five, with board their 
 meals to come from a neighboring restaurant, and be 
 taken in their own room. 
 
 " You shall be the two hundred and fifty dollar 
 woman, Anna," said Eleanore, with a solid hopeful- 
 ness in her face and voice, " and I will be the one 
 hundred and seventy-five and Phil shall be a sort of 
 body-guard." 
 
 A faint flush of color stole over her features at these 
 last words, which deepened as I looked at her, and 
 perhaps smiled a little, for she said : " You may laugh, 
 but Phil could be very useful, and take a deal of care 
 of mamma and Miss Warren couldn't you, darling ?" 
 
 " Yes," he said, very grandly ; " and if anybody 
 was naughty to you, I'd I'd tell Turnel of 'em when 
 he comes." 
 
 " So you should, my pet " smothering him up to 
 her, and hiding her glowing face in his neck for this 
 was an item in our experience of which the Marsdens 
 had no hint. 
 
 Mr. Marsden said he would accompany us that 
 evening to see Mr. Peters and the establishment, if we 
 wished ; and he agreed with Eleanore that it might be 
 wise to take these situations for a while ; there was no 
 doubt better would shortly offer, and our being toge- 
 ther was an advantage not to be overlooked. 
 
 So the next morning, after breakfast, we removed 
 to Mr. Peters' house, having agreed with him the 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 283 
 
 evening before, and found that Phil was no obstacle, 
 but the reverse, rather. In regard to our respective 
 positions, I at last had my way, after some sharp logic 
 with Eleanore. The principal one would put her in 
 the office, where, when the fitting up was accomplished, 
 she would remain most of the day, after the morning 
 rounds of bed-making, sweeping, and dusting, were 
 over. She was to register names, receive money, and 
 have the general charge ; while I should attend more 
 to the details of the rooms ; and we were to share alike 
 the labors of the house, as far as was practicable with 
 these arrangements. 
 
 There was an air of respectability about the estab- 
 lishment the new house, with its large, bright sign, 
 the neat stairway, and the tidy, but quiet office, which 
 I am sure Mr. Peters felt to be very much enhanced 
 by the person and face that greeted the comer on his 
 entrance. 
 
 We worked intensely almost night and day the first 
 week, making and laying carpets, arranging furniture, 
 and hemming sheets and pillow-cases. Our rooms 
 were full each night, but we had as yet comparatively 
 little to do with the lodgers ; for Mr. Peters, until the 
 rooms were fitted and the house in working order, as 
 he said, continued to spend several hours each day in 
 it, and especially to be there at evening, when the new 
 lodgers principally came in. 
 
 When there was an occasional rap on the office 
 door which remained unanswered, Eleanore would take 
 her key and open it ; and once, when she returned 
 from a call of this sort, she brought back a face flushed 
 and furious, but gave me to understand by a silent 
 gesture that there were auditors in the next room, and 
 I must not inquire. We did all the light work in our 
 
284 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 own room, which opened only into the office, but were 
 necessarily occupied a good deal elsewhere, sewing car- 
 pets on the floors where they were to be laid, and after- 
 ward stretching and nailing them ; and into these 
 apartments impudent men would sometimes look, or 
 even step, with a pretense of examining them. 
 
 " Are those looking-glasses, ma'am ?" asked a mid- 
 dle-aged man of respectable appearance, pointing to n 
 dozen or more small mirrors that were packed against 
 the wall, opposite the door of a room in which Eleanore 
 was at work. 
 
 " Yes," she replied, entirely unsuspecting any dou- 
 ble purpose in the speaker. " Are you in need of one ?" 
 making a movement to hand it to him. 
 
 " No, thank you "stepping within the door. 
 " This is a pleasant room, ma'am. Is it taken ?" 
 
 " It is not ready for occupation, sir " her eyes 
 lighting up as he advanced slowly into the middle of 
 the floor. 
 
 " What will it be worth a week ?" he asked, in an 
 easy, familiar tone. 
 
 " You will be able to learn of the proprietor, at the 
 office. Be good enough to leave it, sir " lifting her 
 hand toward the door. 
 
 " Don't trouble yourself," he said, maintaining his 
 ground. " A little anger in a woman is a good sign. 
 I like it." And he actually drew a step nearer. 
 
 I was in the opposite room, and perhaps I ought to 
 be ashamed to say it, but I was not sorry, if there was 
 such an encounter to be suffered, that I was where I 
 could witness without interrupting it, unless it became 
 necessary to do so. I looked at Eleanore, as he made 
 a slight movement toward her, with the last insulting 
 words on his lips. She stood exactly facing him, as 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 285 
 
 unshrinking as if she had been stone, instead of flesh 
 and blood, and she took a moment to gather herself be- 
 fore she spoke. 
 
 " Pardon my mistake," she said ; " I asked you to 
 leave the room, supposing you were a gentleman ; but 
 I see my mistake. When you think better of yourself, 
 and are ready to go, I shall be happy to release you." 
 
 And suiting the action to the word, she suddenly 
 closed the door on him, turned the key in it, and came 
 to me. 
 
 " There is a person," she said and every word was 
 audible to him " who wishes to occupy the room I 
 was finishing, Anna; so I will help you here, at 
 present." 
 
 Not a word or audible sign of excitement, though 
 she was as white and tremulous as a sheet of paper. 
 No further reference to it : we went on diligently, and 
 were nearly ready to leave the apartment, when Mr. 
 Peters passed along. 
 
 " Have you got the large room done ?" he asked, 
 stepping across to the door. 
 
 " Not quite," replied Eleanore ; and the next mo- 
 ment he unlocked and entered. 
 
 He stood before the prisoner for a full minute, at 
 least, lost in astonishment. Neither of us spoke. 
 
 " How have you taken how came you to be 
 locked up here, sir ?" he at last asked. 
 
 The man attempted a feeble laugh, and said : 
 " The ladies can tell you better than I can, sir. I just 
 stepped in, to look at this room, which I was thinking 
 of taking, when it was done, and the lady who was at 
 work here went out and locked me in." 
 
 " I see," said Mr. Peters, comprehending in a mo- 
 ment. " You don't wish to stop any longer, I guess, 
 
286 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 and if you don't, I advise you to leave now. This is a 
 respectable house," he added, bluntly, " and I calcu- 
 late that while you are a stayin' here, you may as well 
 not try that sort of thing again." 
 
 " Served him exactly right," he said, after the man 
 was gone, laughing as heartily as ever his little eager, 
 wiry body seemed able to aiford exercise of that sort ; 
 " served him exactly right. If you can manage 'em 
 all as slick as that, it'll be first-rate. You see," he 
 said, looking at the pecuniary and reputable side of the 
 question out of his little clear, light-blue eyes, " you see, 
 there's nothing worse in such a place than having a 
 fuss, and I was most afraid to undertake to have wo- 
 men in the house, for fear of that ; " but when I see 
 you," he said, more particularly addressing Eleanore, 
 and coming as near a complimentary tone as he ever 
 did to us, "I thought, by George, there was the right 
 stuff there, and I'd trust you." 
 
 " Is it likely," she asked, " that we shall have many 
 such people to deal with ?" 
 
 " Well, I guess you may," he replied. " Fact is, 
 folks generally don't think enough of behaving them- 
 selves here, as they'd ought to. I don't mean to hurt 
 your feelin's, but the women a good many on 'em 
 ain't any better 'n the men." 
 
 " I am very sorry to hear it," said Eleanore, unable 
 to bear the common tone of the man any longer, and 
 breaking the conversation abruptly off by a reference 
 to business affairs. 
 
 When he was gone, she exclaimed, impatiently : 
 what a dead carcase respectability is, Anna!" 
 
 " Yes," I replied ; " but it is better, dead as it is, 
 than its opposite ; better that he should believe in and 
 approve, than distrust or " 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 28 T 
 
 " Distrust !" she said ; " if I saw a glimpse of that, 
 he and I would part company at once. I won't live 
 under suspicion, if I starve. But, really, dear, I am 
 afraid, when the house comes to be left to us, it 
 will be more unpleasant than I feared. I don't mind 
 making the beds and righting the rooms ; for, though 
 it is disagreeable, certainly, it does not attack one's self- 
 respect, when it is done to provide bread ; but if one 
 is to experience such things, it will be dreadful." 
 
 " I have faith," I said, " that there will not be 
 many recurrences of this sort of difficulty. I suppose 
 that here, as everywhere else, people can make the 
 character, in these respects, which they wish to bear, 
 and that will very soon save us from further annoy- 
 ance." 
 
 " Yes, it would, if the people we have to see were 
 not changing so constantly. Mr. Peters told me the 
 other day that more than half the lodgers do not stay 
 the second night, and that he presumed there was not 
 then a man in the house who had occupied his room a 
 week. That, you see, dear, keeps a new community 
 around us all the time." 
 
 " Nevertheless," I said, " I have no fear." 
 
 " Nor have I any fear, Anna ; but there is a great 
 deal to be suffered short of that. I felt in my heart 
 like knocking that man down this morning ; and if my 
 arm had answered my spirit, I should certainly have 
 done it." 
 
 " I should have been deeply grieved," I said, " at 
 seeing in you the slightest manifestation of a disposi- 
 tion to such an unwomanly argument." 
 
 "Unwomanly!" she echoed, in her quick, impa- 
 tient tone of dissent. " Now, don't talk of unwomanly 
 in dealing with such a wretch. I never did strike a 
 
288 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 blow, to my knowledge, against strong or weak ; but 
 if I could wholly and soundly respect myself in doing 
 a thing my sex was not made for, it would be in lay- 
 ing prostrate such a creature. I allow, that, in the 
 state of things existing here, and according to the 
 world's loose code of morality for men, he would not 
 have been unpardonably guilty in addressing me at 
 first ; but when I had answered him, a single spark of 
 manhood should have brought an apology and instant 
 exemption from his presence. Manliness may, I be- 
 lieve, sometimes exist with a certain degree of what 
 we call corruption ; for the world, while it does not 
 trouble itself for a man's honor, makes at least tacit 
 question of a woman's, except it be proved ; and there 
 is no such damning wrong to be endured in human 
 existence, as the rejection of this proof, when it is given. 
 If I were an absolute monarch, the heaviest penalty in 
 my code of laws should be that for offenses against wo- 
 manhood. The taking of life is merciful compared to 
 it, and I should treat the murderer more tenderly than 
 the violator." 
 
 When this man passed back to his room, he looked 
 straight forward, as if unconscious that there was any 
 one near him, and shortly after returned, carpet-bag in 
 hand the signal of departure. 
 
 " That is very satisfactory," said I, pointing Elea- 
 nore's attention to it, after he had passed us. 
 
 u Yes, if there does not come another in his stead, 
 who requires the same lesson." 
 
CHAPTER XXXYI. 
 
 Before the first half month was at an end, the 
 house was in perfect order, and henceforth we rarely 
 saw Mr. Peters, except for a few minutes in the even- 
 ing and an hour so on Saturday afternoons, when he 
 came to examine the accounts, receive his money, and 
 settle with us. 
 
 He was exceedingly pleased with the results of 
 our efforts, and more than once declared, as if it ought 
 to exalt our opinion of ourselves, that he thought he 
 was very lucky in having us there. But matters did 
 not go so smoothly with us as with him. It was a 
 remarkable day when we coiild lie down at its close 
 and have no humiliating incident to relate or hear ; yet, 
 as the house was always filled, our wages promptly 
 paid, our employer pleased, ourselves in good health, 
 and Phil, with his daily walks, becoming a very Her- 
 cules, we bore it all with little complaint. At the very 
 best, it was sore and mean drudgery ; but with the mo- 
 tive and the hope beyond, it became in a certain sort 
 sanctified. We made no acquaintances, and never 
 went out, except on some necessary errand, or to see 
 the good Marsdens, now and then, for half an hour. 
 If it could be avoided, one never left the other alone 
 in the house, and it was rarely necessary to do so, ex- 
 cept on the arrival of the steamers, when the post- 
 office had to be visited. This was no trifling affair in 
 13 
 
290 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 San Francisco in those days, and our sex gave us so 
 decided an advantage in getting through with it, that 
 we never presumed to ask a man to bring us our let- 
 ters. There was a continuous line of men, often for 
 two days after the mail came in, one or two hundred 
 long, filing slowly past the windows, waiting their 
 turn. Sometimes a place was sold for three, five, or 
 even ten dollars, according to its priority and the ex- 
 igence of the buyer. Some sharp speculators, with no- 
 thing better to exercise their acuteness upon, would 
 rush early to the office and secure positions, at the risk 
 of selling them to advantage, which generally they did ; 
 but always place was given to a woman instantly, on 
 her presenting herself. So these expeditions generally 
 fell to me, for I escaped notice, where Eleanore could 
 not, and I generally went and came with no excitement 
 or annoyance, which she seldom did. 
 
 We were now in our sixth week since landing, and 
 no letter had yet come from Col. Anderson. I found 
 Eleanore often thoughtful and half sad, but she seldom 
 spoke his name : because, when he was referred to, it 
 was difficult for her to restrain evidences of feeling, 
 which neither our exposed position nor her pride would 
 bear. 
 
 At length, on a Saturday night, after a very hard 
 day's work, which had included clearing the house 
 throughout, doing some purchases for it and for our- 
 selves, and going to the office for our steamer-mail, we 
 went to bed very weary. 
 
 Eleanore laughed feebly as she laid her head upon 
 the pillow, and said- "Who would have thought, 
 dear, that, with all the business and work of to-day, 
 I should have found time to receive an offer of 
 marriage ?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 291 
 
 " Have you ?" I asked, laughing in turn. 
 
 " Yes not a highly esthetical proceeding on my 
 part, you may say, to have heard it while on my knees, 
 scouring this door-sill ; but I did, nevertheless." 
 
 " And did you rise to the speaker ?" 
 
 " Ko ; I only begged him to pass on, and think bet- 
 ter of it." 
 
 " Who was it ?" I inquired, " and what answer did 
 you truly make him ? I should, of all things, have 
 liked to see that ceremony come oif." 
 
 " I have no doubt you would and have enjoyed 
 it almost as highly as when he offered himself to you 
 the other day." 
 
 " Was it Captain , then ?" 
 
 " Yes, the very same ; I am beginning quite to like 
 the old man ; he is, at least, respectful, and that is say- 
 ing a great deal for him here. He proposed to sell 
 his property at once, and go to Europe or Asia, or any 
 part of the globe I wished to visit, if I would accept 
 him !" 
 
 " How much like a farce the most serious actions 
 become here do they not?" said I. 
 
 " Yes," she replied ; " that, now, seems like some 
 proposal one hears of between ridiculous people upon 
 the stage. Ten years hence we shall scarcely be able to 
 believe that it was earnest truth. But the worst phase 
 of it is, that it destroys all sentiment, and almost one's 
 respect for love itself. One could despise the name in 
 which such things are done. This is now the third 
 offer I have had in three weeks, and each from men, 
 who, unless they had divine insight, could not know 
 but I would prove a curse to them ever after ; though," 
 she added, laughing, " that young man who consoled 
 himself by saying that he would rather jump at the 
 
292 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 moon and miss it, than capture a rush-light, did, I be- 
 lieve, hold a sound faith in my capacities to make a 
 good wife. He lived in a shanty in a little mining 
 town, where there was but one woman, he said, and it 
 was very lonesome for men, at the best, were bad 
 company for each other. Poor fellow ! I hope he has 
 found some one by this time willing to go with him. 
 That was three weeks ago, and he may be past the 
 bridegroom stage of married life by this time." 
 
 " What would you give, dear Eleanore, to-night," 
 I asked, " to hear from Col. Anderson ?" 
 
 " Have you heard from him ?" she inquired, turning 
 quickly upon me, with eyes beaming with hope and 
 earnest question. 
 
 " No ; I wish I had. I am distressed at his long 
 silence. Ever since we came here I have expected a 
 letter daily." 
 
 I had scarcely spoken before her pent-up tears 
 flowed bitterly forth. I did not attempt to check 
 them, and she wept and shook with the anguish of her 
 heart. 
 
 At length, when the violence of her feelings had 
 somewhat subsided, she said : " Do you think I was 
 wrong, Anna, to reject him, and hide my love from 
 him ?" 
 
 " To any other woman," I replied, " that ever I 
 knew, I should say yes ; but you have such strong pur- 
 poses, and often they prove so clear and right, where 
 at first they seem confused and even mistaken to me, 
 that I cannot judge in your case." 
 
 " Is it not clear consider, dear Anna that I could 
 not have done differently without having given up 
 very much of the dignity and self-trust and freedom 
 that make a true woman ? Would he ever consent 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 293 
 
 that one who was to become his wife should go through 
 this, for instance ? And if I had not kept him at a dis- 
 tance, now, should I not have been almost obliged, un- 
 der the dreadful circumstances in which he left me, to 
 have accepted his guidance, if not his support? It 
 could not have been otherwise, dear, without battle 
 more stern and ungracious than my present silent con- 
 flict is. I would not accept a man's love to outrage 
 his taste and judgment next day. Then, beside all 
 this, am I fit for the joy and bounty of such a season, 
 with so much fresh-heaped pain and sorrow on my 
 heart ? and do I know this man, noble and true and 
 manly as he is, well enough to say wisely, ' I will give 
 myself to you forever ' ? No, no ; I feel that I am 
 right, Anna, hard as it is to maintain my position, and 
 much as I may seem to lack the consideration and ten- 
 derness due to him. God knows I do not lack them 
 in my heart. I hope and believe that I am doing the 
 truest thing for our happiness in the future. It need 
 be so, indeed, for it is bitter enough in this present 
 time." 
 
 Again she wept, and then, suddenly standing up, 
 deluged her face and temples with cold water, and 
 pressing back her tears, said : " I must not suffer this 
 to overcome me so ; I have not once before ; but, in- 
 deed, Anna, I have been very unhappy at his long 
 silence. Yet, what else ought I to expect ? Why 
 should he write, for me to hear, or ever refer to me 
 again ? I gave him no ground and we parted, with 
 a clasping of hands and the common word, i good-by,' 
 to which he added a whispered i God bless you, my 
 idol P after his hand was laid upon the door. I was 
 silent and tearless only a little pale, I think, from the 
 excessive coldness I felt all over. I cannot forget that 
 
29-i THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 parting, Anna; and the remembrance of it, whenever 
 I indulge it, sinks heavily into my heart. If he should 
 never know my secret, that would be dreadful." 
 
 I could say little to comfort or cheer my friend. If 
 I had wanted proof of the genuineness and depth of 
 her love before, I had it now ; and I saw, that, if by 
 death or other cause, they should be finally separated, 
 it would cost her pain such as only a soul so large and 
 rare and generous as hers could suffer. 
 
 I soothed her with lip-words which I believe she 
 accepted merely as such, but restrained her sorrows 
 on their utterance, because she would not pain me, and 
 because self-control was a religion with her. But 
 while I lay thus, I determined to ask Antonio and 
 learn Col. Anderson's address, which I did not doubt 
 he knew, or could easily get from his employer. 
 
 The next day I prevailed on Eleanore, who was 
 very pale and could take no breakfast, to go to Grace 
 Church, and take Phil with her. The music and the 
 service, I knew, would help her ; and if the sermon 
 should be such as we had before heard from the good 
 pastor, it would appeal to her faith and warm her 
 strong religious sentiment into its old life a service 
 she much needed at this time. During her absence, 
 Antonio was to remain with me, having, he said, no 
 need to go home till one o'clock. He was very 
 communicative, as we sat, and told me that his mas- 
 ter was an English gentleman, who had great stores, 
 and that he had now gone up to the place where 
 Col. Anderson was ; had been gone a week that 
 was the reason of his having more time to be out 
 and was not expected till Tuesday. This encour- 
 aged me, for I thought when he returns, he will 
 bring a letter, which Col. Anderson has not liked, per- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 295 
 
 haps, to send by mail. I said this to Eleanore, but 
 she immediately cut down my hopes in that direction 
 by declaring it improbable. 
 
 " There will no letter come by him, Anna," she 
 said. " We may hear through Antonio, but nothing 
 more, I think. I shall be thankful for that, if what 
 we hear is good news of him." 
 
 But on Wednesday morning, when Antonio came, 
 he brought a letter, addressed to me. 
 
 " There !" said I, exultingly, and glad as if its chief 
 interest had been to myself. 
 
 We sent Phil and his attendant out, and retired to 
 our room. I removed the envelope, and gave her the 
 expected inclosure, bearing her name. 
 
 " Heaven be praised that he yet lives, and has faith 
 in me !" were her only words, as she pressed it to her 
 lips and heart, before opening it. 
 
 She was pale, and so much agitated that I said, by 
 way of rallying her : " Shall I open and read it to you, 
 Eleanore ?" 
 
 " Don't speak to me," was her prompt answer ; 
 and then we each sat, silent and engrossed. 
 
 Mine was a friendly epistle ; sensible, frank, and 
 pungent in its criticism on the country and people 
 about him ; hopeful, withal, but expressive of much 
 unavoidable disgust at the circumstances which were 
 inseparable from his position, and which, when they 
 lost the character of adventure, he thought could only 
 be worthily borne by those who had a high motive for 
 seeking fortune. " For myself," he said, " I would 
 not endure such a lot, when the charm of newness was 
 gone, and I had learned its lessons. One wants a pur- 
 pose, Miss Warren, and a very noble one, to carry him 
 with self-respect through much that I witness daily. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 I shall probably be in the city in the fall, on my way 
 home." 
 
 Eleanore's letter, which she sat over long after I had 
 done reading mine, and at last handed to me, with 
 beaded lashes bedewing the happy light in her eyes, 
 ran as follows : 
 
 " I write to you, Eleanore, because it is as natural 
 for me to do so as to reply to these surrounding per- 
 sons when they address me. You are more with me 
 than they are, for I never lose you a whole hour of the 
 day or night. And sometimes I say, ' Surely she must 
 have some consciousness of this. Or is it possible that 
 one soul can be so interfused, unconsciously, with an- 
 other ?' I have thought little perhaps too little hith- 
 erto, on the laws of what you call the spiritual life and 
 relations, but I can fed the negative of this without 
 thinking, and therefore, if without hope, yet also with- 
 out fear, I resign myself to the pleasure of pouring out 
 to you the life I derive from you. 
 
 " In this most practical of all lands, with earnest 
 strife and toil hemming me in ; sweating brows and 
 horny hands fronting me every hour, I am become a 
 very dreamer not always an incapable or despairing, 
 but in the main a ready and cheerful one. One form, 
 one countenance one soul speaking through them, is 
 ever before me. And they are mine for such happi- 
 ness as this presence can give. It is not your nay, 
 Eleanore, that can deprive me of them. They are 
 mine by the gift of God, who conferred on me the ca- 
 pacity thus, if no nearer, to take and hold them. And 
 be thou sure they are not to be parted from me. When 
 my soul serves me most divinely, I am happy for whole 
 hours. You live, and that suflices me at such times. 
 What is it to me that we come not near each other in 
 the body ? It is better, I say, then, that we do not. 
 For so I should sometimes lose you. Nearness to-day 
 would make distance to-morrow insupportable. And 
 thus, when my yearning heart cries out for you, I still 
 it by saying, ; Hush thy childish call ; she is ever thine. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 297 
 
 The possession thou hast, nothing in life can deprive 
 thee of.' 
 
 " I do not claim that herein I have risen above the 
 pain of mortal love. I do not claim that I am exempt 
 in my best hours from those pangs which the heart 
 cherishes as its life and hope, nor in my worst, from 
 suffering which proves the strength of my human affec- 
 tion. To-day, though a lover, and a rejected one, I am 
 a metaphysician, and therefore happy ; to-morrow I 
 shall be God knows what ; perhaps a gloomy, ungra- 
 cious man ; not less a lover, but one whose demands 
 are more painful to the endurance that is without 
 promise of reward. 
 
 " I do not speak thus, Eleanore, from any hope of 
 influencing the decision I heard from your lips on that 
 last day ; nor, if I know myself, from any wish to do 
 so. I should despise myself for soliciting the gift of 
 love. It must come freely ay, unasked to be in 
 trial what it is in thought to me. I dream of a perfect 
 Love, which should flow to its true object spontane- 
 ously, as light from the sun, as odor from flowers, and 
 as winds from the sweet south-west ; as mine to you, 
 if you allow the illustration ; which constrains to all 
 tender compliances ; which, with perfect individuality 
 in its outflow, is k>st in the life it joins, as the streams 
 which leap down these hills, come each with its own 
 ardor and movement, to the valley of meeting, and are 
 henceforth one. Such a love my soul craves, and such, 
 I believe, you would lavish upon one who was so con- 
 stituted as to take it without your leave. That I were 
 that happy man ! Pray heaven I may never behold 
 him ! 
 
 " I am very much occupied here ! There is not an 
 idle hour in all the week, except those wherein my soul 
 cheats my body of its rest, as now, when there is no 
 noise of life to be heard but the heavy breathing of 
 tired sleepers in the adjoining room ; or of Nature, but 
 the rush of the stream that hurries past our cabin-door. 
 Rude and coarse are all the external features of this 
 sojourn, save the peerless skies that overhang us, and 
 
 13* 
 
298 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 the airs, that bring on their invisible wings health, 
 vivacity, and courage, to body and soul. I have lain 
 down many times under the shining stars, in the dew- 
 less nights of this country, and looking up, hour after 
 hour, into the blue depths where they are suspended, 
 have dreamed such dreams of life, of love of achieve- 
 ment here, and its glorious fruitage in the future as 
 could only be dreamed in a soul illuminated by the 
 divine radiance thou hast poured upon mine. Yes, 
 dear Eleanore, I have a larger and holier life through 
 the knowledge of thee. I see God more nearly and 
 man more lovingly. Shall I not be patient with infirm 
 souls who in the feeblest manner represent thee tome ? 
 I said once that I could not live worthily, or do any 
 faithful work without thee that I had no hope of 
 heaven or earth but through thee. I had not then 
 risen to possess thee as now I do. If I could not hold 
 thee in these arms, or drink in thy voice and thy 
 power through the channels of sense, I felt myself ac- 
 cursed and withered by a decree of perpetual banish- 
 ment. To live without thee was only to exist to hear 
 divinest music, and never thy voice, could not have 
 sufficed to see all beauty of Mature or Art, and not 
 thine, was but to gaze upon dross. But they are all 
 mine now. I have brought them through the furnace 
 of purification, and garnered them in my soul, where 
 no destruction can overtake them. 
 
 " But let me never see the man who calls thee wife. 
 While thou rernainest unconsecrate to any, I think of 
 thee alone, and there is no discord in rny heart only 
 pain ; but I would put the globe between us, and bear 
 my Eleanore away to other continents, before another 
 hand should clasp in love hers whom I leave here. 
 I shall see thee once again. There is no long stay for 
 rne here perhaps not anywhere, till age or death shall 
 stay me. 1 look into a wandering, homeless future, 
 through which a vision flits, fading and brightening, 
 with the shifting tides of life, challenging my manhood 
 to all nobility of purpose and deed, but evermore chill- 
 ing ardor of resolution and heat of performance by its 
 vanishing presence. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 299 
 
 " Alas ! dear Eleanore, it is poor comfort to boast 
 my philosophy. One hour's high converse with thee 
 were worth years of self-building like this ; one day of 
 thy friendly presence how would it enrich me again ! 
 Yet the one cannot be, and the other shall. Have I 
 manhood, and shall I yield it to any but God who gave 
 it ? There is action left to me wars to be fought, 
 with Nature, if not with men insensate rocks and 
 mountains to be rent asunder, that the thunder of 
 commerce may smite across the continents oceans to 
 be searched, beneath burning suns or polar darkness 
 deserts to be penetrated arts of peace and arts of war, 
 not yet wholly superfluous, to be made subservient to 
 men oppressed peoples to be freed, and darkened ones 
 to be brought to the light. 
 
 " I shall consecrate thee on some of these fields, and 
 there win again courage into the bosom where thou 
 earnest unbidden, and reignest in desolation, O queen 
 of my soul. 
 
 "Farewell! J. L. A." 
 
CHAPTER XXXYII. 
 
 I did not read this letter without tears from my own 
 eyes, and when I looked up, Eleanore sat with her face 
 buried in her hands, which rested on the table. So 
 keen, so determined, so brave a heart as this was ! 
 I could see all the conflict in it. I could read in the 
 eagle eye the momentary flashes of hopeful resolve and 
 the shadow of instant pain chasing them away. I could 
 read the hope of escape in some scheme laid in far-off 
 lands, whither he would go ; and see him the next mo- 
 ment brought back a willing prisoner, hugging the fet- 
 ters that held him. 
 
 " Eleanore," I said, feeling disposed to assume some 
 authority, " you will not leave this letter unanswered, 
 surely." 
 
 " I cannot tell," she replied. u It calls for no an- 
 swer, either in word or spirit ; and there is but one 
 that would be better written than unwritten." 
 
 " Then let it be that one," I said, earnestly, " and 
 send it. " If you do not, I shall think there is a wan- 
 ton cruelty in your nature, which at least your enlight- 
 enment ought to restrain. If you were a narrow, 
 ignorant woman, yet clothed with the personal power 
 you have, and delighting a poor vanity by its exercise, 
 I could sooner forgive you than now." 
 
 " Your severity is very honest, Anna. I must 
 think before I act. This letter makes his nature better 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. . 301 
 
 known to rne than I should have thought possible by 
 any length of mere correspondence. It gives me great 
 light, and assures me in some things wherein I was not 
 before assured. It proves a largeness of life and 
 capacity of soul such as I hoped for, but might well 
 have been disappointed in finding, with all the prom- 
 ise there was of it. It makes me richer than an em- 
 press, for few men grow to such unselfish mold and tem- 
 per as this, Anna, unless there is in them a greatness of 
 soul capable of almost anything ; and I think I should 
 no longer fear to confess to him what I have to say, 
 were it not, that, in my present position, I must not 
 summon a master to my side. I have learned much 
 of him, it is true, but I have much yet to do with my- 
 self before that day comes. 
 
 " It seems to me that you are unmistakably wrong, 
 now, Eleanore. There can be neither justice nor gen- 
 erosity in exposing one to such suffering as this." 
 
 " I must do what my inmost life demands of me," 
 she replied. " Remember I am a woman, and not an 
 ignorant girl, as I was ten years ago, when I had such 
 a question to decide ; and though this is first love to 
 me nay, never look so astonished, dear friend and 
 though I dare not tell you how it pervades my whole 
 being, sweetening the meanest of my toils, and taking 
 away all heroism from my endurance, yet, in the union 
 to which I look forward, I must have my own position 
 and individuality. I should do myself and my hus- 
 band both injustice in surrendering these in any degree 
 to feelings which conflict with my judgment. There 
 is much belonging to the relation of marriage, Anna, 
 beside the love which should precede its existence ; 
 but when that is confessed, both parties are too apt, 
 I think, to hurry over all other considerations, and 
 
302 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 assume positions, which, neither of them having fully 
 weighed and estimated, may, for that reason, become 
 sources of pain and disappointment, instead of happi- 
 ness and fruition. I can never again risk so fearfully 
 as a woman does, in entering on that relation, till botli 
 of us fully understand each other's views of it. You 
 look surprised ; you would be more so, perhaps, were I 
 to tell you all I mean by that ; but I am speaking of a 
 calm determination to do myself and my lover justice, 
 in un vailing my soul to him before the world shall 
 hold us bound to each other till death. I cannot, 
 therefore, summon him here, as I should inevitably by 
 replying to that letter at least, not for a time. I am 
 no sophist, and cannot spin invisible webs around a 
 truth which I also never escape. I see nothing clear 
 to-day, Anna, but to hold my course the only pain I 
 feel for him being, that he has not what I have, the 
 secret which makes the desert bloom, and transmutes 
 suffering into joy. Perhaps other light will come with 
 the coming days, and if it does, do not doubt that I 
 shall follow it." 
 
 I looked at her as she sat there before me, calm and 
 clear and splendid in her self-possession, and again my 
 eyes fell to the record on my lap ; and much as I 
 admired and loved her, I asked myself are you, 
 with all your gifts and greatness of soul, worthy what 
 is here laid at your feet ? The thought, no doubt, 
 passed into my face; for I spoke not, yet she an- 
 swered it. 
 
 " I see," she said, "you question me, Anna; and 
 perhaps I ought scarcely to wonder at it, for there is 
 little seeming tenderness in what I am doing ; but I do 
 not doubt myself, and that is best of all. I will more 
 than atone for all when the day comes that I may." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 303 
 
 And a nappy light rippled over her face as she took 
 the letter, and rose to answer a rap at the door. 
 
 There had been many while we were sitting, but they, 
 had received no attention. Now, when she opened it, there 
 stood before her a young man of about thirty, with a face, 
 person, and bearing, expressive of strongly-marked indi- 
 viduality ; frank, well-defined features ; a speaking, dark 
 gray eye ; projecting, heavy brow ; of a rugged cast, 
 and an aspect which altogether indicated strength 
 rather than refinement, and earnestness ungraced with 
 any gentle culture. lie had in his hand a carpet-bag, 
 and as the door opened, he touched his hat respectfully, 
 and walked in, saying he wished to engage a room for 
 a few days a week, or perhaps a fortnight. I saw 
 that he was both surprised and pleased to see such a wo- 
 man before him. He watched her with a glowing eye 
 and pleased face, as she took down the book, and, in- 
 quiring his name, registered it, giving him at the same 
 time a key, and directing him to the floor above, where 
 he would find the number it bore. He was not in 
 haste to be gone, but lingered, asking some questions 
 about the house and the city, and informing her that 
 he had not been there for four months. He said very 
 honestly, as a simple-minded man might, that he had 
 several thousand dollars in gold in the satchel, and if 
 there were any safe place of deposit in the office, he 
 would rather leave it there than in his room. But 
 Eleanore quickly explained that there was none that 
 no responsibility of that sort could be assumed, and 
 added : " I shall be obliged to excuse myself, now, sir. 
 I have employments elsewhere that demand my 
 presence;" then, speaking to me, we both went out 
 together, followed by the stranger, whose name was 
 Harding. But at the door we were met by Phil and 
 
304 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Antonio, and Eleariore turned back, to lay aside Phil's 
 walking habiliments. 
 
 Mr. Harding looked at the child ; his eyes filled, and 
 a flush of emotion passed over his face. " That is the 
 most beautiful sight," he said, " that I have seen for three 
 years ;" and down went the treasure on the floor, as if it 
 had been dirt under his feet, and up went Phil a little 
 nervous and shy of the strange face and voice, but 
 quite overborne by the whole-hearted, loving earnest- 
 ness of the man. 
 
 " Will you let me have this little fellow out some- 
 times, when we get better acquainted ?" he asked, of 
 the mother. 
 
 " I dare say," she replied, " he will be glad to go 
 with anybody who is fond of having him. Will you 
 go with this gentleman, Phil, to take a walk ?" 
 
 " T'rnorrows, mamma " putting his hand safely in 
 hers and looking at the stranger : meaning some day 
 or days in the indefinite future. 
 
 " But you walk more with me, Phil," said Antonio, 
 who stood by, jealously guarding his own rights. 
 
 " Yes," said the child, looking grave, as if the ques 
 tion of the future disposal of himself were growing 
 confused, with only this one clear point in it ; " yes, I 
 go with you, too lay sure" 
 
 This inimitable attempt at French made us all 
 laugh, Antonio, who had been the teacher, heartiest of 
 any, and thus we dispersed. 
 
 Mr. Harding came into the office at evening and sat 
 down, as if socially disposed, and quite unaware that 
 the proceeding was not in order. He was more com- 
 municative than curious, which was less remarkable for 
 a Yankee than it would have been had he not been 
 able to learn about us all that he might desire to know 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 305 
 
 from outside persons during the day. He told us that 
 he had come from the southern mines, to meet a bro- 
 ther, from the northern part of the State, who was ex- 
 pecting his wife on the next steamer ; and he seemed 
 full of happy anticipations of the meeting. He should 
 bring them there, he said, if we had a room for them. 
 The steamer was hourly expected, and he looked for 
 his brother by the Sacramento boat, that evening. 
 
 He delighted himself with Phil before that young 
 gentleman's bed- time came, and took, with an altoge- 
 ther amazing rapidity and ease, to the shade of the 
 little family- tree we cultivated in those two narrow 
 rooms. 
 
 " He is a new character," I said, to Eleanore. 
 
 " Yes, but he'll sing the old song to one or other of 
 us ; you may rely upon that. I see it already, and that 
 is what enrages and humiliates me. Social distance 
 is altogether lost here. It doesn't matter to the ques- 
 tion he will ask of you or me, two or three days, or pos- 
 sibly as many weeks hence, that at home the man 
 would never have spoken to us. Yery honest, very 
 worthy, and withal an affectionate person, I have no 
 doubt, Anna ; but why cannot he and the others under- 
 stand, that, though we are in a menial position here, 
 we are the same women that we should be in our own 
 at home ? Do I so look or act," she asked, indignantly, 
 " as to warrant any man who has eyes in the belief 
 that I respect myself less in making beds and sweeping, 
 than I should in a mansion, as its mistress ? A.m I so 
 meek and craven, that every man has a right to say to 
 himself, i There, that poor woman, I think, would be 
 glad to have me marry her, and take her out of that 
 place ' ?" 
 
 " JSTot a bit of it," I replied, laughing at the absurd 
 
306 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 contrast to her proud, defiant carriage and aspect, more 
 especially at that moment, when she stood with eyes 
 and nostril dilated, and clenched right hand upraised, 
 to enforce the question which could only be whispered. 
 " Never accuse yourself on that score, dear Eleanore. 
 There is scarcely anything I could not believe of you 
 more easily." 
 
 " Well, then," she said, laughing, more than half 
 in suppressed indignation, " why can't they understand 
 that here, as well as in New York or New England ? 
 There is no use in talking, dear ; these dreadful offers 
 are hardly less offensive to my pride than some of our 
 other experiences; and if telling one of these well- 
 meaning persons so would put a stop to them, I should 
 do it, the very first time another honored me with pro- 
 posals ; I should, if I did hurt his self-love." 
 
 " But it would be instruction thrown away," I said ; 
 " and, in most cases, a deep wound given, whose pain 
 would leave no wisdom after it ; so I think you had 
 better take them quietly, as you have, and meekly say, 
 4 Thank you, sir ; you propose me great honor, and 
 your kindness is inestimable ; but I am prevented from 
 accepting the one or availing myself of the other.' " 
 
 It was fortunate that the bed was between my 
 friend and me, at these words, or I should have re- 
 ceived proof on the spot of how ill they sat upon her 
 outraged dignity, in a pinch of the cheek or a tweak 
 of the ear, or some other little personal chastisement, 
 which I delighted, above all things, to provoke her to, 
 there was such downright good- will to it in her eyes 
 and lips and hands, when she let herself undertake 
 it. If she had been a man, one would scarcely have 
 enjoyed rousing the same spirit. 
 
CHAPTER XXXYIII. 
 
 IS'ext morning Mr. Harding brought in and formally 
 introduced his brother, thereby putting himself upon 
 the footing of an acquaintance. The brother was 
 scarcely less a character than himself, and both had an 
 astonishing facility of assuming, without oifending 
 against anything but taste, upon the civility which 
 their unmistakable honesty commanded. It would 
 have been as easy to rebuke angrily a blind man for 
 coining too near you, as them. 
 
 The married brother was all ear. Every sound that 
 bore the remotest resemblance to a heavy gun the 
 slamming of boards in the unfinished buildings near 
 the quick closing of a heavy door below startled him. 
 " Wasn't that the steamer ? 1 thought I heard a gun. 
 Didn't you hear a gun, John ?" It was really affecting 
 to see how entirely he devoted himself to that coming 
 ship how he deferred everything to that. "After 
 Caroline comes," was his answer to every proposition 
 from his brother ; and, in the fullness of his heart, he 
 explained to me tliat he had married a very young 
 girl, to whom he was much attached, only the day be- 
 fore sailing, nearly eighteen months ago ; and that it 
 would be the happiest day of his life much happier 
 than his wedding-day when she should come to him 
 here. One could not but feel interested in this meet- 
 ing, and Eleanore and I planned to give them the best 
 
308 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 and pleasantest room in the house, if they took one 
 there, and to take the young creature into friendly re- 
 lations while she should stay : provided, always, she 
 should prove as candid and straightforward a person as 
 her husband. 
 
 Three days went by, and there was yet no steamer. 
 Our friend expectant began to pass into the anxious 
 stage of his waiting, and his brother John, improving 
 his time with Phil as well from a desire to approach 
 the mother's heart as to satisfy his own with the rare 
 indulgence of a child's humor and caresses had quite 
 installed himself in the position of companion to that 
 young person, who became thereby the possessor of 
 various gold and silver coins, varying in value from one 
 to five dollars. 
 
 " He will not take it, mamma," said Phil, one after- 
 noon, when he returned with a five-dollar piece in his 
 hand, which she had promptly ordered him to carry 
 back to Mr. Harding. " He will not take it. He say 
 he's got a great many, and he don't want it." 
 
 " Then, Phil, you can give it to Antonio to-morrow, 
 for taking you out every day." 
 
 " Oh, yes," said the child, delighted at the idea ; 
 " so I will. It's very pretty, mamma, and I believe 
 Antonio will like it. Do you ?" 
 
 " Yes, iny darling ; it will buy him a pair of shoes, 
 or a hat, or a vest. It will do him good, and you do 
 not want it, you know." 
 
 " No, I don't want it, mamma ; and I'll give it to 
 him next day." 
 
 Mr. John Harding stood in the office, with me, 
 while this was passing, audibly, in the next room. He 
 looked a little grave, and chagrined also, but said no- 
 thing ; and I thought you will perhaps put off your 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 309 
 
 proposal forty-eight hours in consequence of it. Mr. 
 William, the expectant, was roaming the streets most 
 of the time, his impatience forbidding much sitting still, 
 watching the telegraphs, gathering conjectures, and 
 chasing down winged rumors, being more endurable. 
 
 The growing city was tilled with noise and alive 
 with hurrying crowds still men, men, men ; a woman 
 almost as rarely seen as when we came. Merchandise 
 in thousands of tons was disgorged every week upon 
 the wharves, and shipped away up the country, or 
 stored in dismasted vessels lying out in the harbor 
 storehouses being yet wholly inadequate ; the gambling- 
 houses and drinking-shops were yet thronged, both 
 with residents and comers and goers ; and amid all the 
 excitement of these various doings, Mr. William en- 
 deavored to kill the time, that could not be spent in- 
 doors, or in making inquiries, which HO one had any 
 better means of answering than himself. He strolled 
 in from time to time, and then, if he found one of us 
 at leisure, he would relate what he had seen or heard, 
 or give us some incident which the peculiar life he 
 mixed with had furnished him. I remember his telling 
 one evening, with great relish, an anecdote of a woman 
 taking a young child to one of the theaters. It began 
 to cry, and the orchestra played with increased energy, 
 to drown the unusual sound. 
 
 " Stop them d d fiddles, and let the baby cry !" 
 shouted a rough-looking miner, from the pit. " I hain't 
 heerd such music in two year." 1 ' 
 
 " I reckon that man had about the right sort of 
 heart in him, if his clothes wan't the finest," concluded 
 the narrator. 
 
 Sunday and Monday were gone. Tuesday came. 
 "To-day," he said, as I met him in the hall, "she 
 
310 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 will certainly be here. I dreamed last night that she 
 came, so plain and natural to me, that I am determined 
 to believe in it, Miss Warren." 
 
 Ten o'clock came, and no gun. But at a little be- 
 fore eleven, that was one, surely. Yes, that was one, for 
 there goes to the peak of the telegraph station the 
 signal, bearing the magic letters, U. S. M. Now they 
 rush to the wharf to await her thousands of men 
 surging back and forth on the narrow tongue that 
 shoots out over the water. In a short time there fol- 
 lows the second gun, which announces her entrance 
 within the Golden Gate ; and then there is another 
 rush, and more hurried talking ; and, shortly after, the 
 great, dingy-looking ship heaves up, and stretches her- 
 self, with a fearful roar from her iron throat, " along- 
 side." Heaven help the poor people who have to land 
 women, with children, to make way through that 
 endless crowd ! It reaches away back into the city 
 nay, it will press them to the very doors of their ho- 
 tels. There go, in a surprisingly short space of time, 
 the great mail-wagons, one after another, piled up with 
 bags innumerable. Three, four of them, beside a cart, 
 and they will return again and again, and perhaps 
 some of them the fourth time, before the mail matter is 
 all transferred to the office. Such is the growth of this 
 yearling child of the Republic. 
 
 I went up stairs to the room prepared for Mr. and 
 Mrs. Harding, to assure myself that all was right in it, 
 and carried along a tumbler of flowers, which Phil and 
 Antonio had bought in the market, by Eleanore's re- 
 quest, for that purpose. She was writing a letter, and 
 begged me to see that she had time to finish it ; " For, 
 you know, dear," she said, " that we shall scarcely 
 stop to speak for the next three days." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 311 
 
 Every steamer so overwhelmed us with the rush of 
 strangers people who would take a blanket and pil- 
 low anywhere, if a bed could not be had for two 
 nights or one night just till they could get ready to 
 start to their place of destination. 
 
 Presently our party came the two brothers and 
 the wife a tidy, compact little creature, with a bright 
 face ; well and quietly dressed, but wonderfully dis- 
 trait, I thought, in expression and manner. As I 
 looked at them, she seemed to be ice, to his fire. Is it 
 the strangeness of everything I questioned that 
 makes her receive his demonstrations as if she were but 
 half awake? There is no heartiness to answer him. 
 And I thought John observed the same thing. She 
 was a stranger to him, as to me. They all went up 
 stairs, and we saw no more of them that day, nor the 
 next, and but little, indeed, for four days, till our 
 household was reduced to near its ordinary numbers 
 again, and we found ourselves with the possibility of a 
 minute's leisure, now and then. The brothers we 
 occasionally met in the passages, and both of us agreed 
 that there was cloud where there ought to have been 
 sunshine. "What could it mean ? 
 
 On the fourth day a man had come, while both the 
 brothers were out, and inquired for her of me. I di- 
 rected him to her room, thinking nothing of it, or that 
 he was some old acquaintance come to pay a visit of 
 welcome to her ; but I chanced to be engaged in the 
 upper passage when he took leave, and unconsciously 
 glancing up as the door opened, I saw a pale, tearful 
 face lifted toward his, with an appeal so touching and 
 painful in its glance, that it went to my heart at once. 
 
 " I will come to-morrow," he said, kindly. 
 
 " Oh, do !" was the reply ; " I shall die here, alone." 
 
312 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 What words were those for a wife a bride, indeed 
 to a stranger ? I stood aghast, chilled, for I had al- 
 lowed myself to become interested in this little soul, 
 and in her husband's happiness in her, before she came. 
 But what to do ? Should I speak to Eleanore ? And 
 what should I say ? One must have seen the face and 
 heard the tones, as I did, to feel the full force of what 
 I felt. And who was this man ? Might he not be a 
 brother, or relative, who had a lawful right to console 
 her, if she were lonely and unhappy ? But if all were 
 right, how could she need this consolation, with so de- 
 voted a husband and so kind a brother ? 
 
 The men were getting ready to go up the country 
 to their mining. They had determined to go together, 
 and were now making their preparations to start on 
 Monday afternoon. Mrs. Harding's meals were served 
 as ours were, in her own room, and the next day she 
 had company to dinner the same man. I noted him 
 carefully this time a fact which he testified his un- 
 thankfulness for in the rude stare with which he hur- 
 ried past me, entering her room unbidden, with only a 
 slight preliminary tap on the door. 
 
 There were broken exclamations not of grief 
 words which came to me in the momentary intervals 
 of the noise of my sweeping and dusting and I felt 
 certain from that time, that, whoever this was, he was 
 more welcome than husband or brother. I was bur- 
 dened with this secret now, for it became distinctly 
 such from that hour. I knew by the furtive manner 
 of the man by the time chosen for his visits, and the 
 welcome he received that he would not have met the 
 husband for his right hand. Then I thought this 
 poor young child ! something ought to be done to save 
 her from destroying her own and her husband's happi- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 313 
 
 ness. I pondered what I had seen and neard, and 
 finally determined not to take Eleanore into my confi- 
 dence, for a while, at least. She was ardent, decisive, 
 and if not in the right mood, would perhaps be rash in 
 acting on the facts. She had not been interested in 
 Mrs. Harding, as she had hoped to be before her com- 
 ing ; and as they were going away soon it was now 
 Saturday I thought it best to watch my own oppor- 
 tunity to do anything I could for the benefit of either 
 party, and let events take their course. Perhaps there 
 was nothing else that I could have done : but what 
 happened soon after made me repent that I had not 
 divided the responsibility of my knowledge with some 
 one. 
 
 The visitor staid long. I got through, and went 
 down stairs ; but I made a point of seeing when he went 
 out. I almost hoped that Mr. John would come in and 
 meet him there. But he did not. 
 
 "We had seen little of this .gentleman since the arri- 
 val, and Eleanore said, laughingly, that she believed 
 we should be disappointed, after all ; for, of late, there 
 was nothing that looked like a proposal. 
 
 The Hardings came in after supper, and as they were 
 going out, about eight o'clock, William stopped at the 
 ofiice-door, and said : " My wife is not well this evening, 
 Mrs. Brornfield, and I should be very glad if you'd go 
 up and see her, by-and-by. She don't seem as happy, 
 anyhow, as I was in hopes she would ; but I guess that 
 will wear off after we've got home and settled." 
 
 " One of us will go up to her, presently," replied 
 Eleanore. " We should have seen more of her during 
 her stay, had we not been so hurried ; but I suppose 
 your company has been the most welcome she could 
 have had." 
 14 
 
314 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Oh, yes," he replied ; " but women, I s'pose, un- 
 derstand each other better than men can understand 
 them, and she's a little shy like, after being so long 
 separated, you know. She don't tell me her feelings, 
 as she would if we had lived together more." 
 
 John stood by in silence while these few words were 
 being said ; and his face wore a troubled, puzzled ex- 
 pression, as if the case were quite beyond him. 
 
 After they were gone, I urged Eleanore's going up 
 directly, and said : " Perhaps she has some trouble of 
 mind or heart that you can help her in. The woman 
 is evidently unhappy, and I do wish you would appeal 
 to her, as you know how to so well, and win her con- 
 fidence. It may be the saving of them both in this 
 dreadful country." 
 
 " One might suppose she was on the verge of ruin, by 
 your earnestness, Anna," said my friend. " I will speak 
 kindly and encouragingly to her; but I don't know 
 that I can do more ; and I'll take the little king along. 
 If she is fond of children, it will help her to have a 
 sight of his precious face and eyes bless them ! And 
 if she isn't, we can't hope much for her can we, dar- 
 ling ?" pushing back his curls, and covering him from 
 hair to chin with kisses. 
 
 " No," he replied, with the solemnity of a witness 
 under examination, which provoked another round of 
 kisses, and then they started, hand in hand, gleeful 
 and gay, for Mrs. Harding's room. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 I was busy with a little sewing, and, for a Saturday 
 evening, the house was unusually still, most of the 
 lodgers being out. I had only two or three calls at the 
 office, and was closing the door after the last applicant, 
 when I saw Mrs. Harding's visitor pass by. Of course 
 I could not but feel deeply interested to know the re- 
 sult of the meeting that must take place. And I 
 thought I am very glad I did not speak to her, for 
 now she will see all with an unprejudiced eye, and her 
 opinion will be more just than it would have been 
 otherwise. 
 
 In a very few minutes I heard " little feet patter- 
 ing " along the passage, and a " happy voice chatter- 
 ing," and the next moment Eleanore and Phil entered 
 the office. There was a whole quarto volume in her 
 face ; but she said nothing till she had put Phil to bed, 
 and heard a summing up of the day's pleasures, which 
 often was his fashion of prayer, and kissed his eyes for 
 sleep, after which they were nominally to remain closed. 
 Then she drew a chair close to me, and asked, in a low 
 voice, if I knew anything of Mrs. Harding ?" 
 
 " I know what you know," I replied, evasively. 
 
 Do you know of her having any friend here who 
 ought to enter her room without the ceremony of 
 knocking ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
316 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " I am afraid there is something very wrong, dear 
 Anna. I want to tell you, and we must consider what 
 may be done for her. Lay that work down, now, a 
 moment, and hear me." 
 
 And then she related what was already known to 
 me, only confirming my worst fears by her observa- 
 tions on the manner and appearance of the party. 
 " She is as transparent as cobweb, and that man must 
 have the heart of a base hound, to hover around such 
 a child a mere child to ruin her peace." 
 
 " Did she introduce him to you ?" 
 
 " Yes, as a fellow-passenger on the steamer Mr. 
 Gray. I thought it was her husband, when his step 
 came along the hall, such an unconcealable joy flashed 
 into her face and braced up her little figure as she 
 heard it. Poor thing ! What are we to do about it, 
 Anna?" 
 
 " What can we do, but let it go ? It is a matter 
 one cannot easily meddle with, and they are going so 
 soon, that I do not see how anything can be done. 
 Beside, there will, perhaps, be no need. When she is 
 separated from him, if she has ever loved her husband, 
 she will recover from this temporary infatuation, and 
 all may yet be well with them." 
 
 " I fear not," was her reply. " His visits are evi- 
 dently clandestine, from what you have seen before 
 this ; and his persistency in coming, and her extreme 
 and almost undisguised pleasure, even in my presence, 
 at seeing him, argue the worst. 
 
 We were silent for some minutes, and then Eleanore 
 said : " Could not you speak to the brother, and in 
 some casual way mention these visits to his sister, and 
 be guided by his treatment of that fact, about proceed- 
 ing further?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 31 I 
 
 " Why not you," I asked, " who have met and 
 been introduced to him ?" 
 
 " I could, but for an unwillingness to manifest an 
 interest that might be misunderstood." 
 
 " Oh, throw that to the winds !" I said. " It is a 
 trifle, at most, and not to be thought of." 
 
 But at that moment there was a rap on the office- 
 door, and at the words, " Come in," Mr. John Hard- 
 ing entered, saying to his brother, who passed along at 
 the same time : " I will be up in a minute, William." 
 
 Eleanore stepped quickly forward, and with instant 
 presence of mind, said, in tones of warning and com- 
 mand : " Go now, sir, right after him. Don't stop a 
 moment," she added, seeing him about to speak. 
 
 The astonished man turned and went several steps 
 down the passage, we listening, filled with apprehen- 
 sion at the meeting above, where already we heard the 
 husband's quick foot near the door of his room. Then 
 John, unable to comprehend why he should go thus, 
 turned back to ask what it meant. The next moment 
 we heard a little scream then the sound of men's 
 voices, in a few hasty, broken words a scuffle fear- 
 ful groan, and a heavy fall. It was all in the space of 
 a minute, I think, but John was already there when 
 the fall shook the floor. We knew not what to do, 
 but stood frozen with horror, fearing that the worst 
 had happened to one or other party, and unwilling to 
 approach the dreadful scene. 
 
 The first words we heard were, " Scoundrel, you 
 have murdered my brother !" and then Mrs. Harding 
 fell into hysterics, shrieking at every breath, and every- 
 body in the house rushed to the spot. There were out- 
 cries, and the word " Murder !" shouted from the win- 
 dows above, brought in a crowd. Before, however, a foot 
 
318 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 crossed the threshold, Eleanore stepped decisively back, 
 drew me after her, and closed and locked the office- 
 door. They were already on the stairs and in the pas- 
 sage. There was rude rapping on our door, but the 
 noise above indicating the tragic locality, they hurried 
 past. 
 
 I was filled with terror and pain of heart. 
 
 " Do not stir," whispered Eleanore, with bloodless 
 face ; "it is past the time for Mr. Peters to come ; he 
 may be here any minute, and he must be soon. Then 
 there will be no need for us to be seen at all. Good 
 God ! if only I had remained long enough to prevent 
 this ! How terrible, that instantaneous thrust into the 
 dark future, with such fire burning in the soul as he 
 has gone with !" 
 
 " Those cries are dreadful," I said, " and there is 
 no woman near the poor creature only a crowd of 
 fierce, wondering men." 
 
 We heard slow steps over all the light shuffling, as 
 if some heavy weight were being borne away ; and 
 presently men came down stairs, and knocked again at 
 our door. This time Eleanore rose and opened it. 
 There were strangers there. 
 
 " There has been a dreadful murder in your house, 
 ma'am," said the foremost man. 
 
 " I have heard some sound of it," she replied, " but 
 the proprietor of the house is not here, and we feel un- 
 willing to witness the horror we cannot lessen by our 
 presence. Is the man dead ?" 
 
 " Dead, ma'am ; stabbed to the heart, and never 
 breathed after I got up there. There is a woman who 
 needs some attention." 
 
 " And the murderer ?" 
 
 " Oh, we have him safe, till they can find an officer. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 319 
 
 lie is one of our old birds ; been gone three or four 
 mouths, and I didn't know he was back, till I saw him 
 there to night, with the dagger in his hand." 
 
 So this was the whole story. It was scarcely fin- 
 ished, when a party of men entered with the police, 
 and Gray was immediately removed to prison. The 
 crowd mostly followed him, nearly vacating our house, 
 and then Eleanore and I went up stairs to see Mrs. 
 Harding. We met John in the passage, where he 
 was walking fiercely up and down before his room, 
 in which half a dozen persons were disposing the body 
 upon his bed. He did not look like the same man we 
 had known. His eyes shot an angry lightning from 
 under their heavy brows ; his face was colorless and 
 haggard, and the lines of it had settled into a grim 
 fixedness, which gave him a most relentless, implacable 
 look. Mrs. Harding was evidently alone. Her door 
 stood open, and subdued cries and groans came from 
 within. We both hesitated as we approached Mr. 
 Harding, who, turning and coming up face to face with 
 us, said, rudely and even accusingly, pointing to his 
 room : " There's a fine piece of work for a woman ; 
 d n her !" 
 
 I was struck dumb by his fierce looks and tones of 
 reproach. They seemed to be leveled at us, as well as 
 the guilty one. But Eleanore, after a moment, said : 
 " It is, indeed, a fearful thing to have happened. Have 
 you any idea of the cause ?" 
 
 " Yes infamy and shame in her," he answered, 
 with a savage intensity, jerking his glaring eyes to- 
 ward her door. u That's the cause. Did you know 
 anything about his visits ?" he asked, suddenly. " This 
 is not the first time he's been here, I guess is it ?" 
 
 " I scarcely know Mrs. Harding " 
 
320 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Don't call so curst a being by his name ! She's 
 
 " Sir," said Eleanore, " I excuse much in your de- 
 meanor that would be unpardonable under other cir- 
 cumstances ; but do not forget that you are speaking 
 to ladies, and to persons who have no shadow of parti- 
 cipation in the calamity that has befallen you. We 
 came up, not to discuss it, either, but to render some 
 service, if we could, to yourself and that unfortunate 
 creature yonder." 
 
 " Damn her send her into the street, where she 
 belongs !" he exclaimed. 
 
 And other men, who had gathered about, seeing his 
 agony, said : " Yes, into the street !" And they moved 
 toward her door. 
 
 " Not to-night," said Eleanore, firmly, placing her- 
 self before them. " She shall be taken care of and 
 tended to-night." 
 
 " I say she ought to be thrown into the street," he 
 repeated, " and if this was a decent house, she 
 would be." 
 
 u Mr. Harding," said Eleanore and her clear, firm 
 voice, rung like a bell over all the minor noises and 
 the hurried muttering of the gathering crowd, which 
 was now returning and filling the house " I am a wo- 
 man, and this unfortunate sister of yours is a woman 
 also ; and whatever her share may be in this crime, she 
 shall not, in her present condition, experience any bru- 
 tality in this house. There will time enough come for 
 punishment and Buffering, when she is past this shock, 
 and able to see clearly the fearful consequences of her 
 acts. This is not a fit place for her ; we cannot care 
 for her here. She must go to our room to-night, and 
 to-morrow you will, perhaps, think and feel more as 
 becomes a man, and less as an avenger." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 321 
 
 We entered the room, the crowd of men still lin- 
 gering at the door. The wretched woman sat at the 
 foot of the bed, cowering against it, apparently frozen 
 with terror and fear. She lifted her glassy eyes to 
 Eleanore's face, as she approached her, and in a husky, 
 sepulchral voice, implored her, for God's sake, not to 
 let them touch her. 
 
 " It would have been happier for all if you had 
 remembered that name earlier," said Eleanore, se- 
 verely ; " but I will do my best for you, for the sake of 
 the mother who loved you, and the sisters you told me 
 of. Will you try if you can stand on your feet and 
 get to our room ?" 
 
 She raised her kindly from the floor, and offered her 
 an arm to lean upon ; but the poor creature could only 
 totter, with her help, to the nearest chair. 
 
 " I am afraid I can't go," she whispered ; " but 
 wait a minute don't leave me oh, don't leave me, if 
 you have any mercy in your hearts !" 
 
 " We will not leave you," I said ; for at that mo- 
 ment Mrs. Bromfield was called for at the door, and 
 turned away to speak. " We will not leave you ; and 
 when Mr. Peters comes, if not before, you shall be 
 assisted to our room." 
 
 " Thank you," she said, holding my hand in a cold, 
 iron clasp. " You are very good." 
 
 " Mr. Peters has gone out of town," said Eleanore, 
 coming back from the crowd, " and his brother is here 
 in his place. There is an army of men there, Anna, 
 and it is increasing all the time. What, in the name 
 of heaven, are we to do ?" 
 
 " Get back to our room as quickly as possible," 
 I said. " Will he not help us with her ?" 
 
 " He is with them, and hasn't, you know, a spark 
 14* 
 
322 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 of courage. Could you walk now, do you think ?" she 
 asked of Mrs. Harding, " with me to help you, so, and 
 Miss Warren on the other side ?" 
 
 " I will try, if you think it will be best will they 
 let us go ?" with a terrified glance toward the door. 
 
 " Yes ; if you can walk, I will make our way good. 
 Come there is no time to be lost. Come between us, 
 and hold yourself up as well as you can." 
 
 The faces of men were pressing eagerly into the 
 door- way, but not a foot had crossed the threshold. As 
 we approached it, holding her, each of us, by an arm 
 about her waist, Eleanore said, looking directly into 
 the nearest eyes : " Gentlemen, will you be kind 
 enough to give us passage ? This person is ill, and we 
 wish to get her where she can be taken care of." 
 
 There was a little shuffling of feet, but no way 
 opened. A large, burly figure, nearly filled the door- 
 way, which seemed to have worked its way there while 
 she was speaking. She now appealed directly to him : 
 " Will you be kind enough, sir, to let us pass ?" 
 
 " They say she ought to go to prison with him," he 
 replied. "Is it there you are going with her ? If it 
 is, I'll help you, and welcome." 
 
 " Yes, to prison," muttered several voices near by ; 
 and the word, " prison," came up from the farther 
 end of the passage. 
 
 At these sounds, the poor creature's strength seemed 
 entirely to fail her ; she hung more and more heavily 
 upon us, and the next moment her head fell on my 
 shoulder in a dead swoon. 
 
 " Savages ! hounds !" said Eleanore, seizing the 
 drooping form in her arms, which seemed suddenly en- 
 dued with the strength of the strongest man ; " is there 
 no human heart among you, that you can persecute in 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 323 
 
 this way a small, helpless, friendless woman ? Stand 
 back and give me way with her, and let any man 
 touch either of us at his peril! Come along, Miss 
 Warren." And she moved off through the shamed, 
 irresolute crowd, with her helpless burden not a hand 
 or a voice hindering. 
 
 As we went down the stairs and along the passage, 
 astonished men gave way before us, and more than one, 
 seeing that superhuman effort, reached forth his hands 
 to relieve her, but she answered with her blazing eyes, 
 and they fell back in silence. 
 
 " Lock the door," she said, as we passed into the 
 office ; and she dropped the woman on our bed, and 
 fell into the nearest chair, scarcely more alive herself 
 than she was. 
 
 I offered her water and opened a window, fearing 
 that she, too, would faint ; but she put away my 
 cares, and said : " See to her, Anna ; I shall breathe 
 directly ; and yet, perhaps it would be better she never 
 should again the poor little wretch ! What ruin she 
 has wrought !" 
 
 " This is all the worse for us," I said, that Mr. Pe- 
 ters is absent to-night. If he were only here, to speak 
 to those people ! There, they are already at the door 
 again." 
 
 " I will go in a minute," she said. " I think there 
 will be no violence offered, after what they have seen, 
 and if it looks threatening, I will send for a policeman. 
 This is a position !" she added, with irrepressible irrita- 
 bility, after a moment, the knocking still continuing. 
 " But it shall end here. I wouldn't be exposed to the 
 chance of such a scene again for the house and all it 
 holds. Get life into that poor thing, if you can, Anna, 
 while I go to those fiends." 
 
324 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 The noise was momentarily increasing, and it 
 seemed a fearful thing to have to face a determined 
 mob like that in defense of a bad cause, too. But 
 she opened the door, and held up her blanched face, 
 and parted wide her unflinching eyes upon them, as if 
 she had power to have crushed them all by the sweep 
 of her arm. 
 
 Her very look held them silent for a moment. 
 
 " What do you want at this door ?" she asked. 
 
 "We want to know that that woman don't go 
 away," was the confused reply of half a dozen voices. 
 
 " Then watch," she said, defiantly, " and be still. 
 This is the only door out of the room." 
 
 " But we want to know if she is here now," said a 
 small, weasel-eyed man, stepping forward, as if he 
 would enter. >* < 
 
 " Don't put your foot over that door-sill, sir," she 
 said, so sternly that he shrunk back. "The worn an 
 you ask for lies in a dead swoon, in the next room, 
 which is a private chamber belonging to myself and 
 Miss Warren. If you wish any greater security than 
 her helplessness and my word that she shall stay safely 
 there till morning, bring an officer for no other man 
 shall enter either of these rooms to-night." 
 
 " Here is a doctor," said a voice from several feet 
 down the hall. 
 
 " He is not wanted," she replied. 
 
 " But she may be dying," said another ; " let him 
 come in." 
 
 " If she were, I think it would be no calamity to 
 her ; but she is not, and he shall not come here, but 
 with an officer." 
 
 " Bring that one up that's down there at the door," 
 was now demanded. " By , somebody shall go in 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 325 
 
 and see it all right !" said the weasel-eyed man, pluck- 
 ing up courage, now that the lioness was looking else- 
 where. 
 
 " But it will not be you, my little hero," she said ; 
 at which there was a laugh and the exclamations : " By 
 thunder, but she's steel, isn't she ?" and " I'd rather 
 fight under her than Gen. Scott, any day ; and then 
 another voice cried out : " Shame ! Let the lady alone. 
 She'll be true to her word, I swear, or I never saw a 
 pair of true eyes in my life." 
 
 These evidences of friendly feeling in the crowd 
 were little more agreeable to Eleanore than their op- 
 posites had been ; but she kept her post, lamp in hand, 
 and held them at bay, till a man made his way to her 
 with a badge on his breast, and touching his hat civ- 
 illy, said : " Madam, I wish to see if you have a woman 
 in here, who may be implicated in the murder that has 
 been done up stairs." 
 
 " Poor Mrs. Harding how she shuddered and held 
 to me ! for she had heard all these last words. 
 
 " Enter, sir," she said. " You will find her in the 
 inner room." 
 
 He looked in at me, and then her, and was step- 
 ping back. The mob waited in silence. 
 
 " Go in, if you please, said Eleanore, " and assure 
 yourself that there is no door but this by which she can 
 escape, and nobody there, beside herself, but Miss 
 Warren and my child ; and then, perhaps, these brave 
 men may think it safe to leave us with a guard here, 
 till morning." 
 
 He did this, and returned. " All right, gentlemen," 
 he said. " She's there, and a lady with her, and she 
 can't get out, except by this door. You had better go 
 home now, and I'll take care of her here to-night," 
 
326 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Then, with your leave, sir, I will close the door." 
 
 " Certainly, ma'am. That is quite right." 
 
 And so the hard faces were shut out. 
 
 " Good God," said Eleanore " what a scene this is 
 for quiet women to be forced into ! and I fear it may 
 not be over yet. They are demurring out there, I 
 know. Are you better now 2" she asked, approaching 
 the bed. 
 
 " Yes but you won't let them come here and take 
 me away will you ?" clutching at her dress. 
 
 " You ought to feel pretty well assured by this time 
 that I will not, if you have heard much that has passed. 
 Make yourself easy on that score. You are safe for 
 to-night." 
 
 " I am very grateful to you both," she murmured. 
 " I do not deserve such kindness, I know ; but, indeed, 
 I had nothing to do with that that up stairs. In- 
 deed I had not. Do, pray, believe me." 
 
 " I believe you," replied Eleanore, bluntly, and 
 without a spark of tenderness. " I believe you, be- 
 cause it would be impossible for me to do otherwise, as 
 well as because you say so. You neither struck the 
 blow, nor knew that it was to be struck. You are in- 
 nocent of that but, in another sense, guilty of the 
 whole. The law that men have made will not punish 
 you ; but the law that God has written in your own 
 bosom will exact a life-long penalty from you." 
 
 She groaned and wept piteously ready, plentiful 
 tears, that came to the surface too quickly to promise 
 any very deep and vital root of sorrow. Yet I pitied 
 her profoundly, and begged Eleanore not to be severe 
 on her at such a time. 
 
 " I do not intend to be," she said ; " but all that is 
 ungracious in me is stirred by the horror of the deed, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 327 
 
 by the position we are thrown into, and the rudeness 
 of those excited men. Hear them crowd the halls and 
 hang about the door below ! What a blessing that 
 Phil sleeps through it ! Blessed sleep, that ' the thun- 
 der could not break ' " kissing him, and beginning to 
 get back a tint of the banished red in her lips. " I am 
 more fearful, now, of fire, than anything else. "With 
 the crowd, and such confusion, it will be a miracle if 
 the walls do not catch from some of the lamps ; and if 
 they should, nothing can save us." 
 
 " Young Peters," I said, " will be watchful, I hope." 
 
 " Yes, for his own safety and popularity, Anna, 
 more than anything else. He would not have offended 
 those men, by acting with us to-night, for his left hand. 
 He will become a candidate for office some day, here, 
 and he wouldn't have a right deed, that was unpopu- 
 lar, remembered against him then, for all his hopes of 
 greatness. Pah ! how I loathe the truckling spirit of 
 such a life !" 
 
 The word now went forth that the coroner had come. 
 There was a steady movement up the stairs a few min- 
 utes, and then the policeman at the door called out : 
 "No more going up, gentlemen. The coroner will 
 call a jury, and proceed to the inquest at once ; and he 
 doesn't want any bigger crowd than he's got up there 
 now." 
 
 " There will be another pleasant experience, if we 
 should be called as witnesses, said Eleanore, with irre- 
 pressible irritation. 
 
 " But we cannot," said I ; "we have no knowledge 
 of the affair whatever. Why should we be called ?" 
 
 " We may not be, but I fear : and the thought of 
 seeing that crowd again, is like putting one's aching 
 hand back into the fire." 
 
CHAPTEE XL. 
 
 An hour passed in which little was spoken Mrs. 
 Harding alternately weeping, groaning, and listening 
 to the chance words from outside ; Eleanore sitting for 
 a space, and then walking up and down in her impa- 
 tience ; and I holding immovably my position by the 
 bedside, where I was firmly anchored by the hand of 
 our charge. 
 
 " How clearly one sees," said Eleanore, at length, 
 in such a country and time as this, that women are not 
 made for men's places, and could not fill them but in 
 that perfect state of society in which there should be 
 no wrong, rudeness, or selfishness a golden age, in 
 which government should be superfluous and labor 
 unnecessary, where people should literally live under 
 their own vines and fig-trees, with nothing to do but 
 pluck and eat the fruit." 
 
 " There are better reasons for that opinion than 
 these experiences furnish," I replied ; " but I should 
 rather hear what they are doing up there, and whether 
 the house is going to be cleared to-night, than the 
 most eloquent discussion of that mooted question." 
 
 " That's exactly where it is, you see," she said, 
 smiling, and repeating the constant phrase of our Eng- 
 lish laundress. " If I were a man, now, I should know 
 all about it, and be able to tell you ; but being a wo- 
 man both of us women we have to stay shut up 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 329 
 
 here, waiting the good pleasure of those who may 
 please to come and tell us." 
 
 While the inquest was proceeding, the general stir 
 in the house had died away ; and there was only the 
 sound of moving feet, and the low hum of voices, from 
 that room up stairs. It was but a few minutes to 
 twelve, when there came a call at the door, and Mrs. 
 Harding was wanted. 
 
 " For what ?" asked Eleanore. 
 
 " To be examined before the coroner," was the an- 
 swer. 
 
 A great effort was necessary to get her off, but at 
 last it was effected : and she importuned me so pite- 
 ously to accompany her, that I could not refuse. The 
 officer assisted her up the stairs, and I followed. 
 There were not a great many persons in the passage 
 outside, but the room was crowded, and the ghastly, 
 bloody corpse lay, just as he had fallen at her door, on 
 the bed. Way was made for us, and I placed her near 
 the window, where she could breathe, and have that 
 hideous spectacle shut from her view. John was there, 
 at the bed's foot, looking, if possible, more haggard, 
 but less merciless than he had earlier in the evening. 
 
 " Now, which of these ladies is Mrs. Harding f ' 
 asked the coroner, blandly, rubbing his hands, and 
 bowing to us both. 
 
 I thought he had little need to ask which of us was 
 that unhappy woman, but I answered : " This is Mrs. 
 Harding," laying my hand lightly on her shoulder. 
 
 " Ah, Mrs. Harding ! Unfortunate business, ma'am ; 
 but these things will happen sometimes. We have to 
 make the best of them, ma'am." 
 
 No reply, but a more deathly pallor and a glassy 
 stare. 
 
330 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Harding, will you take the oatli ? 
 Put your hand on the book, ma'am. You promise, in 
 what you shall state before this court and jury, touch- 
 ing the murder of William Harding, to tell the truth, 
 the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help 
 you God F 
 
 " Yes," she answered, with a movement of her 
 head, rather than any sound, though her lips parted. 
 
 " Kiss the book, ma'am." 
 
 It went to her lips, and then the examination com- 
 menced: which resulted, after a long and painful 
 questioning which, I must admit, was as mercifully 
 and delicately conducted as possible in eliciting the 
 facts that Gray, as he now called himself, was on a 
 clandestine visit to her; that he had made her ac- 
 quaintance, on the steamer, the third or fourth day 
 from New York; had been very kind to her, espe- 
 cially in getting across the Isthmus, where they had a 
 deal of trouble ; that on this side he had shown her 
 every attention, and, a week or so before they landed, 
 had proposed to her to go ashore with him at Monte- 
 rey, and afterward urged her running away with 
 him here the first night they landed; that he had 
 visited her four times in this house, and that she had 
 promised to leave it and go with him on board the 
 Stockton boat, next day, and that he was just about 
 leaving her room, when Mr. Harding came ; that the 
 door was locked, and Gray opened it, saying, " He'll 
 have to come in now, and I'll take care of him," or 
 something like that she could not exactly remember 
 the words ; that when Mr. Harding (she did not speak 
 the word " husband " once) came in, he and Gray 
 met face to face ; and Mr. I!., looking at him, said : 
 " Who are you, sir ? and what are you here for ?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 331 
 
 raising his hand at the same moment and striking him ; 
 that Gray returned the blow, she believed with his 
 hand first, and said, " You can know who I am in a 
 minute, if you want to ;" that they had a scuffle, first 
 in the room, and Gray, being the more powerful, 
 pushed Harding back, outside the door ; that then she 
 did not see exactly what happened for a moment, but 
 there were blows and hard words, and the next she 
 heard was a dreadful groan and a fall, -and then Gray 
 stepped back, with the bloody dagger in his hand 
 she could not tell if that was the one and said, " I be- 
 lieve I have killed the unlucky dog : but he fought 
 like a tiger ;" and then Mr. John Harding spoke ; and 
 she could not distinctly remember anything more, till 
 the ladies came to take her down to their room. 
 
 As I said, this information was got with infinite 
 difficulty, the examination occupying nearly an hour. 
 When it was over, the coroner said : " I think, gentle- 
 men, we have no need to go further in examining wit- 
 nesses, have we ?" 
 
 The jury agreed that they were ready to render a 
 verdict, and we immediately retired. 
 
 I assured Mrs. Harding that I had no idea she 
 would be placed under arrest in the morning. She 
 was so ingenuous, and gave such an uncontradictory 
 statement, broken as it was, that I felt certain she 
 would be exonerated from all guilt in the killing. 
 But, then, what should she do, and where should she 
 go ? These were questions not easy to answer not 
 best now to be thought upon. We needed rest, and 
 another day would be better for such inquiries. 
 
 Eleanore was fast asleep, lying on the carpet, with 
 a blanket and pillow. I did not mean to awake her, 
 having my own key to enter with; but the noise 
 
332 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 aroused her, and she sat up instantly : " Is it done ?" 
 she asked. 
 
 " Yes, all done, I hope." 
 
 "And the verdict?" 
 
 " Not rendered yet, but just about to be. "We can 
 go to sleep now ; the officer at the door said he would 
 stay in the house all night. Don't let us talk ; there 
 is nothing new, and we want rest so much." 
 
 " I thought," she said, " you would get some 
 blankets, when you came you know you have the key 
 of the store-room and we could sleep here, giving Mrs. 
 Harding the bed for the rest of the night." 
 
 But that little lady objected, and insisted on taking 
 the floor herself. 
 
 Eleanore refused, politely at first, but her urgency 
 at last brought out the blunt truth : " I would rather 
 sleep where I am, than change the bed. Pray lie 
 down, and, if you can, compose yourself to rest. I am 
 very weary, and shall enjoy quietness more than any- 
 thing else." 
 
 " You have some very hateful gifts," I said, feeling 
 almost angry with her. " How can you " 
 
 "Dear Anna, don't worry me. I am dreadfully 
 tired, and my arms and shoulders are full of pains and 
 soreness. Now, pray, let us rest." 
 
 This was sotto voce between us ; and I, reminded by 
 it of the battle she had fought, and the tremendous tax 
 she had laid upon her physical strength to win it, for- 
 gave her at once. 
 
 " God bless you, dear child !" I replied ; " I was 
 forgetting that you had a right to demand nursing and 
 petting, instead of scolding." 
 
 But she was already half-gone in the sleep which 
 her weariness rendered irresistible. 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 In the morning, Mrs. Harding was assisted to her 
 own room. John came in to see us, very much 
 softened from the fierce demeanor of the evening, and 
 evidently more than ever admiring the intrepid spirit 
 that had braved and defeated him. Eleanore could 
 scarcely raise her arms, and was at last obliged to send 
 out and hire a working woman to come in for that 
 day. There was that to be done up stairs which 
 neither of us, if quite able, would have been willing to 
 undertake ; and so, we the more readily consented to 
 the self-indulgence of hiring a drudge. When this was 
 settled, and young Peters, who was still there, had 
 gone for her, John sat down and poured out, but in re- 
 spectful and more measured terms, his indignation and 
 grief mixing them up with earnest apologies for 
 some rudeness he feared he had been guilty of last 
 night. He said the funeral was to take place that day, 
 at two o'clock. 
 
 " And what," asked Eleanore, after he had said all, 
 " shall we do with Mrs. Harding ?" 
 
 " If you would oblige me so much, ma'am, as never 
 to call her by our name, I would be thankful." 
 
 " Well, Caroline, then that is her Christian name. 
 1 think " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " What is to become of her?" 
 
334 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " God knows, ma'am ; I don't, I'm sure." 
 
 There was a long silence, in which he looked 
 troubled, as a man does who knows that something is 
 expected of him, which he has not the grace to perform 
 nor the courage to refuse. 
 
 "Shall I advise you?" 
 
 " If you please, though I can't promise to follow it." 
 
 " She is not implicated in this dreadful affair before 
 the law, is she ?" 
 
 No." 
 
 " Then, send her home, Mr. Harding, to her 
 family." 
 
 " She will be wanted as a witness, when he is tried." 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so. But do not set your heart too 
 much on his punishment. He will get clear, I have no 
 doubt. Nobody is punished here for anything they do. 
 But I advise you earnestly, if she has not already 
 means to return, to furnish her with them your bro- 
 ther had money, you say and, as soon as her presence 
 is no longer necessary, to urge her going back." 
 
 " I will never speak to her !" said the man, dog- 
 gedly. 
 
 " There is no need you should. It would be pain- 
 ful to both of you. But be a man, Mr. Harding, and open 
 the way to self-redemption to her. She is very young, 
 and will be, in all true senses, helpless and friendless in 
 this dreadful country. There is but one fate before 
 her, with the difficulties which now surround her, and 
 that is such as one shudders to think of. She is not 
 yet wholly lost, and be you the good angel to her fu- 
 ture. Miss "Warren and I will act with and for you ; 
 and ten years hence, if you both live, and she should 
 be saved, how great will be the happiness of reflecting 
 that you acted nobly, instead of revengefully, and 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 335 
 
 thereby saved, instead of driving to desperation, a poor, 
 misguided woman !" 
 
 " I believe," he said, acknowledging, with a dan- 
 gerous precipitancy, her influence, " that you could 
 bring me to do anything." 
 
 At this speech they both colored, and Eleanore 
 said, hastily : " I have no wish or thought of trying 
 what you could be brought to do, sir. I only appeal to 
 you in this matter as my conscience bids me, in view of 
 the ends before us, and as I would to any stranger so re- 
 lated to an unfortunate and helpless woman. "Will you 
 doit?" 
 
 " Yes ; but you or Miss Warren must explain why, 
 and by whose advice. I don't want her to understand 
 that I did it myself. I loved my brother very much, 
 and I don't forgive her his death " tears filling his 
 eyes " though I do take your counsel about her." 
 
 " Miss Warren and I," she answered, " will do 
 whatever is possible to further this plan. Let us know 
 where you will deposit money for her, and I will send 
 a friend of ours to see to her safe embarkation when 
 the time comes." 
 
 " I don't believe she will go," he said, " if this 
 wretch gets clear; and if she doesn't, I'd kill them 
 both if they touch a dollar of his. It's not the money, 
 ma'am but I would burn it, or sink it in the sea, be- 
 fore she should see it, if she goes back to him !" 
 
 " Yes, undoubtedly ; you could not contribute to 
 render her infamous ; the object is to save her ; and if 
 that cannot be done, I approve your feeling. She will 
 have to go elsewhere to-day. It is not desirable to 
 Miss Warren or me that she should stay here longer, 
 for reasons which need not be named; and in an hour 
 or two, we will let you know how you can serve us in 
 disposing her in some proper place." 
 
336 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 He looked at her, in a sort of helpless astonishment 
 at finding himself thus called on to act in a manner so 
 opposite to his feelings, but went out without speaking. 
 
 " We must arrange for her," said Eleanore, " before 
 the funeral. He may be less disposed to aid us after. 
 .Now, will you go up, dear, and tell her it is necessary 
 she should remove to-day, and ascertain if she has 
 money, and if she knows of any place to go ?" 
 
 To all which I came back shortly with a negative 
 reply, and an imploring prayer not to be sent away 
 destitute, among strangers. 
 
 " The Marsdens," said Eleanore, " we know nobody 
 else shall I go up and see them ? I thought the re- 
 ports in the papers would have brought Mr. M. down 
 before this time. Are not they the best people to con- 
 sult " 
 
 " I think so. Only pray do not stay." 
 
 " You may be assured I will not, Anna, nor rest, 
 now, anywhere, till this poor creature is safely housed 
 away from us. 
 
 The people were filling the streets as she went 
 out a few on their way to church, but more to other 
 places of quite different character. In a few minutes, 
 to my great satisfaction, she returned, bringing with 
 her Mr. Marsden, whom she had fortunately met near 
 our house. 
 
 The story was told, Mr. Harding called into coun- 
 sel, and it was settled, finally, that, in case Mrs. Mars- 
 den would consent to receive her, they should signal 
 us from their upper window, by putting the red cur- 
 tain outside, as they had more than once before done ; 
 and if she did not, then the good man was to return to 
 us for further consultation. Mr. Harding agreed to 
 deposit to Mr. Marsden's order money to pay her ex- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 337 
 
 penses for two months, and her passage home after the 
 trial was over, which it was thought must take place 
 in that time. If she did not go, he said, Mrs. Bromfield 
 and I might draw and bestow it upon any needy and 
 deserving person we should find. 
 
 When they left us, Eleanore said : " Now I will go 
 up and see that poor soul, and if she is ready, bring her 
 down here. It will be less dreary than waiting up 
 there alone. And I owe it to her and myself to atone, 
 in some manner, for my almost harshness last night." 
 
 " Let me go, Eleanore," said I, " unless you partic- 
 ularly wish to. She may have some packing to do, 
 and I think she would feel freer in accepting my assist- 
 ance, just now, than yours." 
 
 " Yery well," she replied ; " only do not stay too 
 long, Anna. I must have a few minutes with her be- 
 fore she goes, and I feel persuaded Mrs. Marsden will 
 receive her." 
 
 I accordingly soon had Mrs. Harding down stairs, 
 when Eleanore received her at the office-door with 
 some tender words of compassion for the utter misery 
 written in her face, and led her to our bedroom. 
 
 " Poor child," she said, as she seated her, " I hope 
 you are a little better than you were last night. I spoke 
 with less tenderness to you then, than your suffering 
 called for. Forgive me. I would not be harsh, but 
 the dreadful consequences of your delusion appalled 
 and shocked me beyond expression, and I was power- 
 fully wrought upon, at the moment, by a sense of our 
 exposure, through it. I am not often so harsh, and I 
 shall feel happier if you tell me you do not cherish a 
 recollection of my ungraciousness." 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Bromfield," she replied, speaking with 
 great difficulty, "do not say so many kind words! 
 15 
 
338 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 They hurt me worse than the others! Oh, what 
 would my poor mother say ? Oh, what can I do ?" 
 
 " There is nothing you can do, child, to repair the 
 terrible wrong that has been done," said Eleanore ; " but 
 in the time to come, you can heal some of your own 
 wounds, by doing right. It is not so bad as if you had. 
 shared the fearful deed." 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! I never thought of it, though I was 
 dreadfully frightened when he came ; but I didn't know 
 that Mr. Gray had a dagger, and I never thought of 
 their hurting each other worse than with blows." 
 
 " But now," said Eleanore, " you see that he was 
 a bad man, who went prepared for the dangers he 
 might provoke." 
 
 She was silent for some moments, and at last fal- 
 tered : " But, Mrs. Bromfield, he didn't mean to do it. 
 He said so afterward, and I know he didn't." 
 
 " We will not talk now of what he meant," said 
 Eleanore, unwilling to hear her vindicate the mur- 
 derer. " We are making arrangements for you to go 
 to a quiet house, to stop till the trial is over at which, 
 you know, you will be required to give your testi- 
 mony." 
 
 " I don't want to," she said, choking, and looking 
 with such piteous, tearful eyes at us. " I can't." 
 
 " But you will have to," said Eleanore ; " and I am 
 afraid you may be put in prison if you say you can't to 
 other people. Be calm, now, for a few minutes, and 
 let me tell you how it is." 
 
 And then she went on to tell her all that per- 
 tained to the case, and her part in it, avoiding all 
 expression of opinion as to the probable results, but 
 assuring her that it was in every respect better she 
 should not shrink from what was demanded of her. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 339 
 
 " But his life, Mrs. Bromfield !" said the girl, with 
 ashy lips. " I wouldn't speak against his life for all 
 the world." 
 
 " Poor child !" said Eleanore, drawing near to her 
 and taking her hand ; " poor child ! Is it so, then, 
 that you love this wicked, dreadful man ? I pity you, 
 indeed. Do you not see that it can only be wretched- 
 ness and shame to you, and every one that cares for 
 you?" 
 
 " Nobody will care for me now," she replied, " and 
 if they did, I I could not go away from him." 
 
 Eleanore turned to me in despair. 
 
 " You should remember," I said, " that he has 
 killed your husband." 
 
 " I never loved him" she answered. I married 
 him because my father and sister Elsie wanted me to, 
 and I didn't know any better. I didn't want to come 
 here, and I wouldn't, if they hadn't made me." 
 
 Eleanore rose and walked away, deeply pained and 
 disheartened. I took her seat, and with all the elo- 
 quence of heart and tongue that I possessed, I expostu- 
 lated, entreated, and warned, but all in vain. Nothing 
 would shake her loyalty to this wretch ; and she de- 
 clared, at length, that if he were punished, she would 
 share his punishment. 
 
 Eleanore was walking up and down the floor as she 
 said this, and turning suddenly to her, she asked : " Do 
 you dream of the awful fate before you, if you adhere 
 to him? Have you any idea how cruel he can be 
 how he can shame and torture and trample on you, 
 by-and by ? Did you ever hear anybody describe a 
 devil ? and do you know that a fiend would be merci- 
 ful compared to what this man will be to you, when he 
 is ready to cease lying and deceiving you? Did you 
 
340 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 ever hear of hell ? and do you know that it cannot, at 
 the worst, exceed the torments you will suffer in the 
 life he will lead you to ? Imagine your good mother 
 here, speaking to you, Caroline, and do not answer us, 
 but think of what we have said. It is time you were 
 going now, to the house where you will have a home 
 for awhile. They are excellent persons, both Mr. and 
 Mrs. Marsden, and they have consented to take you be- 
 cause Miss Warren and I have entreated them to, that 
 you might have a quiet home, among good and virtuous 
 people, till the time comes when you can see more 
 clearly than you now do. I hope you will not trouble 
 or grieve Mrs. Marsden, who will be gentle with you 
 as a sister ; and when all is over, I trust you will con- 
 clude to go back to your father's home. If you do, 
 there will be money for you to' go with, and our kind 
 wishes will attend you. Antonio shall go up with you 
 you see, Anna, the signal and I shall be very glad 
 to hear that you are feeling and thinking better, after 
 a few days. Good-by now." 
 
 And we let her go reluctantly, feeling as if she were 
 possibly plunging away to ruin as she went. 
 
CHAPTEK XLII. 
 
 Eleanore and I breathed more freely as we watched 
 her walking up the street, and at last she said : " It is 
 an inestimable thing, is it not, to be so safely and hu- 
 manely freed of her poor child ! But I have little 
 hope of her future well-doing, Anna. Not that I think 
 her actually base or depraved now but her strong 
 affection for this wretched murderer and seducer will 
 carry her back to him, I fear, in spite of everything : in 
 which case, we know too well the bitter lot before her, 
 She will be degraded in her own esteem by that fatal 
 step ; upon this will shortly follow his scorn and brutal 
 abuse and, ah, what an existence will be hers then !" 
 
 " She seems to have been badly treated throughout, 
 if her story be true that she married to please her 
 father and sister, and came here to please them, too, 
 instead of following her own attractions. I think that 
 is one of the greatest and most universal wrongs which 
 woman suffers or does against herself, Eleanore that 
 trading in marriage giving her freedom and self-re- 
 spect for a support or a position, or feeling constrained 
 to allow herself to be united for life to a man who is 
 chosen for any reason but because, of all the world, he 
 comes nearest her heart. This poor child already, 
 young as she is, has been doomed, by that sin against 
 herself, to immeasurable horrors and suffering." 
 
 " She is one of thousands, nay, millions of our sex, 
 
34:2 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Anna, scattered over all the globe, against whom this 
 fearful wrong is daily perpetrated, in the names of 
 prosperity, happiness, and love. I tremble for woman- 
 hood when I think how constantly it is outweighed in 
 the balance against these poor, paltry shams and lies, 
 and, going blindly into the balance, comes out, after a 
 season, with eyes full open to its dreadful lot, strug- 
 gling in vain against the fetters that have been thrown 
 around it, and bleeding at every pore. It is fearful to 
 consider what burdens we assume in the blindness of 
 our ignorance, and have to bear through all our subse- 
 quent life, or to throw off with an effort greater, even, 
 than our endurance. Consider for a moment how so- 
 ciety treats a woman, who, knowing in her soul that 
 she is shamed and tortured in her marriage, seeks to 
 cast the yoke that becomes at last intolerable ; and 
 consider how men, high and low, from honorable 
 Seignors to such miscreants as this, do almost ever re- 
 gard one who takes such a position. Forgetting that 
 Nature speaks in her bosom, as well as their own for- 
 getting that a slavery which they would loathe them- 
 selves for submitting to, may be as galling to her 
 forgetting that her soul, too, must grow, if at all, in 
 freedom like theirs, how coolly and cruelly worldly men 
 and happy women can set down such to neglect and 
 coldness and scorn ! They have, in the judgment of 
 society, committed the unpardonable sin in asserting 
 their self-respect, and they become, in consequence, fair 
 targets for the sneers and the arrows of every heartless 
 or scoundrel marksman who chooses to entertain him- 
 self at their expense. 
 
 " But do not ask me to say what I feel toward men 
 who are capable of the baseness of deliberately casting 
 a woman out of the citadel of her social relations. ISTo 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 843 
 
 language which I could use would convey an idea of 
 the execration in which I hold such, and the monster 
 we call Society, when I see it smiling on them. If I 
 thought my son could ever grow to a manhood so base 
 as would let him deliberately set about winning a wo- 
 man's love, careless whether it might be shame or glory 
 to her, I could rejoice to see him buried a child. The 
 highwayman or burglar is noble in comparison with 
 such ! And yet there is no punishment or hindrance 
 for these men, if they stop short of murder. In other 
 countries than this the law would hang this creature 
 for stabbing a man, but would scarce lay its finger 
 upon him for the greater crime of destroying the poor 
 girl. In England, if he were rich, he would be made 
 to pay a price for the chattel he robbed the husband of, 
 but everywhere society, with very scanty excep- 
 tions, would open as wide its arms to him after, as 
 before the deed. Few fathers and mothers would 
 hesitate to invite him, for their sons to emulate and 
 their daughters to admire. 
 
 "It is the crying sin of our civilization this against 
 the love of woman. It hurls yearly into the dark ranks 
 of the irredeemable, hundreds, if not thousands, of the 
 best natures of our sex. Love is a woman's life and 
 nobleness. Humble intellects, penetrated and vivified 
 by a pure and self-respecting affection, are often the 
 most beautiful and harmonious spirits in the circles 
 where they belong. Women are called angels, and 
 there is a truth at the root of that hyperbole, as of all 
 others, for there is nothing nearer to our conception of 
 the angelic than a loving, tender-souled woman. To 
 draw her down to shame through this high attribute 
 of her nature, is a treachery so base and damnable, 
 that one continually wonders why the ages have not 
 
344 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 stamped it as the one ineffaceable infamy of a man's 
 life ! 
 
 " That is a question I have often considered," said I. 
 " Why is it true that all you say may be, and is contin- 
 ually done, in all the countries of Christendom, and of 
 the whole earth, for aught I know an enormous and 
 recognized sin without any human penalty attached 
 to it, or any that is worth so naming ?" 
 
 "Because," she said, "society proceeds upon two 
 opposite assumptions in regard to woman one, that 
 she is inferior to man, and the other, that she is supe- 
 rior to him. Both are true, too ; but the inferiority- 
 which is in the personal and lower life, and which will 
 ultimately constitute her highest appeal to his nobility 
 of soul has been, and, alas ! still is, the universal ap- 
 peal to his perverted and degrading selfishness ; while 
 the eminence that he concedes to her in love and the 
 whole affection al nature, is the theme of his poetry and 
 the unsuspecting minister to his baseness. 
 
 " I do believe, though, Anna, that this wrong has 
 had its day. I believe that women are receiving pre- 
 paration for a clearer and truer development, and that 
 shame will not henceforth be the fruit of their highest 
 life to so many thousands of women." 
 
 " I would hope so," was my slow response ; " but 
 I confess I see no very decisive indications of that good 
 time." 
 
 " Day does not dawn in a moment," she replied. " If 
 ever you have watched the eastern sky in the hour when 
 night was folding his dark pinions in the west, you have 
 rather accepted the approach of light as an un demon- 
 strated than a visible fact, so faint were its first ad- 
 vances. By-and-by came manifest gleams, shooting 
 hither and thither ; afterward palpable bars of illumiua- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 345 
 
 tion, which spread into a radiant whole at last, and the 
 day was inaugurated. Our horizon has as yet only 
 gleams of the coming time, but they are, I think, un- 
 mistakable, and whoever lives to see the twentieth cen- 
 tury ushered in, will, I believe, find our sex on a 
 vantage-ground of true freedom and self-sustaining de- 
 velopment, which will prove the first step in such a 
 social revolution as time has never yet seen. 
 
 " I feel a prophetic fire warming me, Anna, when 
 I think of the future of woman. I am so entirely con- 
 vinced of her superiority in the scale of being, and 
 that, with the gentleness, piety, and love, winch char- 
 acterize her more angelic nature, she is to lead in the 
 civilization of the coming ages, that iny hope of her 
 era is boundless." 
 
 " Do you, indeed, receive that extraordinary doc- 
 trine, Eleanore ? I should scarcely have suspected you 
 of it. To my judgment, it seems to belong to minds 
 of less reason and greater capacity of fanatical warmth 
 than I have attributed to you." 
 
 " That is because you misconceive the truth of it 
 and its relations. It rests upon irrefutable proofs, both 
 material and spiritual, which we have not time to con- 
 sider now, for they are linked in a beautiful chain, 
 which may be touched in every backward era, from 
 this day to the creation, and the truth itself, coming 
 to us, now is contradictory as it may appear to 
 superficial observation the chief element in solving 
 and harmonizing the mystery and discord of the past. 
 It enables me to understand, better than ever before, 
 the hard and bloody features of strife, revenge, and 
 violence, which have come out upon, and made appa- 
 rently hideous, the human career. The first ages of 
 Progress were necessarily material ; they were inevita- 
 15* 
 
346 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 bly man's man's, as distinguished from woman, I 
 mean : lie being the material worker the inventor, 
 the discoverer, and the warrior ; disposed in his na- 
 ture, and well able by his strong body to carry his 
 conquests into every kingdom where they were needed. 
 In all this our sex was undeniably secondary and in- 
 ferior ; and if human progress were to be an endless 
 succession of physical labors, inventions, discoveries, 
 and wars, we should be doomed to remain so. But 
 it is not ; and whenever, by man's work on those 
 planes, the race shall have reached a condition in 
 which higher and gentler and more divine dominations 
 are needed, these being woman's, she will come natu- 
 rally and harmoniously to exercise them. And they 
 will be more catholic and potent than man's have been, 
 in so far as spirit is more diffused than matter, and 
 love more irresistible than war." 
 
 " You do not claim, then, that women are superior 
 logicians or more powerful reasoners than men ?" 
 
 " No ; but reason is not the most divine attribute 
 of humanity, nor is logical power its most godlike de- 
 velopment. Neither of these was the distinguishing 
 trait of the divine Nazarene. Nor do I mean that they 
 are superior in the executive capacities ; nor merely in 
 the intuitions, which men, however jealous of their 
 sovereignty, universally concede to us; but I mean 
 greater elevation in the scale of being higher offices, 
 and relations of greater power to the life which flows 
 from and surrounds our own." 
 
 " Something an inference, if not a conclusion in 
 favor of your argument," said I, " it seems to me, 
 might be drawn from the state of things we see here 
 the swift and fearful degeneracy of these men, sepa- 
 rated from the conservative and refining influence of 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 347 
 
 " Yes," she replied, quickly, " for no one believes 
 that women of the same rank would fall thus, under 
 like circumstances. Did it ever occur to you, Anna, 
 that we praise a strong, rugged man, when we say 
 earnestly and feelingly of him, that he is like a woman, 
 or is womanly in his nature ? We express, by the words, 
 a noble manhood, with a woman's tenderness or love 
 or endurance added thereto ; but when it is said of a 
 woman that she is manly, or like a man, how one's 
 heart recoils ! This, I think, is because we feel delight 
 in seeing the higher embodied in the lower: but it 
 pains us to see that the truest verdict we can pro- 
 nounce upon the higher, is, that it is like the lower." 
 
 " Yet, Eleanore," said I, a little startled by what 
 her statements would lead to, " there certainly are very 
 few women who are, in elevation of life, in earnestness, 
 and in the expression, either by deeds or words of the 
 loftier sentiments, comparable to great numbers of 
 men. You must acknowledge that, I am sure." 
 
 " Yes, with pain and grief; but it does not hurt my 
 argument, because woman has not been acknowledged 
 or proved in the position I claim for her. She has 
 been always the slave of man more or less ab- 
 ject, according to his condition, but ever the slave ; 
 permitted this liberty and denied the other ; educated 
 by his prejudices warped and belittled by his igno- 
 rance : not criminally or cruelly on his part, but in- 
 evitably, because of his ignorance and darkness he 
 the active and she the passive agent of her own feeble- 
 ness and degradation." 
 
 " And what," I asked, " is to make their relation 
 different, now ?" 
 
 " The light that has come into the world, Anna," 
 replied my friend, " and that which is coming. We 
 
348 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 have heretofore bowed to man's sovereignty because 
 physical power has been the proof of superiority, and 
 he has had the bone and muscle to assert and defend 
 this for himself; while we have scarcely inquired 
 whether it was the highest evidence of his claim, or 
 whether the progress for which we hope could be the 
 fruit of such rule so maintained. Man, first, laying 
 the material substrata of life woman, last, uprearing 
 on these solid foundations of reason, science, and sys- 
 tem, the beautiful ideals where truth and love shall 
 dwell in religious harmony with us." 
 
 " Your ideas would meet with little welcome," 
 said I, " in the world of men, or of women, either, I 
 fear." 
 
 " But that would be no proof of their unsoundness, 
 Miss "Warren. There will be a certain displeasure to- 
 ward them at first, I have no doubt, because a prepos- 
 terous notion is entertained, since this question has 
 arisen, that, whichever sex shall prevail in the war, the 
 other must be humiliated by its victory. We have 
 been wronged and injured by the supremacy of man, 
 and he naturally distrusts us. He has not learned that 
 they who are superior in truth, in love, and in real 
 elevation, cannot enslave inferiors ; as a man's best 
 powers cannot enslave his baser appetites. But setting 
 all minor considerations aside, see how much more the 
 female principle is to all life, than the male. The re- 
 lation and power of the one is momentary and undig- 
 nified by any lofty sense of use and patient service to 
 the coming being. Throughout the organic world, re- 
 production, which is the highest function of life, is the 
 paramount law and service of the maternal principle. 
 Beauty, which is the highest material expression of 
 life, is generally its concomitant ; and organic nurture 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 349 
 
 and development, which stand next to God's power in 
 creating, are its chief employment and grandest hap- 
 piness. The mother-bee produces all the innumerable 
 young, and the drones perish when their very tempo- 
 rary office has been filled. The mother-bird rejoices 
 through her long incubation in the happiness which is 
 to come ; and if her mate sings a sweeter song than 
 she does, is it not that, by that lower performance, he 
 may cheer and lighten her sacred one ?" 
 
 " That is quite a new, and not flattering view," said 
 I, laughing, " of Cock Robin and Bob-o link's sweet 
 gifts." 
 
 " But it is a true one, Anna, I am sure," answered 
 iny friend, with undisturbed seriousness. " The highest 
 instinct of all unprogressive life, it seems to me, is to 
 preserve to itself the perfection which God has given 
 it. The loftiest purpose that progressive life can enter- 
 tain, lies beyond this : and both are intrusted to the 
 mother. The father comes nearest to her power, and 
 most entirely seconds it, when, by careful tendance 
 upon her, he sustains in all her life, interior and exte- 
 rior, the fullest vigor and most harmonious play ; when 
 he gives her conditions of health, freedom, and self- 
 respect; surrounds her with the beautiful, the pure, 
 and the noble ; and, by his superior strength and intel- 
 lect, commands the world for this creating mother, of 
 whom he is the care-taker. Thus his position is 
 secondary and ministrant to hers, which comes first 
 after God's. I believe in this superiority of my sex, 
 Anna, everywhere, from the highest to the lowest. 
 Do not you ?" 
 
 " Certainly, dear Eleanore. It cannot, I think, be 
 disputed ; but it is not often that one gets back of the 
 conventionalities and errors of the ages, to take a clear 
 
350 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 view from Nature's standpoint. In all the vexed and 
 stinging discussion one hears and participates in. we 
 are too apt to stop at our own door, or not to look be- 
 yond our grandmother's usages, into the past. It 
 seems to me that no man or woman would reject this 
 interpretation of God's purposes in regard to the sexes. 
 It is too evidently true." 
 
 " Yet, dear, there is no practical adoption of it any- 
 where. If there were, all the freedom that their na- 
 ture could use, would be at once accorded by all rational 
 men, to women. They would not fear to remove re- 
 strictive laws from their statute-books ; on the contrary, 
 they would become sensible of the wrong of ever hav- 
 ing placed them there, and they would hasten to re- 
 pair, by their just recognition of it, the injuries which the 
 sex and society have both sustained in the ages that 
 are past. The proudest achievements of man, in art, 
 in statesmanship, in science, in discovery, in invention 
 in all that proclaims his civilization can minister to 
 no higher purpose in this life, surely, than this one 
 of developing and elevating woman to true and right 
 conditions for maternity. The noblest woman, in all 
 senses, is the best mother ; as the noblest man is the 
 best father, and the universe contains no legacy equal 
 to that which such parents give to their children." 
 " But all women are not mothers, Eleanore." 
 " I know and lament that, dear friend ; but the fact 
 makes no weight against the argument. It strengthens 
 it, rather for the woman to whom the power and joy 
 of motherhood are denied, is, if possible, the more 
 entitled thereby to all else that life can give her. Its 
 richest riches, exclusive of this, can only mitigate that 
 unfortunate lot. Is it not so, dear ? Would any ad- 
 vantage which you could reap in strife with the world 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 351 
 
 any fortune, power, or distinction, still the demands of 
 you heart ? Dear Anna, I know how large a woman- 
 soul there is pent up in this slender form, and I know 
 how bitterly it suffers in this perpetual denial of its 
 strongest instinct. But you do not the less demand all 
 that I could enjoy or appropriate nobly in the exercise 
 of motherhood. Because one calamity has fallen on 
 you, I would not condemn you to all others to a 
 withered, narrow life, cut off from the sympathies, 
 uses, and respects, to which all pure life is entitled. 
 You call yourself an ' old maid ;' but if women enjoyed 
 the freedom and recognition I ask for them, there 
 would be none or few such ; and they, if good, would 
 be objects of strong sympathy and earnest respect, in- 
 stead of such feelings as are commonly entertained to- 
 ward them. 
 
 " But I have talked you to tears, and we will say 
 no more to-day on these subjects." 
 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 That day completed our second month, and Elea- 
 nore, in the evening, told me she was unwilling to 
 commence on another, if we could see any quieter way 
 of earning a livelihood. " I have been watching the 
 papers lately, Anna," said she, "for anything that 
 might offer a better position to us ; and though I have 
 not found it for both, I have faith to believe that it may 
 come by-and-by." 
 
 " For both !" I said ; " have you, then, seen some- 
 thing that would do for yourself?" 
 
 " No, dear, but for you, in to-day's Alta. Here it 
 is, and if you think of it, you had better answer to- 
 morrow morning." 
 
 It was an advertisement for a teacher in Stockton. 
 Applicants would get further information by applying 
 at that office. 
 
 " And if I should go," said I, " what would 
 you do?" 
 
 " I would get a situation as governess, if I could 
 perhaps in some Spanish family." Her eyes filled as 
 she spoke, but she brushed the tears indignantly away, 
 and said : " I am not so weak as this makes me seem, 
 but I cannot think of our separating, dear friend, with- 
 out pain, and almost dismay." 
 
 " Nor I ; and we will not. Something will come, 
 if we are only a little patient. Let us remain where 
 we are yet a few days, and be watchful." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 353 
 
 " I told young Peters," said Eleanore, " this morn- 
 ing, that I did not think we should, either of us, wish 
 to stay longer than till they could supply our places. 
 You know we felt alike about it yesterday evening, 
 Anna." 
 
 " Yes, and I feel so still ; but I am loth to look for 
 an employment that will separate us at once, and leave 
 you idle. I almost feel you could not do so well with- 
 out me." 
 
 "And you are right, my dear, good sister ; I could 
 not ; but I must not hinder your prosperity. Go in 
 the morning, and see what you can learn about this 
 place. Perhaps you could engage it, and yet have a 
 week or a fortnight here ; in which case, we could re- 
 main a little longer without inconvenience. If it 
 is a situation where you can be well paid for the labor 
 you ought to be doing, instead of this drudgery, I 
 could not be content to have you lose it for my sake." 
 
 So it was agreed, with a good many sad words, that 
 we should, the next day, begin to take steps looking 
 toward a separation- of our ways. 
 
 In the morning, Mr. John Harding came to settle 
 his account, and have some further conversation re- 
 specting Caroline. Eleanore told him that she had 
 gone to the Marsdens, who would be prudent and kind 
 in their dealing with her, and that she hoped a few 
 weeks' quiet, under the pure and friendly influence of 
 Mrs. Marsden, would restore her to her right mind, 
 and prepare her to return to her friends at home. 
 
 He was of the opposite opinion, however, but made 
 no warm argument about it. 
 
 Eleanore requested him to deposit the money he 
 had promised for her service, to the account of Mr. 
 Marsden, or some other person whom he might prefer, 
 
354: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 as there was a probability she and I might both be 
 elsewhere before it would be drawn. 
 
 " Are you going away, then ?" he asked. 
 
 " We do not expect to remain here much longer," 
 was her reply. 
 
 " Going to the country ?" 
 
 " Perhaps so. We are not fully decided yet. In 
 any case, it might be a serious inconvenience to either 
 of us to feel any further responsibility in this matter. 
 All that we can do in a friendly way for the poor girl, 
 we will ; but the business part can be better attended 
 to by some one who is settled here. I hope you will 
 not abandon the good you purposed toward her," said 
 Eleanore, seeing his countenance change, " in conse- 
 quence of this necessity." 
 
 " JSTo ; I promised yon she should have the money, 
 and so she shall to go home with, if she wants to. 
 But she won't do it ; you will see that she won't." 
 
 " That is possible," said Eleanore ; " but you will 
 always have the satisfaction of reflecting that, so far, 
 you acted right." 
 
 " So far !" he echoed. " Isn't that enough ? What 
 else could I do ?" 
 
 " You could see her, Mr. Harding, and by a little 
 gentleness of speech and manner, mitigate the pain and 
 horror under which she now labors. You, more than 
 any one here, could make her feel that she is not for- 
 ever separated from all hope in those who have hither- 
 to made her world. You could make her respect your 
 nobleness, and lead her to think of some other refuge 
 than among the guilty and outcast, to whom, I fear, 
 her weakness now inclines her." 
 
 He heard her with silent amazement. "Really, 
 ma'am," he said, after a pause, when she had ceased 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 355 
 
 speaking, " you surprise me. I should not have ex- 
 pected anybody to speak so to me about her. She 
 ought, I think, to ask my forgiveness." 
 
 " She hasn't the courage," said Eleanore, quickly. 
 " She is a child, overwhelmed and crushed by horrors 
 she never before dreamed of, but which, if she is not 
 very tenderly cared for, she may grow familiar with in 
 the years to come. If you will permit me to advise 
 you a little, sir, 1 would urge you to go to her and 
 make her feel, that, though she has done very wrong, 
 she is not a monster, and that return to the path she 
 has left is yet possible. You should remember, Mr. 
 Harding, that the great guilt here is a man's ; I mean 
 the first guilt not that alone which struck the mur- 
 derous blow and that this young creature was thrown, 
 by the injndiciousness of your brother and her friends, 
 unguarded, into his power. If I could be utterly un- 
 relenting toward any human being, it would be such 
 a monster as he is, but not his victim." 
 
 Mr. Harding rose, and took a turn across the office. 
 Then he stopped at the window, with his hands in his 
 pockets, and looked out. At last he turned, and walk- 
 ing up to the desk, where Eleanore was engaged in 
 making up the accounts, that should have been finished 
 on Saturday evening, said, with his face slightly flushed 
 and confused : " I will go, Mrs. Bromfield, because you 
 make me feel that I must. Nobody else could, though. 
 Where is the house she has gone to ?" 
 
 She gave him the direction, and said : " Inquire, 
 when you get in the neighborhood, for Mr. Marsden's 
 house. Anybody there will show it you. And, pray, 
 say some kind word to Caroline for me." 
 
 "And tell her," I added, "that, if it is possible, I 
 will come up and see her to-day or to-morrow." 
 
356 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 u There," said Eleanore, after he was gone, " that 
 is something gained for him, if it does not save her 
 of which, I think, there may yet be a hope. She 
 naturally thinks of this miscreant, should he escape, as 
 her only refuge and protection. This visit may draw 
 her thoughts in another direction, and, with the helps 
 she will otherwise get, may lead her to see the future 
 more truly than she does now, and to appreciate more 
 correctly her relation to persons. Now, dear Anna, I 
 must send you off, for you must not fail to see what 
 they want in Stockton and get a little time to stay 
 with me, if you can. Mr. Peters will be here by noon, 
 his brother thinks. I shall speak to him at once, and 
 then I shall feel free to go also, in search of other em- 
 ployment." 
 
 By a rare coincidence, I met at the office of the 
 newspaper the person who had inserted the advertise- 
 ment. We had a talk, which seemed quite satisfactory 
 to him, and was entirely so to me, and I engaged to 
 commence my school a fortnight from that day. I would 
 not say less, though he urged it, because I would not 
 risk the necessity of leaving Eleanore, until there had 
 been time to look about for her settlement. As it was, 
 I returned very heavy-hearted, thinking of her, and 
 not at all of myself. She was very much pleased when 
 I told her what I had done, and we began at once to 
 make the most of the time that was left us, by can- 
 vassing the possibilities of the future and reviewing the 
 past. 
 
 When Mr. Harding came in the afternoon to take 
 his leave, he expressed a great deal of interest in both 
 of us, with thanks for our kindness especially Elea- 
 nore's in having shown him what he ought to do. His 
 visit to Caroline had made him a happier man. She was 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 357 
 
 very grateful for it, and Mr. Marsden had promised to 
 write him sometimes how she went on, till the trial, 
 when he should be in the city himself, and hope to see 
 us again. He parted from Eleanore very reluctantly, 
 and lingered till the last moment for reaching the 
 wharf, in hope, as I saw, of an opportunity to speak 
 to her alone. But her eye kept me there. She 
 did not look at me once in a noticeable way, but I 
 could not go out of the room till he was gone. 
 
 " There is a good deal of latent nobility in that 
 soul," said Eleanore ; " pity some congenial and more 
 developed one should not cultivate and educe it." 
 
 " Yes," I replied, " and I think he would be quite 
 willing to put himself in certain hands, that would do 
 it efficiently." 
 
 " May be," she said, " but do not speak of it. I am 
 weary of such experiences here, and of the thoughts 
 they bring to me. They make common the most 
 sacred things of life." 
 
CHAPTEK XLIY. 
 
 Time went on, and the first week of my grace was 
 gone, but not so were we. It was difficult, Mr. Peters 
 said, to find women whom he could trust to manage 
 everything as we had, and almost every night there 
 was a petition for us to remain ; or, if I must go, then 
 for Eleanore to stop, and have a servant- woman, of her 
 own choosing, or a boy or man black or white 
 Kanaka or Chinaman anything that would answer 
 best or please her, only if she would stay and manage 
 and take care of the house. At last the urgency so far 
 prevailed, that she consented, if he could not supply 
 her place, to remain till the end of the third month, 
 having with her the woman whom we had occasionally 
 employed. And so, on Friday of the second week, I 
 left her, to go to my future home. Thus I lost much 
 of her daily experience. 
 
 But I have her letters, written at intervals of a few 
 days or hours, according to the necessities of her soul, 
 narrating events, or breathing her beautiful fancies, 
 or rising in fearless affirmation : the moment's mood 
 being as faithfully reflected in them, as in her varying 
 face it always was. There were greater extremes in 
 her nature than I ever knew in any other. She was 
 frank to a daring degree ; habitually and constantly 
 so, except in the great inmost experiences of joy and 
 suffering ; and these, when she willed it, could be 
 buried so deep within, that those of her household 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 359 
 
 would never conceive their presence ; and even I found 
 myself often forgetting them. She was courageous, as 
 you have seen ; when need and occasion were, as un- 
 flinching in thought and nerve as the hardiest man. 
 Unfaltering and fearless, she pressed impetuously for- 
 ward to her object ; yet laid her hand as gently upon 
 it, when she reached it, as the most delicate and sensi- 
 tive girl. Her heart was a full fountain of the tender- 
 est and most ecstatic love, yet with the firmness and 
 apparent coldness of the least womanly woman, she 
 pressed down and sealed it within her own bosom. 
 Shallow people thought her hard and cold, when the 
 inward fire of that life, smothered and checked by the 
 strong will, would have blinded and scorched their 
 weak souls, had it been permitted to blaze forth. Her 
 letters seemed to make me even better acquainted with 
 her than I had been. They showed me no new phase 
 of the character I had seen so fully and variously 
 proved, but they defined it more sharply ; they indi- 
 vidualized more perfectly the admirable harmonies and 
 contrasts which made her the rarest woman I have ever 
 known. 
 
 I had left her but a few days less than two weeks, 
 I think when the ever-dreaded calamity of that 
 anomalous city, fire, descended upon them one night, 
 and swept the house and most of its contents to de- 
 struction. Her loss was heavy, consisting not only of 
 the best part of her wardrobe, but of all the precious 
 mementoes she had preserved of little Harry. 
 
 " I am deeply grieved, Anna," she says, in this let- 
 ter, " for their loss. It seems a wrong to the dear 
 child not to have thought first of what remained to 
 prove his short life to us ; but I was terrified for Phil 
 and myself, for you can have no idea of the fearful 
 
360 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 rapidity of this destruction. The fire broke out two 
 buildings from us, in the grocery, you know, below the 
 restaurant, and although I was on my feet almost with 
 the first stroke of the monumental bell, I could only, 
 by its light, huddle some clothing on, and drag the 
 small trunk, which stood nearest the door, down stairs, 
 before the flames were shooting out of our upper win- 
 dows. I left Phil for one moment, and ran back to 
 the office, through the smoke and flying sparks, to get 
 the money and a bundle of papers which Mr. Peters 
 had left there the night before. But the corner of our 
 bedroom was already on fire, and I could not attempt 
 to move the heavy trunk. I had to fly down the stairs 
 myself, to escape being buried. Of course I took refuge 
 at the Marsdens', where I am now staying. Mrs. Hard- 
 ing also remains here, quiet and benumbed, it seems to 
 me, but ever, I fear, leaning toward that accursed life 
 that has blasted hers." 
 
 The next week came another letter, saying that Mr. 
 Marsden had heard of a private teacher or governess 
 being wanted in Sacramento, and she was to see the 
 party next day. They met, but the dreadful vulgarity 
 and ignorance of the man forbade all further thought 
 of that. " I could never think of occupying a subordi- 
 nate position," said Eleanore, " under such a head, and 
 I fear, dear Anna, that this difficulty will meet me 
 everywhere here ; there are so few refined families yet 
 in the country so very few who are settled and ready 
 to employ a governess. I never occupied such a posi- 
 tion, and I do not know how I could suit my spirit to 
 its burdens, under the best circumstances, but I should 
 be very glad to try, with reasonable chances of success. 
 Captain Dahlgren was right when he said that there 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 361 
 
 were few cultivated or accomplished women wanted 
 here. I feel very much saddened and depressed at the 
 prospect before me. The ' outlook,' as Carlyle says, 
 is so short and dim and confused. And while I am 
 waiting, I find myself remembering the good Swede's 
 oifer to us, and turning frequently to those older com- 
 munities in South American cities. What would you 
 say, were you to hear some day that I had gone to 
 Chili or Peru? They are not so very far off, you 
 know, and the social order in which women like us 
 can best live and move, prevails there as it will not 
 here in many years. 
 
 " Do you hear of Col. Anderson lately ? Mr. 
 Marsden told me he forwarded a letter to you the 
 other day ; but, like any other man, he did not observe 
 the post-mark. I would hope that it was from him, 
 except that there has been time enough for you to 
 have returned an inclosure to me, and none has come. 
 Did you receive a letter from him, and none for me ? 
 Tell me, and what he said. I am so very lonely and 
 friendless without you. Friendless in the near sense, 
 I mean, for good Mrs. Marsden knows nothing of the 
 past, and so we cannot be confidential. 
 
 " Gray's trial is coming on next week, and our poor 
 Mrs. Harding is almost beside herself thoroughly 
 roused from her stupor, and asking the one question 
 that concerns her, by every glance of her eye and every 
 change of position, when one enters the house or a foot- 
 step is heard. 
 
 " John Harding wrote, two or three days after the 
 fire, to repair the loss of my house by offering one with 
 him. The letter was not well-spelled, neither was it 
 faultless in style, but it was very manly and sincere, 
 
 16 
 
362 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 and I wish it had been addressed to somebody whose 
 heart it would have gladdened, as it might have a 
 great many." 
 
 Before this letter came, I had sent her a note from 
 Col. Anderson, and when her next reached me, it 
 breathed the breath of rest and contentment in its first 
 lines : 
 
 " Thanks, dear Anna, for yours, with what it con- 
 tained. The Kohinoor would have paled before it. 
 This will not hold much longer. He will bring me to 
 confession by his own generosity, for one cannot resist 
 that. Did he speak to you of going to phili ? He 
 expresses some such purpose to me, and I wish to know 
 whether or not you have possibly led him to it, by an 
 intimation of my looking in that direction. I cannot 
 conclude from his note, though it has been near my 
 heart ever since I received it ; and I ought, therefore, to 
 be informed of the spirit in which every word was writ- 
 ten. Write, and answer me this question. I shall 
 decide on something in a few days." 
 
 I had conveyed no hint to Col. Anderson that she 
 thought of South America, and I said so. 
 
 "Then," she replied, "you have cemented anew the 
 bond of trust between us, though it needed not that 
 service. I shall go to Chili next month, and my only 
 wish now, is, that you could leave your position and go 
 with me. I have met in the last three days a lady who 
 has resided four years in Valparaiso, and she assures 
 me that we should have no difficulty in employing 
 ourselves there as governesses or teachers. But I ought 
 to tell you that the compensation would but little ex- 
 ceed half that you receive here. 
 
 " You have scarcely told me yet, dear Anna, how 
 you find yourself what is your school, and how and 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 363 
 
 where do you live ? Have you any Eleanore to worry 
 or help you ? I sometimes fear I may kave done more 
 of the former than of the latter. But tell me for I 
 wish to know before I leave the land which contains 
 you that you are not going to be left socially destitute 
 by my departure." 
 
 I certainly had no one to replace her. I was too 
 wise to look for or expect that ; but I was able to de- 
 scribe myself as living very comfortably in a private 
 family of New York people a father, mother, and two 
 young daughters, who were among my pupils and my 
 school as large, and made up chiefly of bright and in- 
 teresting, though often rude and ill-bred children. 
 " On the whole," I said, " as good a position and as 
 comfortable as I ought to expect, I suppose ; and if I 
 had never known you, I dare say I should be diligently 
 compressing myself into it, in the full conviction that 
 I ought to be content, and even thankful for it. But 
 you have taken that religion away from me. I aspire 
 to something better, and I long for communion with 
 you, who have led me to it. I rest sometimes in the 
 good progress of my pupils and in my hopes for them ; 
 but even then I lack somebody to appreciate and sus- 
 tain me by the courage and life I have hitherto received 
 from you. Dear Eleanore, since I have been here, I 
 more than ever admire Col. Anderson's firmness. 
 Would it flatter you if I should say that sometimes, on 
 a Friday evening, I am so tempted to take the boat 
 and go down, that I have a painful struggle to keep 
 myself here ? A few hours, I fancy, would so refresh 
 and help me. I have never known a person who had 
 so much of that power, or felt so clearly in any soul its 
 spontaneous flow. Tell me when you are going, for I 
 must see you once, at least." 
 
364: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 In a few days came a letter, saying she had taken 
 passage in a vessel which was expected to sail the next 
 week, and they should expect me on Friday night. 
 u Mr. Marsden will meet you at the boat, on its land- 
 ing," she said, " that not an hour of our precious time 
 may he lost." 
 
 I had already learned by the papers that Gray had 
 escaped punishment, by the disagreement of the jury, 
 but had been obliged to leave the city by Mr. John 
 Harding, who gave him warning, in the court-room, on 
 the rendering, that, whenever he should meet him in 
 the town after that hour the next day, he would take 
 his life if he could ; and as he was sustained by a strong 
 party of friends, the miscreant had been prudent enough 
 to flee for the time. From Eleanore I had learned that 
 Mrs. Harding, so deserted, had wilted down into a state 
 of passive, helpless submission to whatever was re- 
 quired of her ; and so they had sent her home by the 
 steamer, two or three days after the trial was over a 
 more fortunate termination of her stay than any of us 
 hoped for, till it came. 
 
CHAPTEK XLY. 
 
 The rainy season was now at hand, which would be 
 a new experience to us summer emigrants, not a drop 
 having yet fallen in the four long months we had been 
 in the country. There were occasional!}' cloudy even- 
 ings and nights, and Eleanore often referred to the 
 pleasure she and Phil had in afternoon walks, now that 
 the winds had abated. 
 
 " We go upon the hills," she said, " or, when he is 
 tired, I go alone and look at the sunset over the ocean, 
 and think, with a heart-ache, of that solitary island 
 where the afternoon shadows are lengthening on the 
 sands, and where one falls that my eye will never more 
 measure. I know, dear Anna, that he is not there. 
 I see and feel him in a world of light and growth, 
 where all is living power, beauty, expansion, and pro- 
 gress ; where low conditions do not imprison, and dark- 
 ness does not hinder or becloud his radiant soul. I feel 
 that my child is there. I think of him in these rela- 
 tions, and am conscious that he is not lost to me in that 
 grave ; and yet I cling to the memory of it, because it 
 is the one spot on earth that is identified with that be- 
 loved form. Harry whom my soul loves, and will rejoice 
 in when we meet face to face again, is not there ; but 
 Harry whom these arms have cherished, whom these lips 
 have kissed, and this heart of flesh delighted itself in, is 
 yet there ; and so I yearn toward it painfully, as I should 
 
366 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 irresistibly toward the dear form, were it now here 
 before me. I have suffered more from painful memo- 
 ries of that period in this idle fortnight, than in all the 
 time we were together. I miss you sorely, and some- 
 times feel afraid to trust myself away in a foreign 
 country without you, knowing that I shall not readily 
 find one to fill your place in my trust and affection. 
 And it is so necessary, dear, for me to be fully under- 
 stood by some one, when I am otherwise surrounded 
 by strangers." 
 
 I fully appreciated this necessity, for I had so often 
 been compelled to interpret her to others, that 
 I had come to regard myself as, in certain sort, 
 necessary to her. And this feeling increased, on my 
 part, the pain of our separation. I found myself often 
 saying, mentally, in my unoccupied moments now 
 Eleanore is, perhaps, doing or saying something that I 
 ought to be tljere to explain, by looks if not in words ; 
 people are so likely to mistake her in some way. It 
 troubled me not a little, and made me often think seri- 
 ously of forming some plan by which we could be 
 together again ; but this removal to Chili seemed to put 
 an end to all hope of that. Beside, I said, she will soon 
 have one there, who, when he has come near her heart, 
 will take her from me wholly ; and should I not then 
 fall to the ground, overlooked and forgotten by both, 
 in their great and sufficient happiness ? No, I said, 
 sharply reproving in my heart these yearnings to re- 
 join myself to that high soul no, you are to go on 
 alone. The barrenness of life is to you henceforth 
 not its bloom in the sunshine of such affection as hers. 
 She has insight where you are dull ; she is strong where 
 you are weak ; she is large-souled, and still expanding, 
 where you, in your solitariness, are narrow, and daily 
 narrowing to your little life and its little future. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 367 
 
 I was packing my traveling-satchel for my last visit 
 to her, while I thns lamented and doomed myself. 
 There was bitterness in my heart I will not deny it 
 while these thoughts were cutting like a two-edged 
 blade through its hopes and complacencies. "Why 
 should she be so much happier than I ? I could not 
 see where I had ever lived unworthily. My life had 
 not been idle. It had not been a selfish one. I had 
 cared for and aided others, all the way through it, to 
 the limit of my ability, and sometimes beyond. I had 
 not separated myself from the happiness and suffering 
 of those who had moved beside me through the 
 years of womanhood. I had dealt justly, and in all 
 things preserved my self-respect. I had reverenced 
 God and loved humanity. I had been in the main 
 faithful to my highest religious convictions. Why, 
 then, was I here, in the dark valley, and she there, far 
 toward the summit of the mountain of happiness, 
 bathed in its warm light and breathing its odorous airs, 
 with health in her soul and joy in every motion ? It 
 could only happen so to us, I said, rebelliously, through 
 the unequal distribution of life's first gifts the powers 
 with which we enter the fair garden that invites our 
 young feet, where some find, as she has, endless paths 
 of beauty before them, and others, as myself, only grim, 
 desolate walks of toil and pain. 
 
 My soul was darkened in that hour. I exaggerated 
 both sides of my picture. I dipped the brush of my 
 memory in black, and dashed it rudely, again and 
 again, across that beautiful golden light in my past, 
 where the image of Herbert appeared and reap- 
 peared, smiling upon me. I obstinately turned away 
 from the bright recollections of my cherished and 
 revered mother ; and would not, in that moment, suf- 
 fer any slender streamlet of happiness to flow into my 
 
368 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 soul from the thought of my noble, loving father, 
 though he had treasured my peace, ever after Her- 
 bert's death, as tenderly as a mother treasures her young 
 child. I would not see the blessings that had come to 
 me, because here, on the other side, was a life so much 
 richer and larger than mine; filled yet to the brim 
 with strong and active purposes of growth ; with broad 
 and keen interest in the ideas and systems by which 
 men and women are to ascend to higher planes of be- 
 ing ; with ecstatic motherhood ; and crowned, above 
 all this wealth and brightness, with worshiping love 
 the supreme gift and the divinest joy of all. I could 
 not balance these accounts, and I went on my way 
 pitying myself, with something akin to contempt, and 
 thinking of her in a spirit that I am ashamed to say 
 was nearer to accusation than forgiveness. 
 
 The journey down the San Joaquin is, at best, not 
 an interesting one ; and, in my state of mind, it had 
 no power to charm or draw me away from myself. 
 The shrunken stream, flowing between banks of a 
 dead level ; mountains in the distance, covered with 
 the sere harvest of indigenous oat ; the plains or 
 marshes, then dry, making their way occasionally to the 
 river's edge, and all the near country shut out from view 
 by the sunken position of the boat, crawling along in the 
 bottom of the shallow chasm which contained the cur- 
 rent these were the features that chiefly impressed me 
 during the short period of daylight that remained to us 
 after we left Stockton. 
 
 At dark I went into the cabin, the air feeling damp 
 and the clouds threatening rain which came palpably 
 down before we reached the bay, and was still falling 
 when the boat came up to the wharf. Mr. Marsden 
 stepped on board as soon as the plank was thrown out. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 369 
 
 " I have brought you," said he, after our greetings 
 were over, " india-rubbers and a large shawl. My 
 wife and Mrs. Bromfield thought you might come with- 
 out them : and also an umbrella. But it is very dark, 
 and as I know every step, and you do not, over the 
 rough way, perhaps you had better take my arm, and 
 come under this one." 
 
 I felt wearied, from my emotions as well as loss of 
 rest, and for once was disposed, if it were not too costly, 
 to drive up the hill. 
 
 " What will they charge to take us to your house ?" 
 I asked. " It seems an ugly walk in the darkness and 
 rain." 
 
 " More, I think, than you will be willing to pay. 
 I will inquire, however " and presently he returned 
 with a hackman, who said he would take me for twenty 
 dollars, and both of us for twenty-five. 
 
 " Almost a week's wages !" I said, to Mr. Marsden. 
 " No, I can't indulge myself at that price yet. We 
 will walk." 
 
 And I seemed to recover strength and animation 
 with every step that brought me nearer to her, while 
 Mr. Marsden was quietly letting fall some enthusiastic 
 words of praise. 
 
 " My wife and I," he said, " are just beginning to 
 feel wljat your friend is. We are plain sort of people, 
 and do not understand her as well as if we were more 
 like her, but we have both come to the conclusion that 
 she is a woman of a thousand, and will be a real loss 
 to us." 
 
 When I stepped within his door, I found myself 
 clasped in Eleanore's arms, with tears and kisses falling 
 on my face. 
 
 It was far past midnight, and Mr. and Mrs. Mars 
 16* 
 
370 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 den soon retired, enjoining upon us, with friendly 
 earnestness, as they went, to seek rest also. 
 
 "We will rest here, my own dear Anna," said 
 Eleanore, when we were alone, drawing my weary 
 head to her shoulder, and looking into my face. 
 " There is more sadness than pleasure in these eyes," 
 she added. " What is it ? Tell me." 
 
 " Are you not going away ?" I replied ; " and is not 
 this, in all probability, the last time we shall ever meet ? 
 Ought I to feel glad, even though I am here with you 
 once more ?" 
 
 Her eyes suffused while I was speaking. " I do not 
 believe," she said, " it is our last communion together, 
 Anna, though I do not see when or how the next is to 
 happen. But we seem to belong to each other, dear. 
 I almost think I did not feel your worth to me till we 
 were parted, for I look in vain since for any other heart to 
 answer mine, as this good, noble one has, so often and 
 so faithfully." 
 
 " Oh, Eleanore," I said, " do not accuse me by a 
 too generous estimate of my poor nature. Do you know 
 it is capable of bitterness, and something so near to 
 envy, that I feel reproached by your tenderness and 
 warmth of heart ?" 
 
 She looked at me in surprise, and then an incredu- 
 lous half-smile stole over her wondering features. 
 
 " It is true," I said, " and envy of you, dear 'friend, 
 too. Do not stop me " seeing her about to speak 
 " till I~have laid my wickedness all before you, and 
 then I will hear your good words." 
 
 And I told her all I have already told you, but 
 more fully, feeling myself drawn on to utter frankness 
 and self- cleansing, by the kindly and trusting light that 
 shone down on me from her matchless face. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 371 
 
 When I had done, we were both silent. I was look- 
 ing at the handful of coals and dying brands that lay 
 before us on the hearth, and I waited for her voice so 
 long, without hearing it, that I at last looked up, to see % 
 tears falling slowly from her eyes, in which I felt the 
 light of happiness as much as the gloom of pain. 
 
 " Eleanore," I said, " do not weep for me. I am 
 scarcely worthy of tears that flow so rarely as yours do." 
 
 "It is not for you only, but myself, dear Anna. 
 You have summed up for me, afresh, all that I have to 
 be grateful for, which one forgets sometimes, you know. 
 I do not wish, however, to speak now of my riches, 
 which are, indeed, great with Phil, and that other, 
 whom we need not name, and you, good child, beside 
 some dear ones left behind us. Let them pass. But 
 in the account you have given me of yourself, you have 
 reflected the sad internal record, I suspect, of many a life, 
 that does not, perhaps, once in all its years of duration, 
 reach itself out as you have done to-day. You ask me , 
 how blessings can be so unequally divided between 
 persons whose lives are equally pure, obedient, and 
 faithful ? You come to me for wisdom which I have 
 not to give you. The sages and philosophers, the 
 churchmen and schoolmen, the economists and states- 
 men, have failed, and do perpetually fail in solving this 
 question. Each thoughtful soul, I suppose, in some 
 grave, high hours, attempts the solution for itself, and 
 perhaps penetrates the mists a little way, but is finally 
 beaten back to the cold kingdom of mere question. 
 Some impatient spirits have doubtless hurried through 
 the portals of death, to get the answer which life denied 
 them. But for me, 
 
 " * The doubt must rest I dare not solve, 
 In the same circle we revolve; 
 Assurance only breeds resolve.'" 
 
372 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 "And have you never, then," I asked, from all 
 your large questioning and patient thought, drawn any 
 satisfying light to your own soul ?" 
 
 " Perhaps a gleam now and then," she replied, with 
 the help of modern thought and research into the na- 
 ture of our humanity. One thing I am clear about, 
 and that is, that many lives are reckoned worthy and 
 obedient, according to the world's best standards, which 
 are truly something less. The world's standard cannot 
 measure our obedience or happiness, dear Anna, when 
 we rise by even a hair's-breadth above the world's wis- 
 dom and development. Then obedience becomes ex- 
 alted faithfulness to something within, which the world 
 knows not of; and to fall short of that, is a dereliction 
 which stands first in the great statute-book of the 
 soul. I know more of this sort of experience among 
 my own sex than men, and I suppose the know- 
 ledge is common to most thoughtful and observant 
 women. 
 
 " There are thousands of maids, wives, and mo- 
 thers, in our country, who are deliberately and pur- 
 posely belittling themselves, that they may remain in a 
 certain measure, which is smaller than their nature 
 demands keeping down to the husband's level, or the 
 father's, or the brother's, or the lover's. There are 
 women who shun the thought, either printed or spoken, 
 that would fledge their soul and send it forth to try its 
 own pinion in the universe which the good Father 
 widened and glorified, as well for them as for any. 
 There are others, who shrink weakly from the high 
 labor of development, though broad kingdoms, peopled 
 with majestic forms of thought and beauty, flash invi- 
 tation and encouragement upon them, when they will 
 lift their cowering eyes to behold them. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 373 
 
 " Yet all these are good women, often noble women 
 measured by the world's standard ; living pure lives, 
 doing good, loving mercy, and, if it would not sound 
 like irony, I would add, walking humbly. None but 
 themselves, or some soul trusted as their own, can 
 know how much less they have done and been than 
 was required of them by that sacred voice and ' light 
 within,' as our Quaker friends have it. 
 
 " What is the world's standard to me, when I see 
 beyond and above it, and know and feel in my inmost 
 consciousness that there lies my path, and not here, in 
 the way which is already beaten to flinty hardness be- 
 neath the thronging feet of them that hurry up to have 
 their moral stature certified by the great clerk, Society ? 
 If I have a living soul within me, individual culture and 
 growth, to the utmost limit of its capacity, can alone 
 insure me peace and joy in its possession. If I sit 
 down, stifling and compressing it, because use and cus- 
 tom require that I should, or because by rising I may 
 agitate the stagnant levels of the life about me, I can 
 but lay up bitterness for myself in so doing ; and then, 
 perhaps, I should come, in certain moods and hours, to 
 compare my state with a higher and truer one, and 
 accuse some undefined power, which I might call life, 
 or fate, or nature, or if very daring, even God himself, 
 of an unequal distribution of the goods. 
 
 " I do not know," she added, after a pause, smooth- 
 ing my hair, " that I have touched your case. In- 
 deed, I believe I have not ; but I have given you my 
 best thought and light. It would come nearer to some 
 other experiences, dear, because of those great chasms 
 in yours which marriage and maternity, however inad- 
 equately they may answer our demands, do, in some 
 sort, either close up or convert to flowering plains 
 
374: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 around most women. Life is very beautiful and 
 blessed when used nobly. Could we conceive of 
 greater or more perfect happiness than falls to the lot 
 of one born with organic soundness, full and harmoni- 
 ous endowments, enjoying freedom, and, in perfect 
 measure, all the divine relations which God has ap- 
 pointed to the periods of maturity and age ? I have 
 often considered this, and wondered how the Church 
 could so long have taught the degrading and destruct- 
 ive doctrine of the ' Fall,' substituting therein an arbi- 
 trary and narrow salvation by faith, for that glorious 
 one which is only the fruit of development in noble and 
 godlike uses." 
 
 " I rejected that long ago," said I. " I was taught 
 it in my youth very diligently, and my mother died 
 firm in that belief; but I rejoiced to see my father 
 emancipated from it, and at peace, years before his 
 death, in the Church to which, I believe, I led him. 
 That is one large item in my past which I never recol- 
 lect without a substantial feeling of satisfaction. But, 
 Eleanore, come to my case. You have spoken clearly, 
 and your words have tranquillized and helped me to 
 cast off for the time this bitter burden. But tell me, 
 now, what is left to me for the rest of life that I can 
 cultivate into a flower which shall at least resemble 
 happiness ?" 
 
 There was another silence. At length she said : 
 " There is always work, Anna : and by that I do not 
 mean simply labor or employment, as the opposite of 
 idleness, but work which bears the right relation to 
 your spiritual life the relation of educating and ele- 
 vating either the intellect or affections, or both, which 
 is better." 
 
 " But consider the difficulty of getting such to do," 
 said I. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 375 
 
 " Yes, that is a serious and oppressive thought to 
 all whose work must bring them support most of all, 
 to an aspiring woman. But if you value growth be- 
 fore gain and I know no gospel for the soul that does 
 not you will always be able to rescue some hours 
 every day from your productive labor, whatever it be, 
 for the acquisition of new thoughts or the carrying of 
 old ones to their more ultimate deductions. In this 
 way there can always be some culture going on, unless 
 one is absolutely needy. 
 
 " Then, one grows to such a beautiful afiectional 
 life, through practical charities, which may be the work 
 of every day. Where your money is not needed, your 
 courageous word may be, your tender sympathy, or 
 your helpful hand. Where there are not sick bodies 
 there are often aching and burdened hearts, whose pain 
 and weariness we can mitigate. But all this you have 
 known and done promptly, during your whole life, I 
 know, and yet there is a great pain unrelieved. Will 
 you bear with me if I tell you, frankly, that it is the 
 cry of your womanhood, which you have denied all 
 these years. I do not believe in celibacy, Anna ; and 
 pardon my plainness, dear friend I respect any 
 individual less, of either sex, who lives through the 
 ordinary term of life unmarried." 
 
 I could not altogether suppress the emotions which 
 these words called up from the grave of past hopes and 
 joys, and I wept. 
 
 " Forgive me if I have pained you, my friend," said 
 Eleanore. " I do not quite know your past, nor why 
 you are now Miss Warren, instead of some good man's 
 beloved and honored wife, which you are entitled to 
 be ; but I feel that if you have consecrated yourself to 
 some sorrow, such as I guess at, you ought to be roused 
 
376 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 from that devotion, and see that while it is life which 
 makes all demands upon you, life ought to furnish you, 
 in some measure, at least, with the sources of strength 
 and courage to meet them. Persistent love is, I think, 
 the noblest of our attributes, and profound and lasting 
 grief for its object is one of its most touching and beauti- 
 ful expressions; but grief rarely kills ; and, after awhile, 
 back come the rushing streams of life, bearing to us, 
 perhaps, but the ghosts of former hopes and purposes 
 yet, at least those. Old desires of doing and being 
 revive ; we find the same world, or its vivid semblance, 
 about us again. It treats us as reality, having the 
 same wants and needs as before, and perhaps shows us 
 greater ones than we ever before felt ; and then I hold 
 it wise and righteous, when the pulses of the heart beat 
 as formerly, and the affections return to its darkened 
 chambers, to heed their demands." 
 
 " He who could take Herbert's place in my heart," 
 said I, " has never come to me." 
 
 " You have loved and lost, then ?" she said, in- 
 quiringly. 
 
 " Yes, many years ago. I was but twenty, and now 
 I am past forty." 
 
 " And have you not, ever since, felt a pleasure, and 
 possibly a spark of pride, in the thought that you were 
 devoting yourself to his memory ? Have you not 
 counted the years, sometimes, when you have indulged 
 fond memories of him, and said, ' So many, dear heart, 
 have I consecrated to thee so many have I faced the 
 fierce, exacting world, alone, because thou wert, and 
 are not ' ? I do not say, dear Anna, that you might 
 have loved another, had you dispossessed your mind of 
 this phantom of heroism. Possibly you might not, and 
 that would be the hardest lot of all ; but it seems to me 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 377 
 
 most probable, with so much life and health of nature 
 as you possess ; and then, had worth and congeniality 
 proved that you loved wisely, what a different life had 
 been yours to-day ! 
 
 " I am persuaded, Anna, that it is better a woman 
 should love, even though it prove to be unworthily, 
 and marry, even if her hopes be disappointed, than ig- 
 nore so much of her best life as she must in living 
 singly. And if to the marriage be added the glory of 
 motherhood, she is thereby victor over much pain and 
 wretchedness. God is her ally in that, against the 
 world. Ask any wife who has had the prayer of her 
 heart answered, by the birth of a child to the man she 
 loves, even though he be an oppressor and tyrant, and 
 she will tell you that all her past wounds found healing 
 there, and that she felt the universe had declared for 
 her in the strife. 
 
 " I do not know, dear friend, that I can do so true 
 a thing for you in any other way as to help you shake 
 off the delusion which has shut you from the kingdom 
 of Love. It may be a vain thing to attempt, and may 
 make me seem almost unworthy of the affection you 
 honor me with : but I will say it, nevertheless. Look 
 at the world of men and women and children, as far as 
 possible, with your healthy, natural eye. Lay rever- 
 ently aside that cherished memory, and, as life calls on 
 you for service and exertion, demand of life where- 
 withal for their performance. Try Nature's by your 
 own, not by any imaginary standard, which is no 
 longer within your true and living appreciation, and 
 when you find one pure and noble enough, who can 
 appeal to your heart, do not shut your eyes and deafen 
 your soul, but see and hearken, with a rational purpose 
 to receive the good that may come to you." 
 
CHAPTEK XLVI. 
 
 " This is strange talk to me from you," I said, sit- 
 ting erect, but still holding her hand ; " and, as if to 
 rebuke it, there is the daylight creeping gently through 
 that east window." 
 
 " Nay, Anna, not to silence, but sanction, as I hope 
 your own heart does. Remember, I would rather you 
 should die Miss "Warren, than marry without loving. 
 But I believe that might very naturally be an experi- 
 ence of yours yet, if you would free yourself of the 
 past." 
 
 " Could I love as you do, and would you ask me to 
 accept less ?" 
 
 The bright color mantled her cheek and brow at 
 these words, and a thrill of feeling shook her visibly, 
 as she said : " Oh, Anna, do not ask so much ! Is 
 there one woman in thousands so blest ? Even in my 
 reasonable moods, I sometimes think there is none be- 
 side. I have at last written him, dear, and you shall 
 see if I have done justice to both. Come up to our 
 old room. Phil is there, and after you have read the 
 letters, you may wake him. He went to bed reluct- 
 antly after I told him you were coming, and there will 
 be deep rejoicing in his little heart at sight of you." 
 
 The letters were produced first Col. Anderson's. 
 " Small," I said, " to be of more value than Victoria's 
 new diamond." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 379 
 
 "Read and see," she whispered, "how bright it 
 must have been to me." 
 
 " I wrote you," he said, "in September, Eleanore, 
 under cover to Miss Warren, who acknowledged the 
 receipt of my letters. I scarcely expected an acknow- 
 ledgment from you, and yet I found myself for several 
 weeks going to the post, or waiting its arrival with an 
 interest I never felt before. 
 
 " You have not written, and I must not question 
 but you are right, though I never knew another whom 
 I would so believe in. 
 
 " Dear Eleanore, you will be mine some day, I know. 
 I feel your spirit approaching me. Even your silence 
 does not wholly conceal you: for I have said, If she 
 were altogether indifferent or averse to me, she would 
 not hesitate to write. She is too well-bred a lady and 
 too much a woman of the world not to reply to an 
 earnest letter from any man who was even 
 
 " 'Level to her hate.' 
 
 " So you see, dearest, that while I can hold you to 
 nothing special or narrow, I hold you broadly to all 
 that my heart desires ; and if there is some woman's 
 spirit to be first wrought out in independence, or some 
 chastisement to be inflicted on me for a past offense, I 
 will wait patiently for the one, and bear the other like 
 a very lamb, for meekness. I only pray that you will 
 not go too far, and that, when my term is ended, I 
 may be apprised of it. 
 
 " I have received an application to go to Chili, and 
 as I have very nearly completed what I undertook 
 here, and am inclined to wear out time for awhile, with 
 as many helps as I can get to that worthy end, I think 
 I shall make a voyage thither during the autumn. 
 
 " Shall I see you on my way ? 
 
 J. L. ANDERSON." 
 
 Then I took in hand her long-delayed, precious 
 first letter. " Are you sending him your card, 
 
380 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 madam ?" I inquired, ironically, feeling in the humor 
 to tease. 
 
 " Look and see." 
 
 And with the words there dropped from my hand a 
 miniature head a pencil-sketch of herself. 
 
 " Is it just ?" she asked, as, surprised and delighted 
 with its boldness, yet exquisite beauty and faithfulness, 
 I continued looking at it. 
 
 " It seems to me your very self," I answered ; " but 
 in a mood that is not so common as those I am better 
 acquainted with." 
 
 " I was not in a common mood when I did it, 
 Anna." 
 
 " I see that," I replied, " in the eyes, which always 
 tell the story of the hour with you." 
 
 They were wide-opened, thoughtful, steadfast, shining 
 eyes, in which lay the shadow of a depth and tender- 
 ness as sweet and assuring as the soft gloom of a sum- 
 mer fountain in a dim wood. The rather severe sym- 
 metry of her face was relieved by the play, over one 
 temple, of a single luxuriant fold of hair, which seemed 
 to have slipped from its fastenings and to have been 
 put in the sketch, as I have no doubt it was, in utter 
 abandonment to the earnestness of purpose wherewith 
 she had wrought it. It was the lofty, serious, yet ten- 
 der face, I had seen a few times, when no conflicting 
 emotions sent back the deep tides of the heart, of which 
 it was a beautiful and comforting promise. 
 
 " It is better than any letter could be," said I, after 
 deliberately examining it. " I could almost thank you 
 for doing yourself so much justice at last. But I am 
 also to read what is written, am I not ?" 
 
 " It is not a lengthy epistle, and the trouble will 
 not be very great," she replied ; " but I have no wish 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 381 
 
 to press it on your attention " making a feint to take 
 it from me. 
 
 " Desist, O rash woman," said I, " and leave me 
 in peace." And I went on reading, as follows : 
 
 " Were I to deny, true friend, either directly or in 
 your favorite fashion, by inference, that I have suffered 
 in your suffering, and hoped in your hoping, during 
 several months past, I should soil my soul with a dis- 
 honest utterance which I can never do. 
 
 " It is harder to suppress love's bounty than to lav- 
 ish it ; and I fear I might have proved unequal to any 
 measure of the heroism required to do it toward you, 
 had I not been aided by 
 
 * Circumstance, that most unspiritual God,' 
 
 whose iron tread presses out, not alone sorrow or 
 strength, or joy or feebleness, from the untried depths of 
 the nature, but sometimes blesses us, darkly, in opening 
 secret and divinest fountains of power, which we may 
 not have before suspected, and which flow into the vol- 
 untary being like the spirit from above so richly do 
 they clothe and furnish it for the battle and the sacri- 
 fice that life may then demand. 
 
 " If it would have pained you never to have spoken 
 those words whose remembrance is so dear to me, think 
 not that I have any more escaped that condition of all 
 conflict. And if now my tardy confession lacks the 
 prodigality with which love makes its gifts, believe not 
 that it is because of poverty or stint in what I offer, 
 but only, that, in giving and receiving, I am the stew- 
 ard of the life-long happiness of two souls. 
 
 " Do not misapprehend me, thou unto whom, if dear 
 hope deceive us not, I must, in time, become better 
 known than to myself. My love hath, I trust, a root 
 of greatness befitting its object, and is, therefore, capa- 
 ble of accepting any terms," however hard, by which it 
 may be perfected in measure, and made worthy thy 
 possession. I acknowledge it to thee in pride and joy, 
 but it must be no outward bond to thee or me, till we 
 
382 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 are further known to each other. The world must not 
 assume the adjustment of our relations, till we see so 
 clearly what we would have them, that it can only 
 second our wisest as well as our most earnest desire in 
 decreeing their perpetuity. 
 
 " Before this reaches you, I shall have sailed for 
 Chili the country where we shall meet, not long 
 hence, to prove our fitness for the realization of the 
 divine dreams and purposes that fill our hearts. 
 I have but one prayer that we may rise to the high 
 worthiness which alone can enjoy their fruition. 
 
 " This head I drew for you this morning. If it has 
 any merit, it is due rather to the inspiration of the pur- 
 pose than to any skill in treatment, to which I have 
 but slender pretensions. If it renders to you, in any 
 degree, the heart-luxury of the hour I spent over it, I 
 know it will give happiness to your spirit, which 
 I shall be happy in remembering, after all the pain 
 I have caused it. 
 
 " Phil must have his word before I close. His eyes 
 dilated to their largest and brightest when I asked if 
 he had any message to ' the Turnel.' He walked 
 quickly across the room from his museum, to my knee, 
 and said : ' Tell him I love him, mamma ; and I do 
 wish he would come and live with us again in a ship, 
 or a house.' 
 
 " You will not need be told how many loving recol- 
 lections he entertains of you. If we could either of us 
 lose the early ones, Antonio's daily faithfulness would 
 rebuke us. ELEANOEE BROMFIELD." 
 
 " Stiff and cold in the announcement and close, is 
 it not, dear ?" she asked, after I had folded and re- 
 placed it. 
 
 " Somewhat so, I confess, in those respects, but 
 otherwise quite reasonable and generous, coming from 
 you." 
 
 "Do you think so? Then, I am afraid it may 
 express too much ; for you, I believe, exact as much 
 for him as he would for himself." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 383 
 
 " Not a word too much," I replied, concealing my 
 satisfaction ; " not a word too much, Eleanore. You 
 have only enlarged his ground for the inference that 
 you will ever be anything more to him than you now 
 are. And that you certainly will be, or I know no- 
 thing of the laws of attraction. It is very well, with 
 your views perhaps necessary that you should not 
 promise unreservedly ; I am willing to think that it 
 may be substantial ground which you have kept under 
 your feet here ; but you will as surely be Col. Ander- 
 son's wife as if you had engaged yourself uncondi- 
 tionally in that letter." 
 
 " But I will not be, Anna, till all the future is clear 
 before us ; till I have opened to him my inmost heart, 
 and shown him every demand of mine that can affect 
 our freedom toward each other. Will you post that 
 letter to him the day after we sail ?" 
 
 I promised. 
 
 " Then I must have one more promise ; and that 
 is, that you will join me in Valparaiso, if I find myself 
 justified in writing for you." 
 
 " I shall do that without a promise, I fear, at no very 
 distant day. I would go with you now, but that it would 
 seem vacillating and weak breaking engagements and 
 giving up substantial advantages for what the world 
 would call a poor reason that I might follow a friend. 
 Dear Eleanore, I shall feel very much alone when I 
 know that you are actually outside the Golden Gate, 
 ' in a big ship,' as Phil will say, heading away to sea. 
 Darling Phil ! Let me wake him now, that the day- 
 light may show me to him. Put out the lamp. 
 I want to see him study me in the dim light." Arid 
 as this was done, I bent over, and pressing him in my 
 arms, I spoke his name, and said : " Wake up, Phil, 
 and see who has come." 
 
384 
 
 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Like a full-swelling rose-bud in purity and beauty, 
 he lay straight upon the level bed ; for he was never 
 allowed a pillow, " to distort his back or curve 
 his shoulders," his mother said ; and now he threw up 
 his arms, to clasp her neck, as usual, but I drew back, 
 and let them close upon his own little bosom. 
 
 " Mamma," he cried, startled by so unusual a fact. 
 " mamma, where are you ?" 
 
 By the time the last words were uttered, he had 
 opened his eyes, and they were now widening and 
 widening, in a fixed and studious gaze at my face, 
 which drew nearer to him as he looked. 
 
 " What's 'at who's 'at, here, mamma, by me ?" 
 But in the same moment he made me out, and with 
 the characteristic gesture of his mother, he dashed the 
 hair back from his face, and reaching up, attached him- 
 self to my neck with such a clinging hold bringing 
 back thereby the recollection of old experiences of this 
 sort that I was fain to hide a tear or two which fell 
 from my eyes. 
 
 " Is Turnel gone ?" were his next words, as he sat 
 upright. " I saw him here just now." 
 
 " No, my pet ; you must have been dreaming." 
 
 " I wish it wouldn't be a dream," he said, sorrow- 
 fully. " Couldn't you bring him, Miss Warren ?" 
 
 " I haven't been where he is, Phil." 
 
 " Well, I wish somebody would bring him. I want 
 him so much." 
 
 " I know who could bring him to-morrow, Phil. 
 Shall I tell you?" 
 
 "ANNA!" exclaimed Eleanore from the window; 
 and I was obliged to resist Phil's entreaties, and prom- 
 ise him that I would tell the " Turnel," in my next 
 letter, how much he wished to see him. 
 
CHAPTEK XLVII. 
 
 The day of sailing was set for Wednesday or Thursday 
 of the following week " which is more likely," said 
 Eleanore, "remembering our old disappointments of 
 this kind, to be at the least a whole week later." I went 
 on board with her and the Marsdens, to see her room, 
 which was small, certainly, and very plainly furnished, 
 but well ventilated the chief comfort one can expect 
 in sea quarters. She had had to supply her berth and 
 toilet furniture, linen, towels, &c., and the expense 
 of these, beside replacing her wardrobe after the fire, 
 and paying her passage, had reduced her slender funds 
 materially. I proposed, while discussing these points, 
 to lend her some money ; but she would not hear of it, 
 and almost grew indignant when I urged it. 
 
 "Am I not going to leave you alone here?" she 
 asked, " and you are no more insured against calamity 
 of loss or sickness than I am." 
 
 And when I, in turn, urged the possibility that she 
 might need before she could get a position, she still 
 refused, but so kindly and tenderly that I was com- 
 pelled to abandon the argument but not the purpose. 
 I asked Mr. Marsden to procure for me a fifty dollar 
 coin, which I folded in a note and left in his wife's 
 hands, to be put into one of her trunks on the last day. 
 
 Those two days with her were at once busy and 
 idle sad and happy. We could not see when or how 
 17 
 
386 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 we were to meet again ; yet both, I think, held a sound 
 faith in that event. I had to leave at four o'clock on 
 Sunday evening, and we sent Phil to church with our 
 host and hostess, and sat alone all that glorious autumn 
 morning, talking and filling our souls with the tranquil 
 beauty that steeped the city, the bay, and the country 
 opposite. 
 
 " It is scarcely five months since we landed here," 
 said I, " and yet how immense the visible change since 
 that day. It makes us feel older to look back upon 
 so crowded a record of past time ; does it not ?" 
 
 " Older in thought and experience," replied Elea- 
 nor e ; " but in all that regards the physical life I feel 
 more youth in me than I have for years before. This 
 peerless climate has such wealth for the needs of the 
 body, I think one must continue for awhile to grow 
 young in it." 
 
 " Yes, I believe that myself, from all that I see and 
 hear of the experiences of others beside ourselves ; yet I 
 cannot say that I wish to live here. I have lost with 
 the years and their hopes, the relish of adventure ; the 
 recklessness and haste of this busy life jar upon me 
 painfully, and when I am separated from you, I feel 
 the lack of sustaining aid to rise above these frets." 
 
 " You will recover from this in a measure," she 
 said, " after you become more accustomed to others, 
 and turn more according to your old wont upon your- 
 self. You have been a very self-sustaining woman, I 
 think, Anna." 
 
 " Yes ; but now I feel sometimes that I have only 
 sustained myself, and that that is, at best, but a nega- 
 tive work. You have opened my interior life and per- 
 ceptions to the charm and beauty of growth, and for 
 that I seem to need help such help as you have 
 given me." 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 387 
 
 " In small and poor measure, I feel, dear friend. I 
 have been scarcely conscious of any such relation to 
 you during our acquaintance, and if it is not an affec- 
 tionate imagination of yours, I ought to be happy in 
 the thought. But for yourself, believe me and take 
 courage, you do not need the help you crave. With 
 all your health of soul and body, with a clear percep- 
 tion of the ' main purport and significance of life,' you 
 will not miss it. And then, too, a soul that is tho- 
 roughly known to us is ours, whether near or distant. 
 It is riches, help, and strength ; and this wealth, if we 
 aspire to true aims, goes on accumulating for us through 
 all the years of our toil. If we have found any inmost 
 need of ours answered in another spirit, there is an 
 inalienable treasure added to us, and I think it even 
 matters little to our best life, in this high relation, 
 whether death has come between us or not. If I were 
 going to the kingdom of the departed next week, 
 instead of another country here, should I be lost to 
 you ? If in this life I have been helpful, I could never 
 be otherwise in another. I believe it is an eternal law 
 of true relations, such as ours. The dead live to all 
 spiritual natures when their names are forgotten for, 
 as Carlyle grandly says, i It is a high, solemn, and 
 almost awful thought to every individual man, that his 
 earthly influence, which has had a beginning, shall 
 never, through all ages, were he the very meanest of 
 us, have an end.' If I live hereafter, and I can only 
 live by being wholly and entirely myself, with all my 
 affections, hopes, and interests, however they may be 
 modified by a change of sphere, I should certainly be 
 in some possible relation to you or any other friend 
 whom I love. I cannot conceive of launching off into 
 the future world, and severing myself from all the 
 
388 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 interests and persons I have cherished and known 
 here. It would be impossible to do this and preserve 
 my identity. But if I lose that I lose my immortality. 
 It must be another being, and not I, who does not love 
 those whom I have loved. So the divine trusts, pur- 
 poses and affections I have entertained here, must go 
 
 * 7 O 
 
 with me and constitute a part of myself there, or the 
 immortality would be a beggarly, naked gift, unworthy 
 of God to bestow, or any developed human soul to 
 receive." 
 
 " But what then," I asked, " of the undeveloped and 
 depraved, who could carry no such divine conscious- 
 ness with them ?" 
 
 " What of them, dear ? The same sad, mournful case 
 that we see here aggravated by the loss of all that 
 they have called pleasure or happiness on earth. Con- 
 ceive the sensualist, the miser, the man of external 
 ambition, the pleasure-seeker in any direction, the being 
 of any sort whose highest good has been material, 
 turned adrift from the body through whose senses he 
 has enjoyed this good, cut off from passion, from the 
 power of external achievement, from the animal appe- 
 tites, whose gratification he has lived to cultivate : no 
 more lust, no more conquest, no more gain, no more idle 
 pomp or display possible to him, and unfitted for any- 
 thing but these. Can you imagine a keener hell than 
 such a spirit must find itself in until it is developed and 
 educated to a better condition ? The inexorable fact of 
 identity is, I believe, the most fearful penalty of such a 
 life a penalty which God himself cannot avert from it, 
 unless he would break the law of cause and conse- 
 quence, which is the central and pervading truth of the 
 universe." 
 
 " Then bad or subversive relations between this 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 389 
 
 life and the future, may and must be perpetuated as 
 well as good and helpful ones." 
 
 "Undoubtedly they may and are. Only bear in 
 mind that everywhere in the dear Father's creation, the 
 dominant tendencies are to good. Good expands and 
 wars with evil all over the earth ; first to contract and 
 imprison, and finally to destroy it. Among the humane 
 peoples this is the battle of every day and year ; and 
 the victory, in the long run, is never doubtful. We 
 know in the morning what banner shall wave over the 
 field finally if not on the first night, then on some 
 other that will come after. And if this be the law of 
 this sphere the lowest that we know can we con- 
 ceive of its being reversed in the higher ones ? Good 
 and bad men strive together here to accomplish their 
 opposing purposes, and I have no doubt the same condi- 
 tions pass over to the spirit life ; but in the end the 
 good unquestionably triumphs there as here." 
 
 " If this comfortable view be the true one," said I, 
 "it would help many millions of unhappy souls to 
 receive it. What light it would throw on hidden and 
 unaccountable tendencies which we find in the hearts 
 of men." 
 
 " You can scarcely, I think, over-estimate its value 
 to our human life," replied Eleanore ; " and its clear 
 and unmistakable coming in these years, proves another 
 sublime and uplifting truth the fitness of progressed 
 souls to receive it. We are justly proud of our discover- 
 ies up to this time, of our inventions and the emancipa- 
 tion they are effecting ; of our active humanities, which 
 are reaching to embrace all nations ; of our expansive 
 energies, which are searching out and reclaiming the 
 uttermost lands ; of our fearless analysis and keen 
 inquiry, which are leveling the barriers that bigotry, 
 
390 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 prejudice, and even science herself has reared in the 
 ages that are gone, and making one the hitherto divided 
 territories of our thought and knowledge ; but all these 
 seem to me only the fitting and beautiful foundation on 
 which this crowning truth shall plant itself between the 
 earth and heaven. Do you find anything herein," she 
 asked, " which your faith and reason reject ?" 
 
 " I am in . conflict, Eleanore, with respect to these 
 very things. There is a strong conservative vein in 
 me, with a passable capacity for progress too, I believe. 
 The new appeals to my interest, but I do not readily 
 turn away from the old, wherein my hopes and trusts 
 have been garnered." 
 
 " Nor need you, dear, in this case. Here is no dogma 
 which conflicts with one you have before received. 
 Here is no arbitrary assertion, contradicting another 
 arbitrary assertion which you have before trusted. It 
 is philosophy and religion wedded, which have before 
 been blindly and bitterly divorced. It is love trans- 
 lated by wisdom light falling from higher and purer 
 eyes than ours, upon the clouded fields of life bloom 
 and radiance descending into dark and rugged vales of 
 fruitless belief, faith stealing noiselessly into the infidel 
 soul. O Anna, I feel inspired at times with all sorts 
 of courage to carry this light to the souls of men and 
 women. I suppose I should once, with this zeal, have 
 made a missionary, and gone off to some remote, be- 
 nighted people, to teach them the little I knew ; but 
 now I long more earnestly to bring to developed minds 
 the truth they are prepared to receive. You do not 
 think me straying, I hope, from the quiet paths wherein 
 I have won your confidence." 
 
 " No, dear Eleanore, for you have said much of this 
 before, and by your expressed thought, sent me a long 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 391 
 
 way toward these conclusions myself. But am I to 
 infer that you accept in their length and breadth the 
 views of which these seem to be a part ? Would you 
 be willing to be called a Spiritualist ?" 
 
 " I should be willing to be called by any name that 
 would truly express my belief, and by none more wil- 
 lingly than one which should convey to myself and 
 others the assurance that I had sought and received the 
 highest and clearest light that has come to us on the 
 grand questions of the Future. I accept the alleged 
 phenomena, so far as I am acquainted with them, as 
 altogether in harmony with what I believe of human 
 capacity and spiritual power. But if I rightly appre- 
 hend their bearing, the most they can do for me, is to 
 confirm and clear foregone conclusions." 
 
 " Then you do not think them of such vast import- 
 ance as most persons do who give any heed to them." 
 
 " I believe they may import much to our religious 
 life. What could fail to do so that should be proved 
 to be absolute truth, bearing upon it so directly and 
 powerfully ? But I think also that in a few years their 
 occurrence or non-occurrence will be matter of far less 
 consideration than it is at present. For there will then 
 have been developed the truths of which they are, at 
 most, but the sign or vehicle, and having brought us 
 those, they will sink into comparative insignificance. 
 It is the fate of the phenomenal portions of all mixed 
 subjects of our investigation. The history of one is 
 that of all ; for material phenomena, however they may 
 differ in other bearings, have always the common office 
 of developing laws to man. There is always a period 
 of war before the laws are fully demonstrated ; but 
 when that is done, the facts which before centred all 
 attention and provoked all bitterness, are quite lost 
 
392 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 sight of by advanced minds. If you want an instance, 
 think of the excitement which attended Spurzheim's 
 progress in this country, and Gall and Mesmer's in 
 Europe. Yet now all intelligent persons accept the 
 laws of phrenology and of animal magnetism, and you 
 could scarcely detain an enlightened audience while 
 you should demonstrate the one or the other by the 
 most startling facts. And so be sure, dear Anna, all 
 these wonders that we hear of, and which now fill the 
 broad foreground of this subject, will retire as the 
 thought they appeal to is more and more developed, 
 and after a time we shall scarcely hear mention of 
 them among intelligent persons, while the ideas which 
 are their flower and fruit, will carry sweetness and 
 nurture to all quick and hungering souls. And as 
 more exalted souls among us place themselves in har- 
 mony with conditions which we shall understand bet- 
 ter with the lapse of years, higher teachings will come. 
 The ascending planes of reason and feeling will widen 
 and brighten before our vision, and we shall receive of 
 those uplifting and refining influences, what our ima- 
 ginations scarcely shadow forth now. Oh, I behold 
 majestic continents and blooming islands in that Fu- 
 ture to which I look for humanity ; fresh kingdoms of 
 thought ; mountain chains of rugged purpose ; and 
 aspirations which shall rise above our present concep- 
 tions as those pure white clouds yonder float above the 
 reek and impurities engendered by the change and 
 decay that are going on below them. Do not tell me, 
 dear friend, that I am fanatical or extravagant. I feel 
 this as clearly as I feel a Future beyond to-day. It has 
 been the hope and the faith of souls rising heaven- 
 ward, ever since Ideas and Facts accumulated into the 
 aggregate Learning, whose mysterious touch unlocked 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 393 
 
 and expanded the inner life of Magi and Seer, and 
 warmed the far-reaching ambition of the early man of 
 science. The atheistic Savan is the product of our 
 late day of material investigation. His period will be 
 short for materialism will be more readily displaced 
 from the mind instructed in the works of God, than 
 from one chained by the dogmas of Theology. But I 
 see I am tiring you, and our talk has outrun the 
 preacher's for there come the people from church." 
 
 At that moment Phil, who had been picked up 
 below by Antonio, came rushing into the room with a 
 boisterous joy, and so ended our last serious and ele- 
 vated conversation, till we should meet again. 
 
 17* 
 
CHAPTER XLYIII. 
 
 There was yet dinner, and about three hours' time 
 before I had to make ready for starting ; but the one 
 was over, with pleasant chat, cordial invitations, and 
 some awkward attempts at joking on the desolation to 
 which I was about to be left ; and at last the hours 
 were also gone, and, satchel in hand, I went, with 
 heavy steps and a heavier heart, down stairs, where 
 Mr. Marsden stood awaiting me. 
 
 As we turned into Kearney Street, I caught her 
 parting signal. " And that," I said, sadly, " is the 
 last I shall see of her forever, perhaps." 
 
 But my faith and the remembrance of hers rebuked 
 my doubting heart. I put a few dollars into Mr. 
 Marsden's hand, with special instructions how to spend 
 it in presents for Phil and comforts for their voyage ; 
 and when we reached the boat, I went by myself, and 
 sat down to indulge my feelings. My utmost faith 
 did not promise me another such soul. I had lived 
 forty years to find one, and I could not hope that the 
 future would be richer than the past. On the con- 
 trary, I saw its poverty more plainly, as the bitterest 
 fast is that which follows feasting. 
 
 How weary and dull was the passage home the 
 sleepless night the arrival and the opening of school 
 next morning. I seemed then to be working merely to 
 live. All through the day I could not raise a hope that 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 395 
 
 overleapt the visible and near boundaries of my being. 
 I had parted with so much, that there seemed nothing 
 worth considering left. The people about me, at other 
 times tolerable or even pleasing for an hour, were now 
 intolerable. I was like a despairing lover, and I 
 thought at night, as I walked about my small room, 
 how much strong life must be required in the soul of 
 man or woman, to come out of such a conflict victor. 
 I thought of Col. Anderson, and this thought gave me 
 a feeling of relief, for I could sit down and write to 
 him, and pour myself freely out, without dread of being 
 thought absurd or foolish. 
 
 I told him all that had passed ; how Phil inquired 
 for him, and in what an awful tone I had been pro- 
 hibited from naming the person who could bring " Tur- 
 nel " to him ; how Eleanore had commanded me to 
 send him the letter I inclosed ; and last, how I la- 
 mented the loss of such a guiding, luminous soul, and 
 felt in my heart I must follow her when reason and 
 duty would suffer me. 
 
 Though, according to my promise, I could not send 
 this letter for several days, the writing was good for 
 me. I slept better for it, and woke in the morning to 
 find in myself more resistance and courage than the 
 evening had promised. I began to think of her letters, 
 ^ though it would be long before one could come, and 
 1 even so elastic is the struggling soul to turn at mo- 
 ments to that hope of meeting we had both talked so 
 confidently of realizing. 
 
 But I shall not hinder you with myself and my 
 petty affairs, for the two and a half months that inter- 
 vened till I heard from her. When the great, gener- 
 ous letter came, I felt almost as if she were herself 
 there, speaking to me it was so like her. She began 
 with : 
 
396 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Dates are my abhorrence, you know, Anna, and 
 you are not to expect another through this whole jour- 
 nal, unless I should be happily inspired with one some 
 day on sitting down to write. This is our fifth day 
 out. It was very rough the first two, and poor Phil 
 and I suffered. We missed our old shipmates and 
 attendants sadly. There is no Ching or Antonio here. 
 By the way, I must tell you that poor Antonio, when 
 we came away, actually broke down to tears, and 
 drew some from me, too. He has been so unfailing in 
 his kindness and service, and so entirely modest 
 claiming nothing but the privilege of being useful 
 that I was moved at parting from him, and at his 
 distress in separating from Phil. He declared he 
 would have come with us, if only he had known it 
 early enough to have asked the Colonel ! What did 
 this mean ? I was very glad, then, that I had avoided 
 saying anything to him, or in his presence, about go- 
 ing, till the day before we sailed. When he left the 
 ship, he told Phil he would come to Valparaiso and see 
 him, by-and-by ; and I should not at all wonder at 
 his finding us there some day sailors wander about 
 so, you know. There are but two persons on this side 
 of the continent whom I should be more grateful to 
 see in a land of strangers. 
 
 " But I was telling you the first days were very 
 rough. And how miserable we all were ! Next to my 
 room, on the same side, are a merchant and his wife, 
 from Valparaiso, Mr. and Mrs. Howe ; Maine people, 
 but long residents of Chili. Mr. Rowe is a silent, dig- 
 nified man, with a touch of pomposity in his manners, 
 and a refined and most vigilant courtesy. He is fifty, 
 I should say, and at least fifteen years older than his 
 wife, whom he loves and watches as I do Phil. She 
 is a woman with a naturally noble heart, I am sure. 
 It is declared in her countenance and bearing. She is 
 bright and clever, as Yankee women are apt to be, but 
 much above the smart level they are so proud of. 
 She has the repose and polish of a well-bred woman, 
 with something more than average culture in certain 
 directions. On her book-shelves, of which she offered 
 me the freedom yesterday, I found a few volumes of 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 397 
 
 choice old and modern literature ; books in which style 
 goes before purpose, and elegance is perhaps a little 
 more earnestly courted than truth : but not one of the 
 characterizing books of this generation, except Currer 
 Bell's novels none of the progressive poets no new 
 philosophy of life or nature none of the master- 
 thinkers. 
 
 " But she was reading ' Jane Eyre,' and her husband,' 
 she said, was trying to interest himself (think of that,) in 
 Shirley ! You will see now how stately and courteous 
 we shall be how we shall discuss books and men, 
 much, I fancy, as people inspect anatomical museums : 
 admiring the polish, order, and arrangement, but find- 
 ing no heart. 
 
 " There is one other lady, but I have only had a 
 passing sight of her, going, with the help of a gentle- 
 man, to her room. From the finical, elaborate exter- 
 nal I then beheld fluttering head-gear, ornate dressing- 
 gown, and wide laces I do not look for much internal 
 life. But I may be disappointed. Sensible and genu- 
 ine women do sometimes go fearfully in debt to such 
 accessories I wonder with what result, on the whole, 
 to themselves and beholders. 
 
 " There are but two other passengers both Span- 
 ish gentlemen Senor Pedrillo and Don Rafael, I hear 
 them called. I have scarcely seen them, except to dis- 
 tinguish the portly, middle-aged Senor, from the hand- 
 some, melancholy young. Don. You shall have them 
 another day. Phil wishes he could see Miss Warren 
 to-night ; so do I. 
 
 " That mark, Anna, indicates that this 
 
 writing is on another day next days, as Phil says ; 
 all days after any certain one that he remembers, are 
 next days, you know, to him. Well, this next day is 
 rainy and windy, so you must patiently decipher what 
 follows, and distribute the extra strokes of the w's, m's, 
 n's, and u's, as best you can. The ship and sea are 
 both in such an unfriendly mood, that I do not know 
 if I should write at all, but that I love a victory, and 
 there being no larger one possible, I accept this. 
 
 " Our Don Rafael is a Troubadour, misplaced by 
 
398 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 about four centuries. Oh, that you could hear his 
 guitar, when the evenings are still, and his tender 
 voice it is really a very sweet, though rather a wail- 
 ing tenor singing of love and heroism ! He has 
 abundant raven curls, a clear olive color, an exquisite 
 mustache, and a most patrician foot and hand. Don 
 Rafael, I think, must take high rank among Castilian 
 beaux, but as he speaks very little English, and I no 
 Spanish, we are not likely, I fear, to furnish each other 
 very correct data for nice judgment in these matters. 
 He is punctilious in all manner of politeness to Mrs. 
 Brent her, to wit, of the elaborate toilet, whose hus- 
 band's partner he is. He elevates courtesy toward her 
 into an art, and devotes himself heroically to its culti- 
 vation. At table, on deck, in the cabin, at the door 
 of her state-room, with solemn face and grave gesture, 
 he informs her, ' Madam, I am your servant ; honor 
 me with your commands.' And you will see the cour- 
 age with which this is done, when I tell you that she 
 sits down in the cabin, arrayed in brocade and dia- 
 monds, awaiting dinner, and actually horrifies our little 
 convention there, by cleaning her nails ! You think 
 now it is sweetly done with a little gem of a knife, 
 which she twirls so deftly in her jeweled fingers, that 
 we have to guess at what she is really doing ; and you 
 are, perhaps, impatient with me for noting so trifling 
 and pardonable an impropriety. No such thing, dear 
 Anna. She draws from her pocket a bowie-knife, with 
 a spring in the .back ; presses it till the blade flies 
 open, and then she has in her hand a weapon, at the 
 very least six inches long. With this elegant instru- 
 ment she proceeds to the duties in which Lord Chester- 
 field instructed his son so carefully, and generally 
 prolongs their performance till dinner is placed on the 
 table. But Don Rafael would go overboard, I think, 
 before he would let those thunderous eyes of his (did 
 you ever hear of such eyes ?) emit a ray of surprise or 
 wonder. Don Rafael faces the bowie-knife, when seats 
 are to be taken, and solemnly offers his arm for the 
 step between her and her place, with a true air which 
 says, ' I suffer no thought, still less comment.' I ad- 
 mire this in him very much. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 399 
 
 " You may say it is suggestive of that old story of 
 Cervantes', who put heroism and gallantry on horse- 
 back, and carried them to the wars, to prove them- 
 selves against the world ; but I like it. One so seldom 
 sees among us this sort of social courage. What young 
 American exquisite could bring himself to such tho- 
 rough and sustained politeness to a vulgar woman? 
 If he were constrained to it by her fortune or position, 
 he would protest by looks, shrugs, or gestures, to all 
 beholders, that he understood and scorned it as much 
 as they could. Be sure Don Quixotte was a representa- 
 tive man. 
 
 " Our Captain is a harsh, unpolished per- 
 son, whom we scarcely see except in passing him. He 
 sits at the lower end of the table, which is not a long 
 one, certainly : but that position cuts him off from us 
 socially. Mr. Howe occupies the seat of honor, and as 
 it would not do to place the rich Mrs. Brent third on 
 either side, Phil and I are seated next to Mrs. Howe, 
 and opposite the bowie-knife. Next to me is the Senor 
 Pedrillo, who speaks tolerable English, and has facts 
 and anecdotes, but no thoughts. Our property in 
 these, such as it is, falls chiefly between Mrs. Rowe 
 and myself the husband occasionally, in our chats, 
 tugging at the cable by which he keeps her safely an- 
 chored. 
 
 u We were talking of ' Jane Eyre,' after she had 
 finished reading it. She liked the book, but was a 
 little timid about Jane's declaring herself, as she did, to 
 Mr. Rochester, in the garden. 
 
 " ; What would you have had her do?' I asked. 
 ' She thoroughly respected her own sentiment toward 
 him. It was delicate, sacred, and womanly. Why 
 should she not, under the circumstances, express it ?' 
 
 " ' It w r as so unusual.' 
 
 " ' Yes,' I admitted, ' but not therefore necessarily 
 wrong. We ought to distinguish between what offends 
 the sense of custom and the sense of nature.' 
 
 " * Certainly ; but she believed it was in the nature 
 of woman to be sought, rather than to seek. Did 
 not I?' 
 
400 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " ' Undoubtedly ; that law was written too plainly 
 everywhere, to be mistaken. But in the position por- 
 trayed in " Jane Eyre," I did not conceive it to be in- 
 fringed. True, Mr. Rochester had not declared in 
 words that he desired Jane's love, but he had expressed 
 it plainly otherwise ; and had piqued her possible sen- 
 timent for him, quite enough, I thought, to entitle her 
 to speak. If he had been a coxcomb or flirt, and yet 
 had succeeded so far, as, being a true man, he had, in 
 winning her affection, it would have been her grief and 
 misfortune to have disclosed herself to him. But such 
 things often happen to men, and heartless women deck 
 themselves with conquests as foolishly and meanly as 
 he could have worn hers, had he been unworthy her 
 confidence and courage. I like just that in the book,' 
 I said, warmly. i It is a true and honest word from a 
 woman for her sex. I thank her for it.' 
 
 " 4 If she confessed her love before she was properly 
 asked to,' said Mr. Rowe, taking a fresh turn on the 
 cable, ' I think it was indelicate and unworthy of 
 her sex.' 
 
 " Now, you know, dear Anna, that I do sometimes 
 warm unduly, especially in strife with pretentious fools. 
 I felt a hot flush go over me stupid, was it not ? and 
 I looked at him, but did not speak on the instant. 
 
 " ' I meant no offense, Mrs. Bromfield,' he said, in 
 a ponderous tone of apology. 
 
 " ' Oh, I have taken none, I assure you,' was my 
 reply. ' You have not read the book, I think, by your 
 own remark, and therefore cannot know whether you 
 really differ from me or not.' 
 
 " Of course Mrs. Rowe had nothing more to say on 
 that subject, and so we went to common-places. But I 
 really like her. If only she wouldn't fold the pinions 
 of her mind so meekly under the breast of this over- 
 shadowing 
 
 " Perhaps it was fortunate, Anna, that I 
 
 was called away by an outcry from Phil at the very 
 last word. You will never know now which of the 
 terms in natural history, that would have been in some 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 401 
 
 measure adequate to my feelings, I should have applied 
 to our respectable and praiseworthy Mr. Howe. If 
 ever you undertake a eulogy of me, either before or 
 after my death, never write me as respectable or 
 praiseworthy. I despise them both, dear. If there is 
 nothing to be said of me but that I am respectable, or 
 of my work but that it is praiseworthy, I pray that 
 both I and it may escape comment, and so be blest, if 
 not any otherwise. 
 
 " I was going to tell you, however, that to-day I 
 asked Mrs. Rowe if she knew the lady to whom I am 
 taking a letter of introduction, and on whom my hopes 
 chiefly depend, in Valparaiso. She is a Spanish lady, 
 living just out of the city, and very likely, my ac- 
 quaintance in San Francisco thought, to employ me 
 herself, on her introduction. To my great gratification, 
 I found that Mrs. R. knows and esteems her highly. 
 Her husband holds an important office under the gov- 
 ernment, and in social position they rank among the 
 first families in the country. So far, therefore, 1 am 
 favored above my expectations. I wish I may find the 
 promise of my advent there realizable, because in that 
 case I should probably sooner turn away from my good 
 fortune to my best. But I studiously avoid indulging 
 thoughts of that. 
 
 " Dear Anna foolish, care-taking sister 
 
 how could you do it ? I told you I did not want the 
 money, and here, to-day, I have found it, where it was 
 smuggled into my trunk. You ought to be scolded 
 soundly, and I ought to do it with a relish ; but, some- 
 how, when I think of your pains-taking and persistency 
 in this thing, I find my eyes dim, and I say, ' The 
 dear, tender soul, I will not accuse her of her too great 
 goodness.' But, in truth, you ought not to have done 
 it. I shall feel worried till I hear from you, lest by 
 some calamity you may have been made to regret your 
 generosity. I shall be rich enough some day, I hope, 
 to enjoy the luxury of repaying it as I wish. Then 
 you shall see. But, ah, that future ! what a prodigal 
 it is ! what a debt is always accumulating in it to the 
 present and past ! 
 
402 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Poor, darling Phil, is chiefly dependent on me in 
 this voyage, and he sometimes complains of the lean- 
 ness of his fortunes in that respect, in very touching 
 style. Last evening, for instance, he was resting on 
 my knee, as I sat up on deck (we are in five or six de- 
 grees south latitude to-day, and it is, of course, very 
 warm,) when he said, suddenly, but very confidentially : 
 4 Mamma, I don't love this Captain do you ?' 
 
 " ' No, darling ; but he is a good Captain.' 
 
 " ' Well, then, why don't he talk to us, like Captain 
 
 ?' (you remember the inimitable sound which 
 
 represents to him that good Dahlgren) ; ' why don't he, 
 mamma?' he urged. 
 
 " ' Because, Phil, he is not so kind a man.' I did 
 not know what else to answer the child. 
 
 " ' And he don't have so good mens on his ship, 
 neither,' said he. ' There isn't any Turn el here, nor 
 Mr. Darf, nor Antonio nobody but you, mamma dear, 
 that I love.' 
 
 " i Why, my darling,' I said, ' Mrs. Rowe is very 
 kind to you, I am sure.' 
 
 " < But I don't love her, though.' 
 
 " ' Isn't that a little naughty ?' I asked. 
 
 " ' NoJ he answered, with the utmost non chalance. 
 1 She don't make me.' 
 
 " That will do, I thought, as I took him closer to 
 my heart. He has the true stamp on his child-soul 
 only it must be carefully wrought out by generous 
 training, to make it nobleness instead of selfishness in 
 the man. 
 
 "Dear little Harry had already, I think, shown 
 signs of right growth in his affections, and I have little 
 care for Phil, except that he, perhaps, is more decidedly 
 like myself, and that I know how near I can, and 
 sometimes, I fear, do come, to being willful and selfish 
 in their indulgence or denial. 
 
 " I have been sad all day, and am almost irre- 
 sistibly inclined to weep this evening. The burden 
 of the past descends heavily on my soul, at times, in 
 these tropical airs and sunsets, which are so like those 
 we breathed and saw in our days of suffering. The 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 403 
 
 thought of that unapproachable grave is very sad to 
 me, dear Anna, notwithstanding my strong hold on the 
 future : for the affections of earth cling to earth, and 
 are only uplifted in the hours of our highest victories. 
 
 " - It is a long time since my last writing, 
 dear friend, and we are now, it is thought, within a 
 week or ten days of our destination. It begins to seem 
 a momentous thing to land in a foreign city, alone, 
 and look for a home among strangers. I do be- 
 lieve, Anna, that it was not intended women should 
 be alone. If there were one here now, whose strong 
 arm would fence off the bustling world, and surround 
 me with peace and trust for this strife and anxiety, how 
 different would life look ! 
 
 " Mrs. Brent asked me this morning, when we were 
 speaking of our arrival, if I had friends in Valparaiso ; 
 and when I answered no, she asked further : ' Are you 
 going to settle there V 
 
 " ' Possibly,' I replied. 
 
 " And I suppose I ought to prize the testimony she 
 immediately bore to something in me it was not my 
 fortune certainly in giving me her card, and a pressing 
 invitation to visit her : or was it' possibly that she 
 might display her house, which she said was very ele- 
 gantly furnished? Her husband had bought two of 
 the beautifullest statters when he was in France the 
 last time, and she had one in the hall and one in the 
 back parlor. 
 
 " Three days more, they say, Anna ; and I 
 
 confess to some trepidation. Oh, that you were al- 
 ready there to welcome me ! It is such a weary thing 
 to be alone. Phil is in good spirits and health since 
 we have left the very warm latitudes, and in joyful an- 
 ticipation of going ashore ; Mrs. Howe tells me that I 
 can get into a good American boarding-house, at a very 
 moderate expense ; trifling indeed, it seems, compared 
 with our California scale of costs ; and it had need be, 
 if I remain long unemployed. Your loan is a blessed 
 comfort in my greatest anxieties 'though still I scarcely 
 forgive you the clandestine manner of it." 
 
404: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 The next date was from the Hotel du Nord, on the 
 clay of her landing : 
 
 " I have been here only two hours, dear Anna, but 
 the mail for Panama closes at one; it is now past 
 twelve, and I cannot let you wait a whole fortnight 
 longer for these sheets. 
 
 " Of course I have nothing to say but that the first 
 impression of the city, as I have seen it between the 
 Mole and this house, is very different from !San Fran- 
 cisco ; and by all the difference pleasanter to my feel- 
 ings. I contrasted this landing with ours there. No- 
 body stares ; nobody rushes against you ; there is the 
 due proportion of women ; the houses do not look like 
 the work of yesterday ; the irregularities are suggestive 
 of other things than extreme youth and newness ; and, 
 in short, I have made up my mind to like it. I shall 
 drive out this afternoon to pay a visit to the Signorita 
 Senano, and, as I have so many first things to do, I 
 shall say adieu, dear Anna, till a fortnight hence. 
 
 ELEANORE." 
 
 " Phil is at the window, quite captivated by the 
 gayly-dressed women and the ' queer men.' ' 
 
 
CHAPTEK XLIX. 
 
 Now there must at least a fortnight pass before I 
 could hear of her again. Col. Anderson's first note to 
 me after the news of her sailing, was an unbroken re- 
 joicing : " I would so much rather meet her," he said, 
 " in an older country than this ; she belongs to a ma- 
 ture society ; and, poor and unimportant as Chili is, 
 its cities have the social features which age alone can 
 give. I have, happily, some friends of influence there, 
 and you may judge I shall feel a pride in showing them 
 such a woman as Eleanore, were it only as an acquaint- 
 ance. The work which I am asked to put a hand to 
 there, may occupy me, if I undertake it, two years or 
 more ; and I think I see the finger of Providence, as 
 a revered clerical friend of mine would say, in her pre- 
 ceding me. I fear she never would have followed the 
 unmanageable one ! 1 .shall be only a short two 
 months behind her." 
 
 I was glad of all this, yet I felt I should be much 
 more alone when he was gone. In their happiness, 
 should not I be forgotten ? I asked myself, with a mo- 
 mentary return of the bitterness which Eleanore had 
 treated so wisely and lovingly in my last visit. 
 
 My school increased rapidly, till I was obliged to 
 seek a larger house and employ an assistant. I was 
 prospering, but I was lonely and sad, and yearning 
 for the companionship that had uplifted and enlarged 
 
406 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 my nature, more than I fully knew till I was deprived 
 of it. 
 
 I wrote to Col. Anderson that Eleanore had asked 
 me to come to her if she found it advisable, and that I 
 should be ready, I believed, any day after six months 
 were passed. 
 
 I had resolutely determined to abide by my present 
 interests for that period, with close economy, and then 
 ,to secure what I should have accumulated at loan, 
 where it would increase rapidly and safely, and follow 
 my heart. So much punishment I would endure ; 
 after that, it should be something else. 
 
 Col. Anderson wrote me the day he sailed from 
 San Francisco in high hope : 
 
 " I have undertaken many voyages," lie said, " in 
 the course of my life, but never such a hope beckoned 
 me as now. Oh, Miss Warren, if by any chance it 
 could be again destroyed, never ask for me. Farewell. 
 You will next hear of me either as the happiest or most 
 hopeless of men. J. L. A." 
 
 Eleanore's next letter was her Journal continued. 
 She had visited Signorita Senano, and received some 
 encouragement that, in a month or so, they might wish 
 themselves to employ a governess. They had one now 
 on trial, but doubted if they should like her : 
 
 " And I thought the doubt very irrational," said 
 Eleanore, " when she passed through the room. 
 A dowdier or more lifeless looking creature I never 
 saw so far from home. I am ashamed to say she was 
 a New Yorker, too lymphatic, careless in her person, 
 and possessed of but one single charm that I could dis- 
 cover : an exquisite complexion. 
 
 " My conversation was carried on through an inter- 
 preter, the nephew of Senora, who had been at school 
 in Baltimore, and returned about two months before. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 407 
 
 When I asked if they would employ a governess who 
 could speak no Spanish, I was assured that they de- 
 sired one who could not or would not speak a word in 
 their house but pure English. ' We wish our children 
 to become perfect in your language,' said the Senora, 
 i and we think that the best means of securing our 
 object.' 
 
 " Then thought I the governess will have no 
 trifling task, if the children are to be turned upon her 
 hands, and all her casual talk with them is to be in- 
 struction for a special object ; and her time will hang 
 heavily, if she is to speak no English but to them. 
 
 " I inquired of the youth if any one in the house 
 spoke it beside himself, and was told his uncle did, but 
 not very freely. When I left, I was to call again, at 
 my convenience in two or three weeks, if I did not 
 engage elsewhere. 
 
 " The incumbent of the position I aspire to has held 
 it but four days, and they wish to give her a fair trial, 
 which Senora justly thought could scarce be done in 
 less than a month. 
 
 " Phil, who had stood by my knee during the inter- 
 view, and, between the strangeness of the house, the 
 confusion of tongues, and the grave, impressive manner 
 of the speakers, had been unable to understand the pur- 
 port of any thing, trotted gladly out by my side when I had 
 taken leave; and, after we were seated in the carriage 
 which is a large, clumsy chaise, with a driver's seat in 
 front, called here a veloche he delivered his opinion 
 uncalled for, in the sententious words : ' I believe those 
 folks are naughty folks don't you, mamma ?' 
 
 " ' Why, Phi'l ?' 
 
 " Betause they look so dark and they don't laugh 
 any.' 
 
 Three days later : 
 
 " I have left the hotel, dear Anna, and am now very 
 nicely established in the boarding-house I mentioned. 
 We have a beautiful, large room, overlooking the har- 
 bor and city not so precipitously as ours at the Mars- 
 den house, but very charmingly ; and if I had only 
 
408 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 you coming and going, and work enough to pay the 
 way, I should rest well for awhile. I hope some note 
 or letter is on the way to me, dear, with yours. Has lie 
 written to me at San Francisco, possibly ? And will 
 you order the letter here, if he has ? How I should be 
 gladdened at sight of it ! 
 
 " The first delight of this country to my 
 
 eye, Anna, as it would be to yours, is the lavish profu- 
 sion of its beautiful flowers. They riot everywhere in 
 the fertile spots upon the low hill-sides and in the little 
 valleys, where the treasure of the rainy season, which 
 is yet scarcely over, remains longest. Wherever a foot 
 of earth has seed dropped upon it, or a root set, there 
 is a plant sure to grow, and such flowering as it does 
 you never saw. Do you remember the dear little song 
 for children, ' Wildwood Flowers,' which I sing some- 
 times for Phil ? It is bubbling from my lips all the 
 time I am walking here, when we get beyond the pave- 
 ments. 
 
 "As yet I have only seen the surrounding country 
 from the city, which lies along the seashore and ram- 
 bles back among the irregular, barren red hills that 
 shut it in, in the queerest ways imaginable. I have 
 seen some of these little suburbs, populous with chil- 
 dren and donkeys, and washerwomen who never em- 
 ploy fire in their cleansing processes, and who set 
 themselves quietly down by some stream, and seem to 
 me to be depending chiefly upon time to accomplish their 
 tasks, so very unhurried are all their movements. 
 
 " The whole people are cursed with contentment. 
 The chief amusement of all who can afford amusement 
 off their own feet, is riding think how my skill will 
 avail me and they claim that they have the finest 
 saddle-horses out of Arabia. Some of them, certainly, 
 are beautiful animals, but their beauty is less prized 
 than their ease, fleetness, and endurance. They are 
 truly wonderful in the last-mentioned quality. 
 
 " Phil and I are very apt to walk out in 
 the clear, breezy mornings, over the grotesque, 
 lawless hills, or to the open beach of the great blue, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 409 
 
 indolent sea. They say it can be very fierce when 
 the wild north wind comes down upon it, but it 
 has worn a perpetual smile to us. It lies along the 
 shore, just palpitating to the dalliance of the wooing 
 air, and registering its tides upon the pure white sands 
 the impersonation of grand repose. Phil says it is 
 such a nice sea, and he hopes it will bring Turnel and 
 Miss Warren, some day. 
 
 " We get indifferent oranges, but delicious straw- 
 berries, in the fruit-market, which we visit almost 
 every day ; and here is also the chirimoya, a fruit of 
 exceeding richness and indescribable taste. More del- 
 icate than a cream custard, it has the flavor of the 
 strawberry, pineapple, and peach, blended into one, 
 and enlivened with the subtlest of the Indian spices. 
 It is an apple which Eve might have been forgiven for 
 tasting the second time. This fruit comes from Peru, 
 and is not abundant : a fact for which one cares less, 
 than if other fruits and vegetables, which might be al- 
 most called such, were less plenty than they are. 
 Phil's favorite is the sweet potato. Led captive by 
 that esculent, he has given in his allegiance to this re- 
 public, and would look calmly forward to spending his 
 days here, if we had you and the 'Turn el,' or perhaps 
 either of you. 
 
 " I met Mrs. Howe yesterday, who showed a genu- 
 ine pleasure at seeing us, and inquired where she 
 could call on me. She told rue she had visited Se- 
 nora Senano, the other day, and found her looking 
 anxiously for my second call, not knowing where to 
 find me, but earnestly hoping I had not engaged to any 
 one. 
 
 " So the lymphatic girl would not do, and I can 
 have the place. Shall I go, I wonder? I think I 
 shall, not having seen any more satisfactory person 
 among four who have answered my advertisement 
 for a situation. 
 
 " You will see most strikingly the difference be- 
 tween this and any of our l^orth American cities, in 
 two facts. There are but two book-stores here, and 
 three newspapers, all of which, put into one sheet, would 
 18 
 
4:10 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 not equal one of our large ones. Two are printed in 
 Spanish, the other in English, and they furnish a popu- 
 lation of almost a hundred thousand. 
 
 " I was interrupted yesterday by a cal 1 , 
 
 which proved to be from my patron and future em 
 ployer, the Senora, accompanied by her husband, \vlio, 
 it seems, is sufficiently interested in his children 
 to steal a moment from public cares to choose their 
 instructor. 
 
 " I was glad to be able to speak directly with him ; 
 and, not to till my paper with details of all the solemn 
 questions and answers, and interpretations to Madame, 
 which could not much interest you, I will tell you at 
 once that I have engaged to go to them at the end of 
 ten days to have a servant at my own and the chil- 
 dren's disposal, and a large room for my own and 
 Phil's exclusive occupation, when not engaged with 
 them. 
 
 " The young people are three in number two boys, 
 of ten and eight, and a girl of seven. These people 
 seem to believe in the saving presence of children, for 
 when I spoke of Phil as a possible difficulty, they came 
 nearer laughing than on any other occasion, and pro- 
 tested that he would be as welcome as their own. 
 
 " So now I am independent again, I shall take in 
 large measures of peace and rest in the next ten days. 
 By the way, they insisted on my pay beginning at 
 once, and we quarreled with grave politeness for n've 
 minutes, making set speeches at each other about it, 
 but at last I prevailed. 
 
 " I wish now, dear Anna, that you were here in the 
 next family. "What delightful talks we could have in 
 these moonlit nights ! They are as bright as we ever 
 saw in California, and the flowers bloom more abun- 
 dantly, making the air faint with their blending 
 odors. 
 
 " This morning a card of invitation came from Mrs. 
 Howe, who will receive company tomorrow evening. 
 Of course I sent an excuse not a polite, but a real 
 one : thanks for her consideration, which was felt as 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 411 
 
 most friendly and kind, but I could not enter a circle, 
 where, very shortly, I should have no place. I do not 
 mean to be patronized, Anna, and though it may be 
 there was no such feeling in this good lady's heart, 
 there would be in that of the next woman who should 
 perhaps make up her mind to invite me. I can see that 
 the social lines are sharply drawn here, and I will not 
 be the one to break into the sacred inclosure of good 
 society. Therefore you will get no gossip in my 
 letters." 
 
 A month later came this : 
 
 " My last letter, Anna, was taken to the post too 
 late, and came back to me at evening. It was of little 
 interest, and therefore I reserve it. It merely an- 
 nounced to you that I was then but a few days here, 
 and just getting through the preliminary steps of my 
 reign. Did I do wrong, I wonder, in not telling these 
 people I had never filled such a post before ? I cer- 
 tainly do not understand its details as I should if I 
 were experienced, but I believe I shall, nevertheless, be 
 able to do them service which will be an equivalent 
 for the salary I receive. 
 
 " I am more than thankful that my pupils interest 
 me. Pedro, the eldest, is a bright boy, with a full 
 measure of childhood in him hearty and jolly ; aston- 
 ishingly so, I thought, till I saw the mother in her 
 family circle, unbent from the awful dignity of re- 
 ception ; and since that pleasant sight, Phil feels much 
 more at home, as well as I. lie has even met her 
 half-way, and suffered a kiss or two. Francisco, the 
 next, is a graver and more thoughtful child than Pe- 
 dro, with a finer organization in all respects, firmer 
 and more compact body, and superior head. He takes 
 decidedly to me, and will improve rapidly, I believe. 
 
 " Clara, the daughter, is a nice, quiet little tiling, 
 very affectionate and clinging, drooping about her 
 mother and brothers, when they are near her, and re- 
 garding Phil and me occasionally, with her soft, liquid 
 eyes, as if she would like to be assured that we were 
 
412 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 among the number upon whom she could venture to 
 fasten. She has the Spanish slowness in trusting, and 
 her mother tells me she did not get accustomed to my 
 predecessor so as ever to approach her without con- 
 straint. I hope I shall do better with her. 
 
 " I find myself rather a tutor than governess 
 
 here, Anna. My labors are chiefly confined to the school- 
 room, and when I have done with the children there, 
 Josepha, our maid, is very apt to take them all away 
 where I do not see them again till dinner-time. I let 
 Phil run quite freely, since he seems very happy among 
 them, and a child of his years can have no better occu- 
 pation, for at least half his waking hours, than running 
 and tumbling on the earth. To be sure he comes in 
 an example of dirtiness that is fearful to behold, but 
 that is soon remedied, for we luxuriate, Anna, in the 
 abundance of washed clothes". They come from the 
 laundry three times a week, white and pure as snow, 
 well ironed, and every manner of garment starched 
 throughout. Think of the lavishness of this proceed- 
 ing. I allowed myself a little pricking of conscience 
 about it at first, thinking that the laundry woman 
 would perhaps be over-burdened by my self-indulgence 
 in this respect ; but Josepha smiled when I conveyed 
 the idea to her, half in Spanish, and half in the few 
 words of English she has picked up in the school-room 
 and elsewhere, and told me that there was mucha 
 mujer I can never forgive the Spanish that ungrace- 
 ful term for our woman in the wash-house. I made 
 a journey thither shortly after on pretense of searching 
 for Phil and Clara, who were missing at the moment, 
 and had the satisfaction of seeing there two great, jolly, 
 contented-looking women, working easily through the 
 task before them, with a young girl of thirteen or four- 
 teen, the daughter of one, to do the lighter parts. The 
 wages of these servants are low, and household econo- 
 my is a problem which has not yet, I think, invaded 
 the peace of the Spanish brain, anywhere in America. 
 You remember that Spanish family we used to see at 
 the Marsdens, and how little the item of expense was 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 413 
 
 considered by them. Well, these people show the 
 same indifference to it in a greater degree. So I have 
 discharged my mind of all concern in the direction of 
 the laundry. 
 
 " The Casa Senano, where I sit at this pres- 
 ent writing, stands in a dear little emerald valley, 
 sparkling with gardens, and hung upon the verdant 
 hill-sides with roses, and flowering vines and shrubs, 
 whose fragrance falls down with the evening dews, and 
 blends with that of our more stately cultivated beau- 
 ties. The want I feel is of forest trees. Here are only 
 shrubs, large or small. The house is of the common 
 style of Spanish American countries an adobe of a 
 single story, with deep corridors, darkening the rooms, 
 and severely parallelogramic in form. I believe a 
 Spaniard could not have an addition made to his house. 
 If compelled to enlarge it, he would either tear down 
 and build anew, or put detached rooms near the old one. 
 
 " Our school-room is a modern branching out of the 
 Senano estate in this fashion a large apartment that 
 would be ample at home for thirty scholars ; its walls 
 very smoothly plastered, and not less than thirty inches 
 in thickness. There are in it but two or three articles 
 of furniture beside the few in daily use ; yet its naked 
 walls and wide vacant floor have really never, looked 
 barren or cheerless to me. The light and the pure air ; 
 the odors of the garden which surrounds it, and the 
 babble of the slender brooklet that falls over the root 
 of a dark, leafy olive, before my window, are all so 
 beautiful and friendly that I cannot feel the place in 
 the least degree desolate. I furnish each table every 
 morning with a tiny cup of flowers, and my own with 
 two, one of which consists of rose-buds only. La 
 Signorita walks in once or twice a day and looks 
 happily over her little ones, strokes Phil's curls with 
 her gentle matronly hand, and giving me a bright 
 glance, passes out. I like her, and I think she likes 
 me possibly a little, apart from the contentment she 
 feels in my management of her children ; but I see lit- 
 tle of her elsewhere. 
 
4:14 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " There is often company at dinner, and I generally 
 on those days take mine with the children. Some- 
 times the guests are all Spanish, and then I don't mind 
 sitting at the table for I am not expected to speak or 
 understand ; but at other times there are American or 
 English visitors, and these I prefer not seeing. 
 
 " There is to be such a cofnpany to-day, and I have 
 asked La Signorita to send me and the children out for 
 a drive to the Zorros, a little blooming valley five 
 miles from the city, where we have been twice in the 
 family coach. You would laugh to see this vehicle, 
 Anna. It is a sort of Noah's Ark on wheels; the 
 hugest, most lumbering, heavy, ill-conditioned, groan- 
 ing thing you ever saw put to any use. You would 
 laugh at the si^ht of it, and still more to see me get 
 gravely into it, followed by all these dark-eyed children 
 in their fullest glee, and go rumbling and creaking 
 away, behind a pair of fat philosophical mules, with a 
 nondescript hortibre mounted on one, and whipping 
 both with might and main. A more ridiculous tout- 
 ensemble than we are, in the run-away pace he at 
 length gets them wrought up to, you could not find in 
 a year's journeying, I am sure. Here is Phil come to 
 tell me ' coach ready, mamma. Put on my poncho.' 
 
 " When I came back from the ride yesterday, 
 
 dear Anna, I w T as surprised on entering the house to 
 find a party of gentlemen just issuing from the dining- 
 room. We had been gone four hours, and as dinner 
 was just about to be served when we left, I thought 
 they would be assembled in the smoking-room, as I 
 call it, though I suppose it would be a drawing-room 
 anywhere else, and therefore I was a little startled on 
 dashing in my usual headlong way, into the broad hall, 
 to find myself suddenly almost in the middle of a group 
 of men with flushed faces, some of whom regarded me 
 with bold, impudent looks, and actually hindered my 
 instant progress to the door of my room. They were 
 following their host, who had already entered the apart- 
 ment he was leading them to, and was therefore not in 
 sight when I raised my eyes to look for him. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 415 
 
 " c (Test Madame la Gouvemante,' said one, in a 
 voice and speech not of the clearest. 
 
 " ' Madame ou Madamoiselle ?' asked another ; but 
 I had reached my door and closed it just as the last 
 words were uttered, and so did not hear what brought 
 forth the great laugh that instantly followed. Some- 
 thing I was sure that it was better 1 had not heard, for 
 1 was already flushed and blazing with the looks and 
 tones which had failed to provoke their drunken mirth 
 to that degree. I stood a moment before I could 
 remove my bonnet and shawl, and thought how I 
 should like to launch a look and half a dozen words at 
 the boldest of them, a snobbish looking creature named 
 Byfield, all hair and beard, who had planted himself 
 directly in my way, and compelled me to go aside to 
 pass him. 
 
 " I had seen this man two or three times before at 
 the house, and had more than once been secretly en- 
 raged at civilities he had pressed upon me, and which 
 I would gladly have scorned, but for want of an excuse 
 to affront a guest where I was a dependent. But this 
 was his first open rudeness, and though his miserable 
 head was doubtless a little turned with the wine he 
 had taken, I now reflected with a rage which shook me 
 all over, that his previous overtures had perhaps been 
 preparing the way for something of this sort. 
 
 " I had to go out again immediately to look after 
 the children and get Phil in to prepare him for bed 
 for the moon was alreacly outshining the faint golden 
 light in the west. As I passed the open door of the 
 apartment where they were assembled, I heard a voice 
 say, in drawling, affected tones, i Dayv'lish taking eye, 
 Hamilton, isn't it ?' 
 
 " I did not hear the reply ; but my heart-beat sent 
 arrows along my veins at the words. There is no other 
 door to my room ; so that I am obliged to pass and re- 
 pass this one of the drawing-room, every time I enter 
 or leave it. It is the only annoyance of the sort that I 
 feel here ; but it was never serious until this time for 
 I had never before met a rude visitor in the house. 
 
 " After Phil was in bed, I stole softly out, thinking 
 
41(5 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 to pass unobserved into the garden, and walk off the 
 unhappy excitement of my mind. They were still 
 smoking, and I suppose drinking ; but I did not turn 
 my eyes to see. I passed, flying rather than walking, 
 out at the open door, through the small yard, and into 
 the flower-garden surrounding the school-house. This 
 is a spot where I have always been free from intrusion. 
 No stranger ever enters it, and even the family seem 
 to hold it sacred to me and my pupils. My heart was 
 very full of wounded pride and pain, and intense long- 
 ing for the presence of the strong and manly soul that 
 would make good my position against these light speak- 
 ers. After two or three turns up and down the clear 
 path by the brookside, I sat down and leant against the 
 trunk of the olive tree, where I could hold my hand in 
 the little stream and toy with its pure, cool current. I 
 believe I should have been weeping but for the kindly 
 presence of this unconscious companion of my loneli- 
 ness, when a voice startled me, and looking up, I saw 
 beyond the shadow of the branches, that same face, 
 with its hair and must ache, which had most palpably 
 affronted me within. ' Fine evening,' he said, advanc- 
 ing slowly ; ' day v'lish fine moonlight here, for tender 
 hearts.' 
 
 " I did not speak. It was not so much, perhaps, 
 that I thought it wisest to be silent, as that I could not. 
 All the life in me seemed to be gathering itself up for 
 a deadly thrust. He came very slowly a little nearer, 
 just under the low boughs, and hesitating there, said, 
 4 1 saw you leave the house, my dear, and I thought 
 you would be glad of some company. Come, take my 
 arm, and let us walk about a little, and he reached his 
 hand down toward me. I did not move a finger ; but 
 I spoke, and my first words w^ere, ' Leave this garden, 
 sir !' They were delivered like rifle-balls, I know for 
 I felt as though if each one were a deadly weapon, 
 I could have hurled them at him the same. He 
 seemed to be thrown back a moment by them ; but his 
 impudence soon rallied itself again, and he bent slightly 
 toward ine, saying, i Ah ! now don't be so savage on a 
 poor fellow, that hasn't seen such bright eyes or such 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 tempting lips since he left England. Come into the 
 light at least, where I can see you, if you are going to 
 fight f and he actually touched my shoulder with his 
 vile hand, which I instantly spurned, with a shudder 
 that I now feel again, in thinking of it. 
 
 " ' Touch me again at your peril, base, unmanly 
 wretch,' said I. ' Are you so low that you do not 
 know a lady from a wanton ? Leave this garden at 
 once, or I will call on some gentleman to put you out 
 of it!' 
 
 " < Call, then,' he said, laughing thickly. < I don't 
 think any of them will come.' 
 
 " ' But there are servants that will,' said I, and per- 
 haps it would be more fitting that such as you should 
 be handled by them.' I felt a little nervous after his 
 defiance for the thought flashed across me, the other 
 guests may be gone, or, though I had never before seen 
 anything like intoxication here, they may be too drunk 
 to heed my call. But in a moment I reflected that 
 however this might be, the servants could be relied on. 
 and were nearer to me than the others, and then I 
 determined to remain. I wished to feel that I could 
 repel this insulting intruder, and not be driven from 
 my place. As I kept my seat, he also sat down at a 
 little distance from me, arm's length, perhaps. 
 
 " ' Come, my fair Sylvia,' he said, 4 let us be a little 
 more social and pleasant. The world goes on all the 
 same ; it is better to enjoy the hours as they fly,' and he 
 began to sing, in a low, thick voice, broken lines of 
 some of Moore's most execrable songs. I drew up my 
 handkerchief and struck him sharply with it across his 
 mouth. 4 Be silent, sir !' I said, ' and hear me.' 
 
 " i Certainly, with pleasure. Now you are growing 
 reasonable.' 
 
 " ' ~No nearer,' I said, seeing that he was inclining 
 to move toward me. i This inclosure,' I continued, i is 
 set apart for the use and pleasure of your host's child- 
 ren and their teacher. IN o one beside ever enters it 
 but upon necessity, and I came here to-night, feeling 
 insulted and unhappy, in the house, where you and 
 your band of drunken companions were assembled. I 
 18* 
 
418 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 t 
 
 came to be alone ; but yon have chosen to invade this 
 privacy, and yon choose to remain, although you know 
 that in doing so, you outrage my right and my choice, 
 and because I am a woman, with too feeble an arm to 
 hurl you to the earth and throw you over the wall af- 
 terward, I am compelled to leave you here, in a place 
 that will be made hateful by the recollection of your 
 presence in it.' 
 
 " I rose with the last word, and walked with a 
 quick step through the gate and into the house. They 
 were talking loudly as I passed the guests' room, and I 
 heard the names of parties and party-leaders, mixed 
 with praise and censure, all going on together, till I 
 closed my door behind me. 
 
 "Oh Anna, how humiliated and outraged I felt. 
 How much I needed a tender and strong soul to come 
 tome then, and how self-accusingly I thought of the 
 one that might have been my shield, and of the grand 
 strength and sufficient protection he would throw 
 around any woman whom he should see wronged. I 
 heard but little more of the visitors, and after a long 
 watching and thinking by the open window, I at last 
 went to bed as the light of the setting moon began to 
 stream in across the banks of gay-colored and odorous 
 flowers before my window." 
 
CHAPTEE L. 
 
 This letter made me anxious. It seemed an evil 
 omen thrown across her path. I knew better than she, 
 that depraved, base men rarely come off worse in such 
 an encounter, without seeking to avenge themselves in 
 some way upon those who have defeated them. I 
 dreaded that there would yet be consequences of this 
 meeting, of which she did not seem to dream. But 
 whatever may happen, Col. Anderson will soon be 
 there, I said, and she will not then lack worldly wisdom 
 and protection. A whole month went by before I 
 received another letter. I grew very anxious, and 
 could not shake off my fears, and I counted the time 
 yet left to the term of my probation, and even thought 
 of the possibility of going to her before, if it should 
 seem needful. I became more and more convinced 
 with every passing month how she had grown into my 
 heart, like a daughter or cherished younger sister ; and 
 as I had neither, and stood almost alone in the world, 
 I determined upon adopting her in place of both, and 
 thereby stilling the conflict of mind I sometimes suffered 
 at the thought of abandoning personal interests for my 
 attachment. 
 
 At last it came the looked-for letter. And true 
 and well-grounded enough had my fears been ! This 
 was written all under one date, with due observance of 
 tlie formalities of place, year, and day. It was even 
 
420 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 addressed to me as " Dear Friend." I was startled by 
 a glance at this unusual physiognomy of her first page, 
 and thought something must have happened, surely, to 
 have brought her to all this. 
 
 Here is what she said after the " Dear Friend " : 
 
 " I did not write you by the last mail, for I had 
 only that to tell which would have pained you to read, 
 could I have commanded myself to write it. But I 
 think it would have been almost as easy to have held 
 one of my hands in the flames. I hope you have re- 
 ceived the letter I sent a month ago, else all I shall 
 write now r will be a riddle to you. Assuming that you 
 will understand it, however, I shall go on to relate the 
 sequel of the affair, which began, and I then thought, 
 ended there. 
 
 " You will remember the person named Byh'eld, 
 who was referred to there. Well, I have seen him 
 once since, and that is likely, I think, to be the last of 
 our acquaintance. He followed into the house after I 
 came from the garden that night, and before he left it, 
 threw out to his companion, Hamilton, some insinua- 
 tions of having had a ' delightful half-hour in the garden 
 with that demmed fine crechure, the governess.' An 
 old American gentleman, who was present and heard 
 all, afterward told me the whole story. At the time, 
 he knew nothing of me, and only heard his boasts with 
 disgust toward himself not knowing, however, but 
 they were true. He and Hamilton talked it over 
 they were the young men of the party, and perhaps 
 felt an obligation to sustain a reputation for wicked- 
 ness becoming their years and whether or not the 
 latter was deceived, or merely lent himself to Byfield's 
 baseness, they kept it sounding till it reached the ear 
 of the dignified Senor Senano, whose dignity was that 
 evening increased by the wine he had drunk, and the 
 consciousness of playing the host to a party of promi- 
 nent men important persons in the political field. 
 
 " Senor Senano, after a week's meditation, commu- 
 nicated the unpleasant tidings to his carasposa I can 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 421 
 
 be pleasant about it, now, Anna, for I have fought my 
 way into clear sunshine again and she,with the circum- 
 spection that became a mother, and with something of 
 shrewdness, too, which I do not quite envy her, watched 
 me through another whole week in profound silence, 
 the two trying my equanimity at table, occasionally, 
 with a chance mention of Mr. Byfield. 
 
 " I do not at best live near to these people, Anna.. 
 They have trusted me fully, and with apparent satisfac- 
 tion, in the management of their children ; but I see 
 very little of them except at table, where the husband 
 exchanges solemn courtesies with me, and the wife 
 smiles and utters two or three sentences during the 
 meal, in mixed English and Spanish, to which I re- 
 spond, measuring my speech by hers, and there we 
 stop. But in these days I felt something like the 
 shadow of a cloud in a chilly day, when you court the 
 sunshine, fall between me and them. I thought per- 
 haps the political currents do not set right ; the hus- 
 band is anxious, and the wife participates his cares. 
 The idea did not once occur to me that their changed 
 demeanor had anything to do with myself, and if it 
 had, I should not have dreamed of this particular affair 
 as connected with it. I had been insulted grossly by a 
 guest in their house, but had defended myself as effi- 
 ciently as words and scorn could do it ; and the possi- 
 bility of the outrage being turned to my injury, was 
 quite beyond the reach of my unsuspicious thoughts. 
 
 " On the morning, however, after the week's sup- 
 pression of herself, Signorita Senano came into my 
 sitting-room, with her nephew, who had been absent 
 during my whole stay, and formally requested a pri- 
 vate interview with me. As there was no one present 
 but ourselves, I signified my instant readiness, sup- 
 posing she wished to say something respecting the 
 children. 
 
 " Judge, dear friend, of my horror, astonishment, 
 and rage, at rinding myself the subject of an accusation 
 so dreadful. When it was stated, I could only utter 
 the words, ' The base liar !' which she understood or 
 guessed from my face and eyes, may be, without inter- 
 pretation. 
 
422 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " ' He was my husband's guest,' was the dignified 
 and cutting reply. 
 
 " ' If he were your husband himself,' I said, rashly, 
 1 he would be no less a liar, saying that. Oh, Madam,' 
 I continued, seeing her looks darken at this, to her, un- 
 usual demonstration from a woman for these women 
 are respected only so far as the^y are watched, and 
 therefore do not dream of our daring self-respect oh, 
 Madam, this man is false and base and unutterably 
 mean. I will tell you.' 
 
 " And I did, all, word for word, Anna, as well as I 
 could remember, just as it happened. My face gave 
 edge and keenness to the stolid interpretation of my 
 words, and she at last promised to bring him and 
 Hamilton to the house once more, and give me the op- 
 portunity to meet him face to face. 1 had to entreat 
 hard and long for this, but I prevailed, and you shall 
 hear how the meeting came off. 
 
 " They were specially invited, with the husband's 
 consent which I thanked him in my soul for giving 
 for the third evening from that of this interview. It 
 was to be an after-dinner visit. Heaven only knows 
 what they expected, for the invitation was the rarest 
 of possibilities. But whatever they anticipated, it was 
 something very different from what they found. One 
 could not fail to see that. La Signorita gave up the 
 conduct of the affair to me, only undertaking to receive 
 them till I should appear ; and Don Alexandro, the 
 husband, had, I think, but an imperfect idea of my 
 purpose, till it appeared before his astonished eyes. 
 I had fretted so intensely in the interim, that I believe 
 I was, and still am, lighter by many pounds than I was 
 a fortnight ago. 
 
 " When the gentlemen were announced, I was in 
 my own room, and I waited there a few minutes, that 
 first ceremonies might be over in the parlor and my 
 courage drilled for the encounter. Then I entered, 
 and pausing just within the door, near where Mr. By- 
 field sat, nursing alternately with great complacency his 
 leg and his beard, I said : ' This, I believe, is Mr. 
 Bytield f 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 423 
 
 " i Yes,' was the answer, with a strong stare of as- 
 tonishment genuine, made-up English astonishment. 
 
 " ' And this Mr. Hamilton ?' turning toward that 
 gentleman. 
 
 " l Yes ' with a modified stare, followed by a black 
 scowl. 
 
 " I then closed the door, and so seated myself that 
 it could not be opened without my rising ; for I saw, 
 Anna, that this was just the man to run from my at- 
 tack, on the plea that he would not be insulted by a 
 low creature- a mere governess. 
 
 " ' Both you gentlemen,' I said, as I was doing 
 this, 4 were guests of Senor Senano, at a dinner party, 
 some days since. Mr. By field, have the goodness to 
 look at me, if you please ; what I am going to say will 
 particularly interest you. On the evening I speak of, 
 you first faced me, a lady, who had always shunned 
 you, very rudely, in the hall here, between this and 
 the next door; afterward you followed me, when I 
 went away in the private garden alone, and basely in- 
 sulted me so basely, that, had any man been near, not 
 to say a gentleman, or friend of mine, you would have 
 been knocked down and tumbled into the water, as 
 you deserved to be. You repeated the insult, when I 
 repelled you with all the energy that language and a 
 burning indignation gave me; you touched my shoul- 
 der with that vile hand that now lies upon your knee, 
 and I spurned it with such an involuntary shudder as 
 one feels when a loathsome reptile crawls upon the 
 person ; and when you sat down not very close to me 
 by your brute strength keeping the place I could not 
 remove you from I left you, with a scorn which I 
 then thought could not be exceeded, but which your 
 base falsehood about this meeting has multiplied a 
 hundred-fold. Is not this true, every word ?' I asked, 
 rising, and walking quickly toward him, my hands in- 
 voluntarily clenched at my sides ; i is it not, sir ?' 
 
 " i Yes,' he rather gasped than said. His face was 
 as bloodless as my own by this time. 
 
 " ' And can you, with truth, say one word to my in- 
 jury, touching that dastardly deed of yours? D.<1 I 
 
424: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 not come in as untainted and blameless as you could 
 wish your sister or your wife if there is such an un- 
 fortunate woman in the world to come from such an 
 encounter?' 
 
 " ' Y-a-a-s I believe though ' 
 
 " i And you acknowledge that the boasts you made, 
 and which it sets my blood on fire to think of, were 
 false were they not ?' and with the words, I compelled 
 him to look into my eyes. 
 
 " * Y-a-a-s just a bit of joking, you know.' 
 
 " It was all done very quickly, Anna not occupy- 
 ing one-quarter, scarcely one-eighth of the time I am 
 writing it to you, for the man, you see, was so arrant 
 a coward, morally, that he surrendered at once, and 
 certified his own meanness in the most damning way. 
 I could scarcely stand when it was over, but I braced 
 myself afresh for a moment, and turned to Mr. Hamil- 
 ton- who sat, looking both paler and blacker than 
 before. 
 
 " ' Sir,' I said, ' you have heard your friend's con- 
 fession. You also heard, and, if I mistake not, circu- 
 lated his falsehood. I ask you now, as a gentleman, 
 loving justice as a man, recognizing the claims of 
 those who are wronged and unable to protect them- 
 selves to do me justice in this matter, at least as far 
 as you may have done me injustice. Senor Senano, I 
 will see you when these persons have taken leave.' 
 
 " And, with a bow to La Signorita, I left the room, 
 and rushed to my own ; but oh, dear Anna, what a 
 battle I had fought with myself, as well as with that 
 base creature ! I shivered from head to foot, though 
 the evening was warm. Chill after chill went coursing 
 along my relaxed nerves, indicating to what tension 
 they had been wrought. I sat down and folded a 
 large shawl about me. 
 
 c " Presently I heard their feet and voices in the hall ; 
 then they were gone, and in a moment La Signorita 
 tapped at my door. When I opened it, she stood 
 smiling, and actually took both my hands in hers. 
 This was approval I did not at all expect. It melted 
 me at once from my previous purpose of leaving them. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 425 
 
 She invited me to the parlor, where Don Alexandro 
 also shook my hand, and said : ' Very good very 
 good ; you have one strong heart, Signorita. Very 
 lady.' 
 
 " I looked inquiringly at him, not knowing exactly 
 what the last words might mean. 
 
 " ' Very what yon call it ? lady lady 
 
 " ' Ah, lady-like, you mean,' I said, more pleased at 
 that than anything else they had said. 
 
 " ' Yes,' he replied, ' very lady-like. We like it 
 much.' 
 
 " I was so glad not to have offended their taste or 
 forfeited their respect for me as a conventional woman, 
 that I sat down and told them, like a pleased child, 
 how hard it had been for me how cold I felt at first, 
 and still was, as my hand proved ; and how, before the 
 kindness of this moment, I had determined to leave 
 them as soon as I had proved myself clear of this bad 
 man's accusation ; but now, if they desired it, I was 
 disposed to remain. 
 
 " So it was all settled, and I went to my bed with 
 a happier heart than I had possessed for many days, 
 but a dreadfully weary body and brain. 
 
 " I have been here now almost two months, and I 
 begin to look for Col. Anderson with every ship. In 
 your last letter, you said he wrote that he would be 
 scarcely two months behind me. How soon will you 
 come, dear ? I shall want you as much after that mo- 
 mentous event as before ; for to whom shall I tell all 
 my happiness, if you are not here ? 
 
 " Phil sends a deal of love to you, and he has just 
 brought, he says, a great lot from Clara, who has heard 
 of you, and believes that she should love you very 
 much. Ever your faithful ELEANORE." 
 
CHAPTER LI. 
 
 I read this letter many times over, and fancied I 
 could see Eleanore extorting, with her daring eyes and 
 intense gestures, that degrading confession from her 
 cowardly defamer. 
 
 He had spread it, too, I'll warrant said I to myself ; 
 mean men love to crown themselves with lies, if their 
 base deeds are not sufficient ; but she will not know 
 the outside reports till some one is there who will be 
 a medium between her and the world she does not 
 enter. 
 
 I felt certain that my next letter must bring me 
 news of Col. Anderson's arrival, and I waited more 
 impatiently for it, I believe, than for any of the pre- 
 ceding ones. It came at the fortnight's end. Her 
 heart was over-ruling this writing, I thought, for here 
 was neither date nor address : 
 
 " He is coming this afternoon," she began. " How 
 he found me out, I do not know ; but two hours ago a 
 messenger came to the house, requesting to see Mrs. 
 Bromfield. Joseph a was dispatched to the school- 
 room, and as she tripped in, she said, ' jHombre-m&n 
 want you, Signorita.' 
 
 " It gave me i such a turn,' as our Mrs. Brown 
 used to say, for I have been looking hourly for him the 
 last three days, though I had not seen his name in the 
 passenger lists. I was foolish enough to think it must 
 be himself, and so it took me several minutes to pre- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 427 
 
 pare myself for the sudden meeting. I was only think- 
 ing, it is true, with my hands idly folded ; and I do 
 not know of what I was thinking ; but at last I went, 
 quite deliberately, taming my steps as I moved, with 
 many recollections of our short and varied acquaint- 
 ance, and ready for I know not what line of conduct, 
 had he, indeed, been there ; when, just as I entered the 
 hall, I confronted whom do you think, now, dear 
 Anna ? whom but Antonio, with brimming eyes and 
 both hands outstretched to grasp mine. 
 
 " The poor boy ! It was a great proof of my hearty 
 feeling toward him that I did not frown upon his beam- 
 ing face for being his, and not another's. We shook 
 hands ; he asked for Phil, and I sent him to the school- 
 room, after he had delivered his note, with the proud 
 and happy words, ' From my master, Col. Anderson.' 
 
 " The envelope contained his card, with the words 
 underneath the name : ' Will call at four, if agreeable. 
 Antonio will wait a reply.' 
 
 " I sat down to write it, requesting Josepha to look 
 after the children. I said it would be agreeable not 
 much else, I think, beside that ; but that was enough, 
 was it not ? Think what a state of mind I must be in, 
 dear Anna, and do not expect me to write now. 
 
 "ELEVEN O'CLOCK IN THE EVENING- He has just 
 gone, dear, and I am wishing that, instead of these 
 peaceful, contented people, I had some of the miserable 
 and suffering of the earth about me, that my happiness 
 might overflow into their desolate souls. 
 
 " I got through with the lessons early, and sent the 
 children away with Josepha, keeping only Phil at 
 home, for Antonio had promised to come out in the 
 afternoon and take him a walk. I told Signorita that 
 I expected a visitor at four, and would like her to 
 assign me the drawing-room or parlor to receive him 
 in. It should be the parlor, she said. I dressed my- 
 self in a black silk, with a collar of broad lace, and 
 that white head of Rafael at my throat the only orna- 
 ment about me. I restored my hair to the fashion I 
 wore it in how long ago it seems now ! on the 
 
428 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 Tempest. I gathered bunches of the sweetest and 
 loveliest flowers fragrant petunias arid heliotropes, 
 nodding at me with their sparkling, violet eyes ; regal 
 lilies and fuchsias ; and pansies, whose purple and deli- 
 cate beauty both contrasted and blended with the meek 
 grace of the lily of the valley ; verbenas and gerani- 
 ums, and queenly rose-buds, and some odorous orange 
 and lemon flowers ; and set all but one tiny vase, of tne 
 most beloved ones, in unobservable places about the 
 room for I love sometimes that fragrance should 
 come to me, like the white May leaves', from 
 
 " ' Blossoms out of sight, yet blessing well.' 
 
 " And thus I cheated myself into preparation, in- 
 stead of waiting, till my watch told me I had but a 
 few minutes left. Then I sat down to compose myself. 
 
 " There were horses' feet : I looked up, and he was 
 at the gate ; the next moment the door opened, and we 
 stood face to face. 
 
 " I spoke first : ' Dear Leonard !' 
 
 " Dear Eleanore !' 
 
 " There was a long silence. c No reproof awaits me 
 now, I hope,' he said, bearing his hand heavily on my 
 shoulder, that he might look into my eyes, which were 
 dimmed, like his own, with the mist of deep joy ; but 
 the next moment I was folded more closely to his bo- 
 som, and I heard, softly breathed, the words : ' Art 
 thou indeed my Eleanore, or a phantom, like the soul- 
 less and voiceless one that has mocked me so long ? Is 
 it a dream that I hold thee thus thy breath upon my 
 cheek, and thy bosom-pulses treasured in the hollow 
 of my hand ? Speak, and reassure my doubting soul.' 
 
 " ' It is no dream,' I whispered, ' but such a sweet 
 reality as proves our Father's utmost love.' 
 
 " i Thou art, then, my own, Eleanore C C 
 
 " i And thou mine, Leonard.' 
 
 " ' Kneel to God with me,' he said, reverently. 
 And we knelt. 
 
 " Dear Anna, what a prayer was that he uttered ! 
 Every word so distinctly and deeply spoken, that my 
 ear waited for its utterance, and my soul treasured it 
 among the things never to be forgotten : 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 429 
 
 " ' O dear and beloved Father whom we adore, it is 
 thou who givest us all blessing, and all capacity for en- 
 joying it. For the inestimable gift with which thou 
 hast enriched my life, read in my soul, O Father, the 
 thanks which cannot be uttered. For the one life which 
 is henceforth ours, be the praise thine, who hast formed 
 and united the two. In our great happiness, may we be 
 tender and compassionate to souls less blest ; and as 
 thou art thyself love, and hast given this, thy highest 
 attribute, to ennoble our earthly life, grant us that 
 worthiness in receiving, which alone can give purest 
 joy in possessing. And be thou, just and holy Giver, 
 above even the precious gift, evermore adored !' 
 
 " My amen was a living response to this heartfelt 
 thanksgiving and prayer ; but my own soul had also 
 its petition, and I drew the strong, encircling arm, a 
 little more closely, while I uttered an inmost aspiration 
 for a life not less noble than the noblest ; not less pure 
 than the purest imagination of our hearts ; for a life so 
 faithful, that it should embody the ideal of our souls, 
 and be one in harmony, while in individuality each 
 should grow into the perfect stature of the man and 
 woman living near to God and to all good. 
 
 " ' And thus we are wedded before Heaven, Elea- 
 nore,' he said, as we rose. ' It is enough so for the 
 present. Sit here, now, very near me, that, seeing, 
 hearing, and touching you, I may keep myself assured 
 till I am grown familiar with the thought of having 
 you mine. I knew I should,' he added ; ' said I not so 
 in my last note ? that which brought me this precious 
 sheet, and this symbol, which has spoken to me of you 
 every hour. Ah, Eleanore, if you could know the 
 comfort of heart it gave me 
 
 ' ; ' I think I could have appreciated it,' said I, de- 
 murely, ' if the opportunity had been afforded me ; but 
 I have had no such comfort.' 
 
 " He detected me in the tones of my voice, and 
 said : ' Silence, you queen of the unmerciful ! I will 
 have not so much as a word of your badinage, till I 
 have been heard myself.' 
 
 u And then he told me very seriously of his suffer- 
 ing until he wrote that first letter. ' I was inspired to 
 
430 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 do that, I believe,' he said ; ' for your silence made me 
 victor over all your pride, was it ? If you had not 
 loved me, you would have answered my letter, would 
 you not, dearest ?' 
 
 " i Yes ; courtesy would have constrained me to 
 speak, where love made me dumb,' I whispered. 
 
 " 4 And when did this precious experience dawn 
 upon you, ungracious one f 
 
 " ' I knew your step,' I answered, ' weeks before 
 that daring and ill-mannered salute on the Tempest. 
 I remember words spoken by this dear voice before I 
 dreamed it would ever utter such precious ones to me, 
 as it has. You carne to me with power to take what I 
 could not withhold, dear Leonard.' 
 
 " i And why was I so long denied this sweet con- 
 fession ?' 
 
 " ' Because you could not be trusted with it,' I replied. 
 
 " ' Eleanore ! Do you doubt me so ?' 
 
 " ( Not in any wise to wound or pain you, my be- 
 loved. I do not doubt the true heart of man beating 
 in this bosom ; but I feared it would claim too much 
 of me if I confessed its power. I wished to come freely 
 to you, Leonard, without so much as a silken thread of 
 gratitude, or obligation, or dependence, to draw me. I 
 loathe all bonds but such love as we have for each 
 other, and my heart bade me wait till such an hour as 
 this, when we could forget everything but the deep 
 emotion in each which seeks to enfold the other.' 
 
 " ' I see it was worthy of thee,' he murmured, ' so to 
 chasten and distill the love that blesses us. All that I 
 have suffered is repaid ; I have no word of chiding, 
 such as I meant to shake thee with. Thou knowost 
 our treasure better than I, and how it could be bright- 
 ened.' 
 
 " But I cannot tell you all we said. It is very 
 common to call the talk of lovers foolish ; but I believe 
 the love-talk of any two souls will be their best and 
 deepest, if it ever rises at all above the personal. I am 
 sure there was little foolish talk between us ; but there 
 were often silences that were voluminous in meaning. 
 
 " ' I am growing,' said Leonard, breaking one of 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 431 
 
 these pauses with those inimitable tones of his, 4 to a 
 sense of iny wealth. When we are not speaking, my 
 soul is hovering about and absorbing you with infinite 
 joy. Do you understand ? Do you feel how the sud- 
 den assurance of this hour taxes all the capacity of my 
 life to take it in ? Sudden prosperity and success have 
 made men mad ere now ; but my new treasure is of 
 another sort, and I grow strong and clear in appropria- 
 ting it ; quiet and thankful, as a man might emerging 
 from the doom of darkness to the glory and beauty of 
 the day. Dearest Eleanore, we are stewards of a great 
 trust. Our life must be rich in good works to repay the 
 munificence of this dealing with us.' 
 
 " ' Good works ought to be the testimony of all 
 happy lives,' said I ; ' but some good w T ork must have 
 preceded this happiness, Leonard. We could not pos- 
 sibly be to each other what we are, except we were in 
 the main a true man and woman, with just purposes 
 and some right aspiration, which is as well the fruit as 
 the seed of righteous doing.' 
 
 " ' Ah ! with you,' he replied, ' I know those pages 
 of life are bright and beautiful ; but since I have known 
 you, my past seems an unblooming waste a succession 
 of idle, though not, thank God, in any worse sense, 
 misspent years. You have so appealed to all there is 
 of good in me so shamed my apathy by your enthusi- 
 asms so shattered my armor of self-complacency, that 
 I feel myself a naked soul in the world, having yet, 
 after thirty-four years of life, to seek wherewith to 
 clothe myself. Is it any wonder I take refuge here ? 
 Dear heart, lead me and guide me henceforth.' 
 
 " The last words were whispered on my cheek in a 
 voice of intense emotion. I was deeply moved, Anna, 
 by this earnest prayer of that strong soul, and more 
 painfully by my own sense of inequality to his gener- 
 ous conception of me. I did at the moment the best 
 thing I could see to do. I raised my head from his 
 shoulder, and said, ' Nay, but you will have your full 
 share of that to do also, Leonard. I am as perverse as 
 the winds, and as obstinate as the rocks. I am some- 
 times harsh and ungracious, even to those I love best. 
 
432 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 I am unforgiving to meanness, and occasionally I am 
 sorely tempted to do some daring thing, just to prove 
 to myself where the kingdoms of jpropriety and impro- 
 priety, of right and wrong, of tenderness and cruelty, 
 do actually join. Dear, steady soul, keep me from all 
 this,' I prayed, mocking him, and looking from my own 
 misty eyes, deep into the half-puzzled and half-smiling 
 ones that were fixed on me. 
 
 " 4 It shall be a compact, then,' he said, i and when 
 I fail in all other means of performing my part of it, 
 I shall do it thus.' 
 
 " ' It will be a shame,' I said, ' because Nature has 
 given you a strong arm, and me a weak one, to im- 
 prison me with it.' 
 
 " ' Ah !' he said, i you say that ; but there is more 
 power, Eleanore, in this soft slight hand which I could 
 crush in mine, than in my whole frame. Strength, which 
 is mine, is narrow and special ; power, which is yours, is 
 broad and universal.' 
 
 " You shall depreciate the man I love no more, 
 sir,' I said. ' I will not hear it. Come into the gar- 
 den with me ;' and I walked by his side, Anna, with 
 hypocritical quietness, looking demure and meek, I 
 suppose, when there were pride and victory enough in 
 my breast to have defied the world. When one has 
 such a soul to flee to, dear, independence does not seem 
 to be worth so great a struggle after all. 
 
 " I showed him my school-room ; but he was less 
 interested and pleased with it than I expected him to be. 
 
 " ' How long,' he inquired, placing himself at my 
 side, * dost thou intend to occupy this house ?' 
 
 " The question was adroit and somewhat embarrass- 
 ing. T thought for a single moment of evading it ; but 
 I did not, and looking straight into his eyes, I said, 
 'till I go to yours. But let us not speak of that 
 to-day.' At that moment I heard the dear Phil's voice, 
 and my heart smote me greatly for having forgotten his 
 right to share my happiness. As they drew near the 
 gate we heard Antonio explaining that " Turnel" had 
 come on that horse, and the gleaming eyes and dancing 
 feet of the child reproached me afresh. He looked to- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 433 
 
 w.ird the school -room, where we stood in the door, and 
 with a great flood of feeling rushing visibly over his 
 face, he started forward. Leonard met him at the gate 
 and picked him up, dusty as he was. Such a meeting, 
 and such fervent kissing. Dear Anna, it moved me 
 almost more than iny own happiness. He brought 
 him in and placed him on the little table which Phil 
 calls his, and in the torrent of question and answer that 
 followed, I, standing apart still at the door, have in 
 mind only this : ' Y oil won't go away off any more, 
 now, will you?' 
 
 " ' Ask mamma if I shall,' was the answer. But I 
 was there before the answer was fully spoken, and put- 
 ting my lips to the fair forehead of the man, I said, 
 4 There now, Phil. Do you think he will go away 
 again ?' 
 
 " ' JSo, mamma, we love him. Don't we ?' 
 
 19 
 
CHAPTEK LII. 
 
 " It was almost sunset when he rode away, saying 
 that he would return at eight and bring an old friend 
 with him, whom he wished to introduce to me. I was 
 glad to be alone for a little time, to calm the sweet 
 tumult of my heart, and from the riches of those hours 
 to select a few of the gems that were to pass into its 
 imperishable treasury. I was sitting, dreaming over 
 my happiness, when I heard Phil urging Antonio 
 poor, almost forgotten Antonio, whose presence at any 
 other time would have commanded my most grateful 
 notice in, to see me. I looked toward the front door, 
 and there they were, Phil tugging at his hand and lit- 
 erally dragging him within. 
 
 " ' Yes, come in, Antonio,' said I. c I have scarcely 
 seen you. Come in and sit down. I must have a talk 
 with you about San Francisco.' The boy dropped upon 
 a chair near the door, and in the moment's silence, 
 while I was recalling myself to the earth and to unen- 
 chanted life, Phil said, ' I did tell Antonio, mamma, 
 that you love Turnel, and he's going to stay with us 
 now. Isn't he, mamma, dear ?' looking anxiously into 
 my confused, frowning face. 
 
 " ' We shall see, darling,' I replied, not able to 
 speak harshly to him not even to reprove the wound- 
 ed, doubting soul which looked earnestly into mine out 
 of his eyes. 
 
 " Antonio felt the awkwardness of the position, as 
 keenly, I think, as I did, and gazed steadily upon the 
 ground. In all probability, I thought, the child has told 
 him the proof of his belief nothing more natural, in 
 the joy of his open heart than to do it, and so, justified 
 by a sort of necessitv, 1 made Antonio the first confi 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 435 
 
 dant of my happiness, by answering Phil's question in 
 the affirmative, and then adding, < You will remain with 
 Col. Anderson, I hope, Antonio.' 
 
 " ' Yes, Madame, long. He like me. I more like 
 him, and Master Feelip and you, Madame. I have so 
 great joy,' he said, stepping forward and falling on one 
 knee before me, and kissing my hand. i You all so 
 good, so love you be very happy, and I happy, too, 
 Madame.' 
 
 " i You have a good heart, Antonio,' said I, moved 
 to tears by the poor fellow's simple words and earnest 
 tones ; and more, perhaps, by the sad recollections 
 they summoned from the past. ' You will not speak 
 of Col. Anderson and me to any one, till till 
 
 " ' Me understand, Madame. Me never speak ; me 
 talk not much speak not much anything to strange 
 man.' 
 
 " i That is right. Come to us when your master 
 can spare you, and take Phil out, and we shall always 
 be glad to see you. You may go now.' 
 
 " ' Thanks, Madame ; I take Phil one more leetle 
 walk in the garden ;' and they went off, leaving me 
 alone again. 
 
 " But I was destined not to reach an island in the 
 violet sea I was floating on yet, for Senor Senano came 
 in the next moment, and asked me, after a deal of 
 ceremonious talk, if Col. Anderson would return this 
 evening ; and when I, blushing like a fool, I suppose, 
 said, i Yes, at eight o'clock,' he was much pleased, and 
 said he wished a few minutes' speech with him. 
 
 " ' I will claim him only one very little moment, 
 Signorita,' he said, with a smile which I have no 
 doubt he meant to be arch, but which was sardonic, 
 rather. He appeared to have some guess of my good 
 fortune, which, 1 suppose, they were entitled to, from 
 the length of the visit he had already paid, and the 
 quick repetition of it. 
 
 " When eight o'clock came, Phil was not yet asleep. 
 He wished to see the Turnel for a good-night kiss, and 
 seemed unable to understand why he should not come to 
 his bed there, as he had often on the island, and some- 
 
436 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 times on shipboard. Poor child ! the proprieties had 
 not yet walled him in. 
 
 " When I heard that footfall, I said : ' Now, Phil, I 
 must go. Good night, darling ; you shall see Turnel 
 to-morrow.' 
 
 " His lips were quivering as I kissed them, and his 
 eyes were moist with irrepressible tears. 
 
 " ' I want to see him to-night, mamma,' he whis- 
 pered, 
 
 " ' But you can't, dear Philip. Now be a good boy, 
 and lie still and think of him till you go to sleep.' 
 
 " I hastened away to receive my visitors, and to my 
 glad surprise, found the friend was no other than the 
 old American gentleman, whom I have already men- 
 tioned as acting a friendly part by me in the affair 
 with that wretch, Byfield. Col. Anderson had not 
 told him my name, and when I entered the room, he 
 was no less pleased, I think, than myself. 
 
 " ' I am glad you two are acquainted,' he said ; 
 1 for though I know but little of you, Madam, that lit- 
 tle has convinced me you will rarely find a soul more 
 congenial to your own than my old and dear friend's 
 here. We were together at Bombay, and afterwards 
 in Mauritius, and now here we are at the antipodes of 
 those places ; but in all my wanderings, I have not met 
 the man whose hand it could give me greater pleasure 
 to clasp.' * 
 
 " It seemed as if so much must be said by Mr. Hed- 
 ding, and no less would serve the occasion. Of course 
 I must reply, too ; and I did : that I was glad to hear 
 an i esteemed friend ' so highly spoken of by a gentle- 
 man whose opinion and judgment I had such warrant 
 for trusting and soon. 'But,' I added, 'perhaps 
 our friend had better not be further burdened with his 
 own praises at this time.' 
 
 " I was the more impatient of long speech, because 
 I heard and I could scarcely believe my ears as I did 
 Phil roaring at the top of his voice. The sound 
 came softened to us, by the heavy walls, but I had left 
 the doors ajar, and there was no mistaking the cry, or 
 the direction from which it came. 
 
Til E IDEAL ATTAINED. 437 
 
 " I rose to go to him, apologizing by reference to it. 
 I knew what he wanted, and, looking at the tender- 
 ness expressed in Leonard's face, I did not wonder the 
 child's heart demanded him so keenly. 
 
 " t He is crying for a good-night from you. Colonel/ 
 I said. 'He begged for it before I left him, but 1 
 hoped he would be reconciled to sleep without it. 
 Shall I bring him in his wrapper ?' 
 
 " i Certainly. Phil and I are too old friends, and 
 have seen too much hardship together, to be divided 
 now by a mere matter of ceremony.' 
 
 " I pinned up his long night-gown, therefore, put 
 his feet into a pair of tiny slippers, which Antonio had 
 given him in San Francisco, and sent him tripping 
 along before me to the parlor. 
 
 " What a hilarious meeting they had ! How they re- 
 joiced together, and gave and received tossings up, and 
 laughed and talked, and finally parted with a long hug 
 and kiss ! And Phil was so thankful and happy and 
 quiet, when he again laid down in bed, that I could not 
 reprove him for crying, nor wonder that he did it. 
 I felt that I should behave more unreasonably, per- 
 haps, if I were denied the pleasure he had asked for. 
 
 " I invited the Senanos to see my visitors. La Sig- 
 norita was not well, and excused herself. She had a 
 handkerchief bound about her forehead, and was keeping 
 company with a violent headache ; but Don Alexandro 
 came in, and after saluting Mr. Hedding, was intro- 
 duced by him to Col. Anderson. 
 
 " Some general conversation followed the introduc- 
 tion, and then the Don asked for a private interview 
 with him, to which Leonard assented, and they re- 
 paired to the drawing-room. 
 
 " During the quarter of an hour's absence, Mr. 
 Hedding informed me volunteering the same that 
 his friend had been sent for by a company of capital- 
 ists, who had taken a heavy job in hand in the southern 
 mining district, with an incompetent man to conduct 
 it. ' I knew Anderson was on this side of the globe 
 somewhere,' he said, ' and as he was not here, there was 
 but one other place where he could be, so we wrote to 
 
4:38 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 California for him ; and I am glad he has come ; for 
 if any man could save us, he can.' 
 
 " I could ask no questions such as whether this 
 business would take him permanently from the city or 
 not, nor how soon, nor how long. Much as I wished 
 to know, I kept quiet on these subjects, and merely 
 acknowledged by my remarks an ordinary friend's in- 
 terest in what he had told me. 
 
 "When Leonard returned, unaccompanied by the 
 Don, I begged, at the risk of having some woman's 
 curiosity imputed to me, to know how he had found us 
 so soon, Mr. Hedding having said that he had landed 
 late last night. 
 
 " ' I accidentally met a friend at the Hotel du JSTord,' 
 he replied, 'who told me where you were.' 
 
 " There was a glance of intelligence between him 
 and Mr. Hedding at the moment, that piqued me ; but 
 I would not recognize the meaning look. I talked of 
 his voyage, of California, of you, dear Anna, and any 
 other of the thousand things which help people to 
 conceal themselves in speech. It was not late when 
 Mr. Hedding drew a large, old-fashioned watch from 
 his pocket and said, ' It is my time for going home. 
 Do you walk now, Col. Anderson ?' 
 
 " ' Not yet, sir, if you will pardon me for letting 
 you go alone.' 
 
 " ' I beg you won't mention it. I am a little an- 
 cient in habits as well as years, Ma'am,' he said, i and 
 am never, willingly, up beyond my stated hours. If I 
 had the same reason for forgetting my rest that my 
 friend has,' smiling toward him, ' I dare say it would 
 be different.' 
 
 " ' I can say nothing so kind as to wish you may 
 have, some day,' said Leonard, drawing near' to me 
 his countenance beaming with the frank affection of 
 his heart. 
 
 " ' Ah ! Thank you. No, it doesn't belong to us 
 old men,' he said, and with the words his face lost its 
 playful gayety. ' Good ni^ht. God bless you both.' 
 And witli a cordial clasp of our hands, he was gone, 
 and we were alone again. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 439 
 
 " ' You will pardon me, I hope, my own queen 
 Eleanore,' said Leonard, folding me in his arms. ' I 
 was like Phil, and could not part from you to-night 
 with the eyes of a stranger upon us. Have I tres- 
 passed by remaining ?' 
 
 " ' The social usages are very arbitrary here,' I re- 
 plied, ' and adapted to low natures, as all arbitrary 
 rules of action are ; but they will no less have to be 
 observed by us, I suppose. If I must affront society, 
 Leonard, I would rather do it in a great than a small 
 thing. Therefore 
 
 " ' Yes, I see. Therefore I must not sit with you a 
 half hour, though to do so were the greatest and purest 
 happiness I could know. Then, Eleanore, do not chide 
 me if, even so early, I think and speak of that time 
 and relation which will remove all hindrance to my 
 coining and going. I cannot lose you any more, dear- 
 est. Life is too short, and time, so freighted as ours, 
 too precious to be lost in these poor conformities. Is 
 it not so to you as well as me ?' 
 
 " ' My heart,' I replied, ' rebels as deeply as yours, 
 beloved, and I ask your strength to aid me against 
 my own weakness. Ah ! though you smile so incredu- 
 lously, I am weak, as I fear you may find in the 
 coming days ; but there is no time to prove it to you 
 now.' 
 
 " ' I shall have to leave the city soon, Eleanore.' 
 
 " ' For a Ions; time ?' 
 
 " ' Some weets, at least perhaps months.' 
 
 " This was a heavy thought to come so soon ; but 
 while we talked, the time was passing. 
 
 " ' Dear friend,' I said, ' there is much to be under- 
 stood between us yet, that we take not the future at 
 disadvantage. Let me see you daily while you are 
 here. My school-hours are from ten to three ; so there 
 is a long morning of delicious peacefulness in the outer 
 world, and all the evenings, after four. Remember, you 
 are not to rob me of one of them. ~No invitations to late 
 dinners shall you accept but at peril of my displeasure.' 
 
 " ' This school could not possibly be given up, I 
 suppose V he said. 
 
44:0 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " ' On no account,' I replied, * at this time ; but I 
 am detaining you. Good night.' 
 
 " i Good night, Eleanore. I suppose you are right 
 to send me away ; but I almost wish you had not the 
 strength or- the weakness to do it.' 
 
 " So he went, Anna, and I came in to write you, 
 and I have reached the end of the letter and the night 
 together, I believe ; for there is a cock-crow from the 
 yard. You will not receive another such epistle in a 
 year, from ELEANORE." 
 
 I felt great pride and satisfaction in this letter, and 
 not a little concern also that everything connected with 
 the happy events it foreshadowed should come and go 
 harmoniously. I had a strong feeling that I ought tro 
 be with my friend, and I almost wondered, sometimes, 
 how she got along without me. Nearly four of the 
 six months I had engaged to stay were already gone. 
 The rainy season was far advanced, and the country a 
 glorious spectacle from sea-shore to mountain-top a 
 miracle of verdurous and varied beauty. I felt so 
 much life and health in the sunshine and winds, the 
 rains and the dry days were each such a joy to soul 
 and body, that I now wished we were all quietly set- 
 tled again in that land of health and plenty ; and I 
 began to inquire if it would ever be so. I should go 
 to her there that was certain ; but should we not all 
 return again ? I spoke a good deal of this in my letters ; 
 but if it was ever referred to in hers, it was so vaguely 
 and generally as to give me little satisfaction. She 
 seemed equally indifferent to all places, in the pos- 
 session of wealth that would enrich any. 
 
 Her next letter said she was alone. Col. Anderson 
 had gone on his contemplated journey had been gone 
 a fortnight, and she had heard from him but once. 
 
 "The barbarians," she added, indignantly, "having 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 but a semi-monthly post, and that not the most reliable, 
 between this seaport and their richest mines. We set- 
 tled nothing definitely as to the future, Anna," she con- 
 tinued. "He thought he should not be absent more 
 than three weeks at this time, and as so many are in- 
 terested in his return Don Alexandra among them 
 I hear his name daily coupled with wishes for his 
 coming, which I echo away down in my heart. 
 
 " Phil nearly took to his bed upon it. I never saw 
 a young child mourn so inconsolably as he, for ' Turnel' 
 and Antonio. After the pleasure of the daily visits, 
 walks, and drives, he seemed unable to bear their loss, 
 and indignantly asked me, ' Didn't I love ' Turnel,' and 
 say he was going to live with us ?' 
 
 " I am writing, though, to tell you something beside 
 all this. Mr. Hedding paid me a visit a few days ago. 
 He is fully informed of our engagement, and as pleased 
 with it as if one of us were his own child, and he told 
 me that on the morning after his arrival from Califor- 
 nia, Col. Anderson was sitting at breakfast, at the Hotel 
 du Nord, among a company of gentlemen who were en- 
 tire strangers to him, Mr. H. himself not having been 
 present, when his attention was attracted to a little 
 group, in earnest conversation, at one end of the table. 
 They grew louder as they went on, till at length 
 one of the speakers, striking his hand decisively upon 
 the board, exclaimed, i By Jove, I say she was right, 
 and I'll maintain it !' 
 
 " ' Hurrah for Huntley, the champion of the Yan- 
 kee school-mistress !' said a mischievous fellow among 
 them. 
 
 " i If she is a Yankee school-mistress, she's a true 
 woman, I'll swear, and I admire her pluck.' 
 
 " ' So do I,' said a third. ' Byfield was always a 
 coward and scoundrel, though he has fought two or 
 three times with devilish good luck. It must have 
 been capital to see him finished and actually sent from 
 the country by a woman, who never, as far as I can 
 learn, has left the house she lives in. Have any of you 
 ever seen her ?' 
 
 " ' No. no,' was answered by the voices of the party, 
 19* 
 
44:2 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 to which Col. Anderson was now giving the keenest 
 attention, unobserved by them. 
 
 " i I never saw her,' said one, ' though I have dined 
 at old Senano's three times lately, and, since this af- 
 fair, have kept a sharp look-out for anything feminine 
 except La Signorita but in vain.' 
 
 " ' Hamilton, who was invited there with Byfield, 
 told me all about it,' said another ; ' and he said her 
 speech was as direct and trenchant as a Toledo blade, 
 and that he'd rather face a six-barrel revolver, than 
 have to stand what poor By did. And the best of 
 it was, that it was done as gently and quietly as a lady 
 would entertain an agreeable visitor, but with such 
 eyes, he said, as he never saw before. Ham, I believe, 
 was quite captivated with her.' 
 
 " At this moment Mr. Hedding said he entered the 
 room. He did not at first see his old friend, but, walk- 
 ing toward this party and exchanging salutations with 
 them, one said : ' You are a guest at old Senano's, oc- 
 casionally, are you not, Mr. Hedding ?' 
 
 " ' I have had the honor of dining with him a few 
 times,' he replied. 
 
 " ' Have you ever been so fortunate as to see there 
 the heroine of the Byfield tragedy?' asked the mis- 
 chievous young man. l That is what these gentlemen 
 wish to know. We are all fresh from the mountains, 
 yesterday, except Hall, and Huntley, who has thrown 
 down the glove for this modern Rebecca. If one of 
 our artists could get a portrait of her now, and exhibit 
 it, he'd have the custom of this whole party.' 
 
 " ' Nobody attends to your raillery, Brydges,' said 
 Huntley. ' It falls everywhere, and hurts nothing.' 
 
 " ' And I can tell you, gentlemen,' said Mr. Hed- 
 ding, ' that if you saw her portrait, you would see the 
 picture of a noble woman. She comes from my State, 
 and I am proud of her.' 
 
 " i Can't you contrive to show her to us ? By Jupi- 
 ter, I should like to see the woman who could make a 
 man eat his words in presence of others, as she did 
 and do it, too, without noise or tears : that's the mira- 
 cle ! I should like to be introduced to her.' 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 443 
 
 " ' She doesn't receive visits,' said Mr. Hedding. 
 
 " He was touched upon the arm as he spoke, and 
 looking round, there stood Col. Anderson at his elbow 
 a commanding figure and presence which arrested 
 their conversation till the two moved away to an unoc- 
 cupied part of the room. Presently they returned, and 
 the stranger was introduced to Huntley, but no one 
 else, and then they walked away. 'And when we had 
 reached his private room,' said the old gentleman, ' the 
 Colonel took Huntley's hand, and said : " I am under 
 great obligation to you, sir, for the service you have 
 done a lady this morning in that room. The person of 
 whom you spoke is an acquaintance of mine, and no 
 approval that you could express would exceed what 
 I know to be her desert." : 
 
 " ' And that was the way he found you, ma'am,' 
 added the good Mr. Hedding. < He inquired for By- 
 field, whom it proves that he knew years ago at home, 
 but that gentleman was safe oat of harm's way. He 
 couldn't stand the fire which your defeat of him pro- 
 voked, and being an idle vagabond, with nothing to do 
 and money to spend, he went off to Panama, I be- 
 lieve.' 
 
 " I am glad, dear Anna, that Leonard heard so 
 favorably of this mortifying affair at the first. It 
 might have reached him in some less pleasant manner, 
 and been a source of pain or chagrin to both of us. 
 Yery delicate and considerate in him, was it not, to 
 leave it to me whether it should ever be mentioned 
 between us?" 
 
 Four days later : " Leonard is confidently looked for 
 early next week. I do not know how long he will stay, 
 and sometimes I feel doubtful whether or not I shall 
 stay behind him. I have come to think lately that it 
 would be very pleasant to live down there in the 
 mountains, which he describes as very grand and im- 
 posing, and have him coming and going many times 
 through the day. I am talking foolishly to you, I 
 know, but one must be sometimes allowed to do that. 
 You shall hear from me after hi* return, and then I 
 
444 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 will tell you if I think I ought to ask you to come 
 here. 
 
 " Do not think, dear, I want you less than I once 
 did. E"o, but more ; for I could speak so freely to 
 your good sense and honest heart of what I am now 
 obliged to suppress, except in these fragmentary, poor 
 letters. Think of all the meetings and talks I have 
 not even alluded to, in which we are daily becoming 
 better known to each other, as you will be glad to 
 hear, to my perfect satisfaction. 
 
 " Thine, without change, ELEANORE." 
 
 " Did I tell you," she adds, in a postscript, " that 
 the weather topic is enriched here by the additional 
 item of ' shocks' ? We had a sharp one two days ago, 
 but I was less alarmed by it than I thought I should 
 be, from all the talk I have heard about them." 
 
CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 Her next letter was a month later : 
 
 " I did not write by the last mail, dear Anna. 
 I had so much to think of, and was so little decided in 
 regard to many important things, that I could not 
 speak clearly to you. Oh, that you had been with me, 
 dear child, in this time ! It has been a period of great 
 joy and great struggle with myself. I have long had 
 at the bottom of my heart a heroism perhaps the 
 one of my life, so far and I have lived it within 
 the past month. But I will proceed to narrate at 
 once : 
 
 " Leonard came, a day or two later than we ex- 
 pected him. IJe was very much absorbed, for nearly 
 a week after his arrival, in receiving and making pro- 
 posals, estimates, plans, and so on. He spent an hour 
 with me the first evening, and one or two every 
 morning, during those busy days. That was little to 
 see of him, but it was enough to convince me how 
 earnest, manly, and straightforward are all the phases 
 of his character, and that he is not less reliable in his 
 relation to these men of business than to the woman 
 who loves him. 
 
 " He also dined here on one of those days, when the 
 company consisted of about twenty persons, and occu- 
 pied a distinguished seat, with me at his side, devoting 
 himself in so marked a manner, but without a visible 
 sign of the sentimental lover, that any possible freedom 
 of thought which might have been indulged about ' the 
 governess,' must have been frozen at its source. He 
 introduced but one of the guests to me Gen. Blanco, 
 the revolutionist, who was both gracious and respect- 
 
446 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 fill ; and as we ladies were about leaving the table, be 
 half whispered : ' I shall join you very soon. I can- 
 iiot sit over wine with these men, under the same roof 
 with you. So look for me at the earliest moment that 
 I can excuse myself.' 
 
 " He soon came to the parlor, and, after saluting 
 Las Signoritas in the stately style suited to the Span- 
 ish drawing-room, seated himself by me. I had pre- 
 viously vowed that my first free word to him should 
 prepare the way for the subject I had pondered and 
 dreaded ; and now, that I might not be defeated by my 
 own fears or his speech, I said, hurriedly : ' I wish to 
 have a talk with you, Leonard ; but as what I have to 
 say requires calm consideration, it will be better to 
 wait till these negotiations are closed, will it not ?' 
 
 " ' Yes ; but T hope there is nothing unreasonable or 
 impracticable coming, now. I see in your face a 
 shadow, Eleanore ; its color varies like the auroral 
 sky, and I know your heart is fluttering there like a 
 wild bird caged. "Walk in the garden with me, and 
 tell me what brings all this. Now, what is it, heart's 
 dearest f he said, when we had gone beyond the first 
 range of flower-beds. ' Do not hesitate to walk here 
 with me. They all understand our relation all, at 
 least, who know or care anything about us. I ex- 
 plained to Don Alexandro this morning. He was 
 very polite, but said it needed no explanation to him 
 and La Signorita. They had eyes and hearts.' 
 
 " ' I am glad you have done it,' I said ; ' it relieves 
 me of some embarrassment I have felt all along, but 
 scarcely wished to put my own hand out to remove.' 
 
 " ; Was that the substance of the shadow that lay 
 here, and here, but a moment ago ?' 
 
 " ' There was none there, foolish one,' I said. 
 
 " ' There was, Eleanore ; I saw it plainly. Never 
 think to deceive me with those eyes and lips, that I 
 know every shade and motion of, as well as the painter 
 of his picture. Come, I must have the word before I 
 go to those men. You told me you were sometimes 
 perverse and obstinate, and asked me to treat you for 
 those symptoms ; and I showed you how I would do it, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 447 
 
 when other means failed. Now you cannot loose my 
 arm till you tell me something of what is on your mind 
 and if I cannot get speech from those lips, I will 
 have something else. Do you see now how I have all 
 the advantage ?' 
 
 " ' Yes. You would scarcely be a man if you 
 didn't take and boast it, too.' 
 
 " ' Ah, that sharp tongue !' he said ; i but it shall 
 not win your freedom, though it were a hundred times 
 sharper. I said I would have speech or something 
 sweeter from those lips. But I will silence them if 
 they utter another so saucy a word. Now beware. 
 I know that something keen is burning to leap forth, 
 but the instant it comes, I shall seal them. It is allow- 
 able in all warfare to silence the enemy's guns when 
 you can.' 
 
 " I was silent, and after a moment, releasing me, he 
 said, seriously : i Tell me now, dear Eleanore, not 
 what the thing is you have to say for that we have 
 not time but if it will affect our happiness or relation 
 in any degree. Is it anything new ? does it cloud the 
 future in which our hopes are gathered ? Come here, 
 close to my heart, and tell me.' 
 
 " I could not say clearly either yes or no, but after 
 a moment I whispered : ' It is something requiring 
 great courage on my part, dear Leonard ; the exercise 
 of that will be the greatest pain it will cost, I hope.' 
 
 " ' You alarm me,' he said. ' Is there anything in 
 your history, my own high-hearted Eleanore, that it 
 ought to cost you so bitter an effort to tell to me f 
 to me who love you so entirely and inevitably? Oh, 
 dear child, you know little of my love, if you dread to 
 tell me anything that can possibly have been a part of 
 the experience of such a soul as yours. I know its ele- 
 vation and purity, as I know that nature, in her inmost 
 processes and workings, is worthy the God who or- 
 dained them.' 
 
 " ' You mistake me, Leonard,' I said, laying the 
 generous, encircling hand more closely to my heart ; 
 ' you mistake me. It is not of my history, but my 
 thoughts and opinions, I wish to speak to you.' 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " ' Thank God !' he exclaimed, fervently. ' I would 
 not have your memory darkened by a pain that I could 
 not soothe or banish, for the treasure of the earth ; but 
 if it is only the opinions which this busy brain has been 
 working out only those I shall come to hear them 
 as I would to drink a bumper of wine of cypress. 
 Every thought and sentiment of yours I have ever 
 heard, dearest one, has penetrated my soul, as the sub- 
 tile spirit of the purest wine penetrates the brain 
 kindling life, feeling, lofty purpose, and sublime hopes.' 
 
 " ' But what I have to say now may aifect you differ- 
 ently,' I said, wishing to cloud the brightness of his 
 confidence a little. ' My sentiment toward you par- 
 takes strongly of worship for your completeness of 
 manhood and warm and spontaneous soul-life. The 
 earth you walk upon becomes consecrated to me ; the 
 air you breathe more ethereal and divine by your pres- 
 ence in it. I have found in you, dear idol of my heart, 
 that other life, which nothing can ever separate from 
 mine, and it is another world to me since. Time, life, 
 death, and eternity, are changed by this relation of my 
 being to yours. But I will carefully cherish all that 
 can glorify this. It is not enough for me that it is and 
 must be, let what will happen to us in the outward : 
 but I will have it so rich and perfect, that our days 
 shall come and go with rejoicing, and life shall be a 
 perpetual feast but so wisely and delicately enjoyed, 
 that it shall not pall upon us. In love, Leonard, you 
 shall find me the veriest epicure. I will be so dainty 
 and nice in its entertainments, that no one of them 
 shall ever be felt as unwelcome. I will strew its bloom- 
 ing paths not only with the joys that God sanctions, 
 but with the denials that highten all pleasures. I will 
 so care for your happiness and my own, that the flight 
 of 3 ears shall take from us nothing which time is com- 
 manded to leave, and that our hearts, becoming more 
 firmly united by all the high respects and observances 
 that exist between the man and the woman, shall never 
 be less alive to the beauty of the same between the 
 husband and wife. It is of such things, dear Leonard, 
 that I wish to talk to you, in some undisturbed hour, 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 449 
 
 when your heart is tranquil and your thoughts serene.. 
 W^ill you come to hear me ?' 
 
 " ' Will I come !' he echoed, drawing me closer to 
 his breast. ' Will I open my eyes to see the splendors 
 of to-morrow ? Will I surfer my ears to drink in the 
 melodies of winds and waters, and birds and happy in- 
 sects ? Will I breathe the odors wherewith our dear 
 God hath freighted the embracing airs ? Then will I 
 come to thee, Eleanore. And call no more on that 
 higli courage, which as much as anything else in thy 
 soul hath riveted fast its fetters on mine. For in all 
 these things thou speakest to me as one inspired. 
 Therefore fear not to utter thy inmost thought, dear 
 Eleanore. I hear the sounds of movement within. 
 One sweet kiss before I go from thy sphere to the 
 earthy one a long and trusting kiss to chase away the 
 last vanishing mist between us.' 
 
 " I was unutterably happy in that moment, Anna ; 
 happy in having followed my highest convictions ; 
 happy in the assurance of a cordial and serious hear- 
 ing of all I had yet to say ; and more than all, in the 
 exceeding tenderness and purity of the love expressed 
 in that parting. 
 
 " * I shall see you no more till to-morrow, 7 he mur- 
 mured ; ' and this is the adieu which will be visibly 
 conveyed by-and-by, by clasped hands only. After 
 three days I will come for that audience. Make thy 
 heart light, meanwhile, for it can contain no thought 
 or emotion, I know, which thou shouldst shrink from 
 uttering to me.' 
 
 " I lingered long enough among the flowers to dry 
 the happy dew that had distilled into my eyes, and 
 tranquil ize the strong pulsations which seemed to have 
 passed from his bosom into mine, and then I also en- 
 tered the house, went to the parlor, and, for the first 
 time in the presence of strangers, there sat down at 
 the piano. One of the ladies had been playing, and 
 very well, too we had heard her in the garden a 
 beautiful piece from La Ceneventola, and the music 
 still lay upon the rack. I looked at Signorita, who 
 invited me, by her eyes and nodding gesture, to go on. 
 
4:50 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " I believe I was inspired then, Anna, if I ever 
 was. I struck a few chords carelessly, as in our 
 youth we sweep the strings of the heart often, with 
 rash and blind hand ; but the right voice did not come 
 till I had wandered over the keys several times. At 
 last I found it, and in the finding, I quickly forgot all 
 else, but how I could satisfy my soul with the wealth 
 of sounds. My thoughts ran backward from the rich 
 and flowery present, but there was sadness which I 
 resolutely turned from, bringing myself by soft and 
 lingering touches on the minor keys, away from the 
 grief I dared not let into my heart away, to the 
 blooming fields and towering mountain-crests, where 
 my joys and triumphs now lie. I lived in it, dear, as 
 I had just lived in other high communion, and I 
 was as unconscious of time in the one as in the other. 
 When I came to the end, pouring out that last experi- 
 ence of my soul; there was silence after the prolonged 
 notes of victory, and I became suddenly conscious of 
 being surrounded. 
 
 " Presently the words, ' Inimitable ! superb ! glori- 
 ous i' and so on, came to my ears, and I heard myself 
 praist-d for what I seemed to have been rather chief 
 auditor than performer of. Mr. Hunt-ley the cham- 
 pion, as he is sometimes jokingly called, came to my 
 side, and with some words of unmeasured warmth, ex- 
 pressed tlb , pleasure I had given them all. There was 
 a general murmur of voices and movement, and I won- 
 dered that Leonard did not appear. 
 
 " 4 We should like to hear something else, Madam,' 
 said Mr. Hedding. So skillful a hand must have many 
 such pleasures in its gift.' 
 
 " I did not say, of course, what was true that it 
 was the soul, and not the hand, that had furnished the 
 last ; but feeling constrained by the request and the 
 waiting presences, I laid a piece of Mendelssohn before 
 me, and played it. It was mechanically done, and not 
 very well, for my hand needs practice sadly, except 
 when the spirit moves it ; and when it was over, the 
 men, with thanks, again withdrew to their segars, poli- 
 tics, railroads, and mines, and we were left alone, as I 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 4:51 
 
 thought, till I heard a step, and felt Leonard bending 
 over me. 
 
 " ' I have never heard you touch a piano before, 
 Eleanore,' he said, speaking low ; ' but, tell me, what 
 was that wonderful first piece ?' 
 
 " i It has no name,' I said. 
 
 " ' Then it was an improvisation. I thought so it 
 spoke so clearly to my soul. I could not come to you 
 at the moment the music moved me too deeply. Do 
 you play much in that way ?' 
 
 " ' Not much in any way,' I replied, * since I left 
 home.' 
 
 " I remembered then, Anna, playing at Mrs. Hol- 
 man's, and how you recognized the expression of that 
 performance ; and I told him that I had played so but 
 once before since I had known him. 
 
 " ; This is a pleasure,' he said, ' I never dreamed of 
 enjoying with you. It has taken me by surprise. We 
 are apt, perhaps, to undervalue the musical taste and 
 culture of Americans ; but I would not shrink from 
 comparing that performance with one of the same 
 character by any unprofessional artist in Paris or 
 London.' 
 
 u ' It is rather a gift,' I said, i than a power 
 which in music must be the result of a talent, as we 
 call it, richly cultivated. Apart from something like 
 this, I make no pretensions. I am not a bit of an art- 
 ist, Leonard.' 
 
 " ' We might differ about that,' he said, ' if there 
 were time; but we left an important question sus- 
 pended in mid-discussion, when you summoned us, and 
 I must return to my part in it.' 
 
 " So ended the evening, dear Anna ; and you ought 
 indeed, now, you ought to be more thankful than 
 I fear you are, for being so faithfully remembered in 
 these full and happy days. In my next letter, you 
 will have that long talk and its results, so far as they 
 are discernible at the writing. 
 
 " Do you often consider, dear, how foolishly we 
 speak of the effect of ideas ? We talk with a person 
 for the purpose of introducing certain thoughts and 
 
452 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 feelings into his or her life. We spend an hour 
 may be two or three and we go away at last, dis- 
 appointed and disheartened. When we speak of the 
 interview, we say, ; I tried to show a truth to that soul, 
 but without avail. My words fell upon ears of stone.' 
 
 " Shallow lamentation ! We sow the seed, and ex- 
 pect to see the bloom in a day. We will not patiently 
 look along the line of stormy or tranquil years that 
 stretch before, to see how, by-and-by, in some unex- 
 pected hour and place, there shall spring up a sweet 
 flower, or a clinging vine, or a vigorous young forest 
 tree, to testify to our righteous husbandry. I believe 
 no word spoken for truth is ever utterly lost. It will 
 germinate somewhere in the kingdom of life, and add 
 to it beauty or strength, or both. 
 
 " Phil, hearing your name frequently mentioned 
 so aifectionately between Leonard and me, has actually 
 taken to teasing for you lately, and he has entered into 
 treaty with Clara, I believe, to join him so that al- 
 most every day I am questioned, entreated, and some- 
 times positively worried by the little rogues, about you. 
 Will you come, dear friend, when the time you named 
 to Leonard is expired? If you should desire it, you 
 could have this situation, or another as good, without 
 difficulty ; but I shall claim you for rny own for awhile, 
 wherever I may then be. How would you like the 
 mountains for a few months ? At any rate come, dear 
 Anna, when you feel you can. 
 
 " I am invited now very frequently, since it is un- 
 derstood who I am to be, by-aud-by. Even my good, 
 Mrs. Rowe made a point of sending for me from the 
 school-room, at her last visit, instead of, as before, 
 leaving her card, with my name written upon it. 
 
 " I have not been out yet, nor do I intend going at 
 present. Leonard does not worship society or position, 
 and when I say, ' Shall I go this evening here or 
 there ?' he says with his tongue, l By all means, if 
 you like to, Eleanore ' : but with his eyes he says as 
 plainly, ' Will it not be so much happier being by our- 
 selves here?' And I always answer to the eyes, and 
 not the tongue. Yours ever, ELEANORE." 
 
CHAPTEK LIY. 
 
 " The three days are gone, Anna," she said, in her 
 next, " but the arrangements spin out through two or 
 three more, I suppose, and as I see him every day, I 
 let times and events take their course. 
 
 " On Sunday last we went to the Protestant chapel. 
 It is not quite lawful to call it a church the Romish 
 Church refusing to recognize it for that, and the gov- 
 ernment, in suffering it to be established, actually re- 
 fusing to it the proportions and general architectural 
 character of sacred edifices. It is a low, one story 
 wooden building, on the hill in the part of the town 
 mostly occupied by foreigners : painted brown, and 
 looking more like a rambling, lawless cottage-house, 
 than a building for religious worship. 
 
 " The congregation was small, but there was a large 
 proportion of cultivated, refined faces among those 
 who composed it. This is a British naval station, 
 you know. There is an English war vessel of immense 
 size lying in the harbor at present, and several smaller 
 ones are always kept here or cruising on the coast. 
 This brings a good many cultivated men and a few 
 families into the English congregation ; and then there 
 are physicians, lawyers, merchants, and travelers an 
 undue proportion of the latter, just now, on their way 
 to California. 
 
 " The services are conducted by a minister who is 
 not called a Rector, or Vicar, or Curate ; but a Chap- 
 lain. He is a slight, pale, intellectual looking man, with 
 a gentle, kindly face, which greatly won us. His ser- 
 mon was both earnest and polished ; but its staple wa^ 
 drawn from the past, where, according to the doctrine i 
 
454: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 of his church, are garnered man's hopes of salvation. 
 The good man is stifled, walled within his creed, and 
 dare not rub off the mold of the ages, lest some of his 
 piety should go with it. Leonard and I agreed, walk- 
 ing homeward, that however honest and good and pure 
 it was, the day for such teaching was passing away. 
 It is observable, I think, everywhere here, as well as 
 at home, that it takes less hold on the mind than it 
 used to. People sit and hear of awful judgments, and 
 penalties, and wrath, and ruin ; but, dear friend, they 
 don't believe them! And I respect them for it. 
 Leonard laughed at my remarking how comfortably 
 this little congregation, which does not, I suppose, 
 contain many progressive people, took its damnation. 
 The people looked complacently at him who was show- 
 ing them what they deserved, and would certainly get, 
 if God's wrath were not averted, and seemed, by their 
 placid faces of assent, to say, ' Yes, that is right ; it is 
 quite according to the canons ; but on the whole, we 
 will not disturb ourselves at least not now' when, if 
 they wholly believed what he was saying, the most 
 fearful demonstrations could not have expressed the 
 agony they ought to have been in. 
 
 " We concluded that the indications from all quar- 
 ters showed that the gospel of fear is going out, and 
 the gospel of love coming in ; and that teachers who 
 would remain teachers, will have to change their 
 direction hastily by-and-by, or find themselves left 
 aside from the great moving current as obstructions 
 instead of helps. 
 
 " It is one of my most substantial causes of thankful- 
 ness that Leonard, who has such a strong religious life, 
 is emancipated in it. We have agreed, while we re- 
 main in this country, to be preachers to each other. 
 
 " It was arranged on this Sunday, that we should 
 go out on horseback on Monday afternoon, I beginning 
 my lessons an hour earlier for that purpose. It is not 
 allowable in this country, oil account of the low moral 
 condition, I suppose, that any unmarried man and 
 woman, shall go out together alone. Suspicion is thus 
 elevated into a social institution, which cannot be set 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 455 
 
 at naught, without loss of caste. So Mr. Huntley, who 
 is really a most noble fellow, and who commends him- 
 self anew to me every time I see him, was invited to 
 invite somebody, and accompany us. We started at 
 two, and were out till nine, dining at a tavern about 
 ten miles hence, which is much resorted to, and riding 
 altogether about thirty miles. It was one of the 
 pleasantest days of my life, dear Anna. Leonard loves 
 the natural world as much as I do. He is enthusiastic 
 about skies, landscapes, and forests sensitive to cer- 
 tain airs as I am, and can take a long holiday by the 
 sea-shore, or on the mountains, or in the forest, with as 
 keen a relish of it and all its accessories, as any soul I 
 ever saw. 
 
 " His life is so healthy and active thoughtfulness 
 tempering and elevating all enjoyment into a sort of 
 religion, which may be grave or gay, according to the 
 outward genialities of the time and place, that he is 
 one of the most delightful companions, apart from his 
 near and sweet relation to me. I find him so esteemed 
 among the men to whom he is known. ~No excursion 
 or party of the best is complete without him ; yet Mr. 
 Hedding told me confidentially that he never partici- 
 pates in or approaches their occasional dissipation; 
 never does nor says himself, or encourages in any other 
 what the presence of the purest women would forbid 
 a high test of character, I take it, Anna, in a man of the 
 world, as he preeminently is. 
 
 " You do not know how much all this encourages 
 and assures me. For though I should love him no 
 less were he in some respects less complete, yet I feel 
 in these many and beautiful sides to his life, a wealth 
 of resource and promise for the future, which I can 
 scarcely estimate to you. If only now the life is spared 
 to us to enjoy all. But I am talking of him instead of 
 what I saw. It is not that I love nature less, but 
 you know the rest. 
 
 " The roads here are often only mule paths, leading 
 through canons and across ravines that look inaccessi- 
 ble from the hills whence you are obliged to descend 
 into them. The horses are curiously trained to gallop 
 
4:56 THE IDEAL A1TAINED. 
 
 up and down the roughest paths. A timid, or even a 
 prudent rider, would hold it expedient, joining such a 
 reckless party as ours was, to settle his temporal con- 
 cerns before leaving home ; for certainly, many times 
 in the course of the day, one fancies there is but an 
 inch between him and broken bones. Yet these 
 splendid creatures never miss their footing in a whole 
 day of such rashness. 
 
 " Great varieties of the cactus were in bloom upon 
 the barren hills, and beautiful verbenas, fuchsias, pan- 
 sies, moccasin flowers, geraniums, and low vine roses 
 sparkled in the valleys below them. Everywhere we 
 saw the chaste oleander, the showy laurustinus, and the 
 sweet honey-suckle every shrub a mass of flowers, so 
 healthy, luxuriant, and gay, that they made our hearts 
 glad with their gladness. We rode through this bloom- 
 ing wilderness, sometimes bending to our saddles to 
 escape the sturdier boughs, and again standing to 
 breathe, and gaze from some open hill-top, upon the 
 country spread below us the prodigal vales of beauty, 
 and the fields of young wheat, set in the red of the 
 arid hills. 
 
 " But to me, Anna, the grand feature of the day's 
 show that which made me often silent with wonder 
 and pleasure, and a wish to be there, alone with Leon- 
 ard was the snowy Andes. There they lay, stem and 
 silent, along the north-eastern horizon their ancient 
 heads reaching into eternal winter their bases g f - 
 with the tender beauty that surrounded us. Aconcagua, 
 the giant of the American mountains, piercing the thin 
 blue air above us for five miles, ?nade even his huge 
 brother look comparatively diminutive. How the ter- 
 rible grandeur appealed to my imagination and my 
 heart." Alone, with that spectacle before me, I should 
 have knelt in silent worship of the power that could 
 fashion it, and in grateful love of the Beneficence that 
 had placed it there. I never long for the strength and 
 freedom of a man, but when such a scene, which only 
 a man's foot can fully explore, lies before me. What a 
 pleasure, what a long rapture, to climb to the top of 
 that hoary mountain what ecstacy, looking clown 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 457 
 
 thence upon the far-off world, to bathe the soul in that 
 misty solitude by day, and drink in its starry mysteries 
 by night ! I realized there the life that said of itself: 
 
 " ' Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends, 
 Where rolled the ocean, thereon was his home.' 
 
 " I became a poet within, when gazing on this scene, 
 and felt, more keenly, I think, than ever before, that they 
 are among the happiest of earth's children who can find 
 harmonious utterance for such emotions as pained me 
 in my cold silence. Tt was a high question then, which 
 my soul could not get answered, why feeling should so 
 immeasurably exceed the power of expression. 
 
 " I asked it of Leonard, when we were riding by 
 ourselves in the evening, and the answer he made was 
 the only selfish one I ever heard from his lips : i If you 
 were a poet in speech as you are in heart, Eleanore, I 
 fear you would be too far from me.' 
 
 " Yesterday he came out after dinner, for a 
 
 whole uninterrupted evening with me alone. i I am 
 clear now, dear Eleanore,' he said, as he drew me to his 
 heart. ' All the worldly care for to-day, and for many 
 days, is gone at last. The morning settled it, and now 
 we are our own again for a time. Antonio is coming 
 to take Phil for a ride, and I want you all to myself, 
 for this whole evening, for that formidable talk which 
 was so dreaded a week ago, or if riot that, any other, 
 in which this soul can come to mine. I am longing 
 for your voice and words, after these tiresome days of 
 
 5 
 
 business. 
 
 " ' Happiness like ours, dear Leonard,' I said, ' is a 
 great and beautiful gift is it not ? How I pity those 
 who never know it. It would now be such a weary 
 thing to attempt to wear out life without you, when even 
 your coming lights up all the present, and fills every cor- 
 ner of my heart with music and joy. There is a question 
 you have wished sometimes to ask me, I know ; but 
 would not because of your womanly consideration for 
 me. Is there not now ? And I looked clear into his 
 frank eyes, which did change and falter a little before 
 mine ; but he sat without speaking, and I said, ' Shall 
 I answer without being asked C 
 20 
 
458 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " ' Yes, if you know what it is, witch.' 
 
 " i Then I will. No, I never loved before !' 
 
 " He started, and involuntarily dropped the hand he 
 was holding in his. ' Were you then ever capable of 
 marrying without loving ?' 
 
 " ' Yes ; but not without believing fully that I did. 
 And I was blest above everything, but this present lot, 
 in being able entirely to respect the man whom I called 
 husband.' 
 
 " He picked up the abandoned hand and carried it 
 to his lips. ' You were then a fortunate woman, Elea- 
 nore. My knowledge of life has convinced me that 
 that is very rarely the case with men or women who 
 make the mistake you did. And, dear heart, how 
 many, many there are of them !' 
 
 " ' Yes, more than we dream of till we search below 
 the surface, whose lying smoothness conceals the un- 
 rest, the loathing, and even torture, in which many 
 proud hearts wear themselves into bitterness, or de- 
 pravity, or stony coldness.' 
 
 " ' I escaped such a fate myself, years as;o, Eleanore ; 
 ' very narrowly escaped it ; and though I have many 
 times been most devoutly thankful for that fortune, I 
 never did so rapturously appreciate it as when first I 
 heard these lips pronounce my name, and felt them 
 yielded to me in that kiss which sealed the tacit prom- 
 ise of our hearts.' 
 
 " ' And this blessedness,' said I, ' which is so rare 
 and dear to us, is worthy all nurture, is it not ? Amid 
 all the offices and duties and pleasures of the life we are 
 entering upon, dost thou see any to compare with 
 those which may preserve to each of us in the other 
 what we may rejoice in to-day ?' 
 
 " ' Nothing comparable to it, my queen.' 
 
 u ' It is of that I would speak ; and, Leonard, I 
 prove my exalted estimate of thy manhood in what I am 
 about to say ; wilt thou accept my earnest and plain 
 word, as a like testimony to my womanhood ?' 
 
 " ' All thy speech is that to me,' he replied, bending, 
 with a fond, caressing movement, over me the more 
 tenderly, I suppose, to remove the hesitancy he felt yet 
 lingering in my mind. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 459 
 
 " ' We are so apt,' I said, * to measure acting and 
 speaking by conventional standards, that often the 
 honest soul lacks courage to do and say the highest 
 or most unusual right thing, from dread of-this ; and 
 women have so long accepted, in the sacred relation of 
 marriage, a position which ignores their individual life 
 and freedom, that I feel I risk the perfectly candid, un- 
 prejudiced judgment even of a soul as large and free as 
 thine, in asking for any other ; but I must be heard, 
 with whatever consequences, on this subject, which so 
 nearly concerns us both ; I must speak from my heart, 
 and may God give me power to reach thine.' 
 
 " I sat erect beside him, holding his hands and look 
 ing into his questioning eyes, which were fixed unwa 
 veringly upon mine. ' I could not, dear Leonard, 
 accept the position I have named ; and feeling that, it 
 is every way an obligation of mine to say this now. 
 The position of my sex in these, as in all other mat- 
 ters, was fixed ages ago, when the external life and its 
 capacity in material power were at once the proof and 
 measure of right ; and it has been only very slowly 
 modified since, even among the best peoples ; laws are 
 more friendly to us than they were ; custom does not 
 rivet her fetters upon all souls with so merciless a hand 
 as she was wont ; and society, seeing woman prove 
 herself in many and various ways worthy her preten- 
 sions, looks with more toleration upon her than for- 
 merly hopeful signs for us of transition to a truer and 
 larger life. But in attaining so much, some of us have 
 conceived the desire for more; and thou, who hast 
 adopted into thy heart one of these outlaws of the old, 
 shouldst see and know whereto her heart and mind 
 will tend, when she shall have entered wholly within 
 the sacred circle of thy love. 
 
 " ' I see, dear friend, in other phases of it, perhaps, 
 and in less measure, as my acquaintance with the 
 world is narrower, the same disappointment of human 
 hopes and affections in the institution of marriage that 
 you lament. I see ardent love dwindle, perish, and 
 change, by slow degrees, through the lapse of years, 
 when not more quickly, into coolness, indifference, and 
 
460 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 finally loathing. Ah, how one shudders in contempla- 
 ting this change ! What uncounted ages of agony must 
 have been endured by those who have passed through 
 it ! I see -men held to the family, as an institution, by 
 the whole body of family ties, rather than from deep, 
 personal love to the wife and mother. I see women and 
 this is to my heart the most painful sight all the deli- 
 cate bloom and spontaneousness of life crushed out of 
 them spiritless, abject, narrow, because of the impov- 
 erished inner state held to the family by the maternal 
 ties alone, their weary feet beset with the cries and 
 needs of imperfect, ill-conditioned offspring and so 
 wearing out life, and welcoming the near approach of 
 death, when all the external or world-seen conditions 
 with them are brimming with hope and promise. 
 
 " ' Oh, Leonard, this is the crowning outrage to 
 which we have been doomed this of compulsory ma- 
 ternity. Many a woman who would be blest as the 
 mother of two or three children, wears out her exist- 
 ence in bearing and rearing a large family. She could 
 have bestowed care and culture upon herself and them, 
 in the first instance ; now she is unable to do either. 
 She had power, life, health, courage, in ample measure, 
 for the few her heart would have prayed for ; but these 
 gifts are poor and stinted in the many. She would 
 have grown in all the experiences which of right ought 
 to be hers as a mother, had she exercised that holy 
 power in the spontaneous freedom of her own nature, 
 only ; but she dwindles under the constraint and bur- 
 den that are laid upon her. She would have pre- 
 served the health, beauty, and geniality of her youth, 
 and they would have lighted and sweetened her de- 
 clining years ; but she is now the enfeebled shadow of 
 herself. Her children are born of her material being 
 alone. They lack the wealth of spontaneous love, 
 courage, hope, reverence beauty which should be 
 theirs the legacy of her highest spiritual life to them. 
 They are imperfect beings, wanting magnanimous trust 
 in God or man ; wanting generous faith in life ; 
 wanting the inner strength which alone can bear 
 the aspiring soul firmly and brightly above the storms 
 that bend and darken it above its own errors and 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 461 
 
 sins, making it feel that it is greater than any deed 
 dearer to God than any vengeance. 
 
 " ' Ah, Leonard, herein is great wrong done to hu- 
 manity, as well as to us. Do not doubt it. The mo- 
 ther who so directly and inevitably acts for God to 
 her children, should have a godlike freedom in her 
 action. 
 
 " ' We cannot blind ourselves to the mournful truth 
 that there is a frightful usurpation of low rule in the 
 nature of man, and that woman is often the victim of 
 this misrule woman in what we call virtuous and 
 honorable life, as well as those unhappy ones who are 
 equally our sisters, and who were once somewhere 
 equally beloved as we are. 
 
 " ' Our life is a compound gift, dear friend a union 
 of the finite with the infinite and any not base rela- 
 tion of two beings must partake of both. We love the 
 person of our friend, whether of our own or the oppo- 
 site sex ; we clasp the hand or kiss the lips with a 
 pleasure proportioned to the intensity of our affection, 
 which is the infinite fact. And I believe no relation 
 can be true and lasting, glorifying those who sustain 
 it, in which the spiritual does not predominate. 
 I would have mine to thee stand high above all possi- 
 bility of harm from the material. The noble form on 
 which I look with pride as well as love, shall no wise 
 cloud or hinder the soul I am seeking in thee. I would 
 not have one of its demands jar the spirit-harmony 
 which makes thee now the most welcome object to my 
 eyes and soul that the earth contains. I would not 
 have the delicate bloom of our love irreverently or 
 carelessly brushed away by the usurping sense, for all 
 else that life can offer us. 
 
 " ' And is there need or excuse that it should be ? 
 Hath not the dear fatherly and motherly God widened 
 and filled, with a divine munificence, the circle of our 
 happy experiences, that, when all are brought to dis- 
 till their essence into our souls, no one need be repeated 
 to satiety ? Have we not pure spiritual love, which 
 would make the thought of thee, wert thou altogether 
 gone from me, a deep and lasting joy ? Have we not 
 parental love, which comes into the soul of man and 
 
4:62 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 woman as the sun's warmth to the unfolding flower ? 
 Have we not thought, and its various expression ? as- 
 piration, with its sacred fires? achievement, with its 
 rich contentments ? self-denial, with its satisfying re- 
 wards ? hope, with its promises ? faith, with its yearn- 
 ings and victories ? nature, with all her glory and ten- 
 derness ? art, with her splendors ? knowledge, with her 
 attractions ? and shall the soul so provided for de- 
 scend to the slavish, withering indulgence of mere 
 sense substituting that for all or any of these high 
 
 J.T S ? 
 
 " ' O dear friend and hope of my life, I know thou 
 
 art not a sensualist ! It is not written in this face, 
 which I look unshrinkingly into, because manly, heal- 
 thy thought and emotion answer me there. It has not 
 perverted the currents of thy noble nature ; nor shorn 
 thy spirit of its delicate outgrowths toward the high 
 and the pure. But I would have all this remain so in 
 thee and me in the years that are before us. I would 
 ask that perfect respect shall continue between us, and 
 be carried into all the details which make up the sum 
 of life ; that my personal freedom toward thee be kept 
 as inviolately my own in after-time as now ; and so, 
 when our children the offspring of thy glorious man- 
 hood shall bud and blossom in our house, there shall 
 reign in both our bosoms the proud consciousness that 
 each life there is the free and unstinted gift of our 
 whole natures. 
 
 " i Canst thou accede to this ?' 
 
 "A light, half-grave and half smiling, had been 
 slowly dawning in his eyes while I was speaking the 
 last sentences. It had cost me a great effort to say all 
 this, Anna, and much very much more that I have 
 now forgotten ; for I did not know how it would be 
 received, even in his large, unjealous heart. But I was 
 very happy, when I ceased, to be drawn to his bosom, 
 with words of infinite peace and comfort. 
 
 " ' Corne to my heart,' he said, ; with all thy de- 
 mands. In our perfect love be found the guarantee of 
 their satisfaction : in that and in somewhat here ' lay- 
 ing his hand upon his breast 'that would shrink from 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 463 
 
 enslaving the meanest creature, and that would rather 
 see thee, beloved, dead and hidden from mortal eye, 
 than feel that one of the high desires which make thee 
 what thou art had been violated. There have been 
 true and noble men in all time, Eleanore rulers over 
 themselves, and not tyrants over others. Dost thou 
 believe there are some such yet ? and wilt thou trust 
 to having found one ? I claim no less than that high 
 character, dear Eleanore, though I should, perhaps, 
 live years without finding the time and occasion to as- 
 sert it in words. Do not think me a braggart, dearest, 
 for saying so much. Dost thou want other assurance, 
 or will this supply its place ?' 
 
 "When next I spoke, they were true, heartfelt 
 words : '/ am- at rest with tJiee. I dared not be con- 
 scious of demanding so much that might not be looked 
 for, without declaring it frankly ; now I trust thee en- 
 tirely.' 
 
 " 4 Thanks to thy fond woman's heart for those 
 words, and the light of the soul in those confiding eyes, 
 that sanctions their meaning ! I were baser than the 
 basest to betray the trust so given. But now, my own, 
 have I not purchased the right to be heard and heeded ? 
 I also have somewhat for thy hearing. Shall I speak ?' 
 
 " ' Go on, mocker,' I said. 
 
 " ' Well, then, thus runneth my speech. There is a 
 wild and wondrous region of country, about a hundred 
 miles hence, to the southward, to which I have bound 
 myself, by solemn contract, to repair, at the end of ten 
 days from this date. Am I' to go alone ? Tell me,' 
 he urged, when I did not speak, ' will you go with me, 
 Eleanore !' 
 
 " ' Yes, Leonard. I will cheat myself by some 
 vague notions of duty, because you are not going to 
 live in luxury, into the delight of sharing your life. 
 It will be very hard, and rough, and miserable will it 
 not ?' I said, piteously. 
 
 " ' Very,' he replied, with answering wretchedness 
 of tones. ' Yery. It would be a noble piece of self- 
 sacrifice to go down there, and mitigate its hardships.' 
 
 " ; Don't be impertinent, sir,' I said, ' nor ironical, 
 
464 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 or you shall find that I have a clever hand at cor- 
 rection.' 
 
 " * I dare be sworn you have. It would poorly 
 second such eyes if it were not ; and I think I remem- 
 ber the day when you could have used it on my un- 
 lucky ears with a relish could you not ?' 
 
 4 ' Ah, yes, I could ; and the more, because then I 
 loved you, rash, graceless man.' 
 
 " * Did you, Eleanore did you ? How that con- 
 fession endears you to me ! And yet, how she fronted 
 me,' lie continued, ' with the look of an angry goddess, 
 ready to annihilate her poor worshiper!' 
 
 " You wounded my dignity, sir, by that unmannerly 
 kiss.' 
 
 " ' Then, I will heal it now by a mannerly one. 
 There ! Will that leave us clear scores for future 
 skirmishing ?' 
 
 " He was in the mood for bantering, and I let him 
 go, to his heart's content, thinking there has been 
 enough -of solemn talking and thinking, to make play 
 the wisest and happiest change. Nevertheless, dear 
 Anna, I felt sad, as I always must when there is refer- 
 ence to our experience on the Tempest. At any chance 
 mention of it, my mind takes in for the moment all the 
 anguish in which it terminated ; and at this time, in 
 spite of myself and my best efforts at deceiving him, I 
 grew sadder in heart, with the gay words on my tongue, 
 till I saw I must be overcome by my feelings, or break 
 through them by a great change of thought. 
 
 " l Leonard,' said I, astonishing him out of all pro- 
 priety by the sudden and startling question, ' when 
 shall* we be married?' 
 
 " i Heaven only knows, if you do not,' he replied ; 
 4 have you not just promised to go with me at the end 
 of ten days ? If you let me name the day, it will be 
 nine before we have to start.' 
 
 " ' Then you can't do it, sir,' I said. ' I had a pass- 
 ing fancy to try how far you could be trusted with a 
 power that I shall exercise much more wisely.' 
 
 " ' Seriously, Eleanore, my queen, I should like the 
 day, for certain good reasons, which come from my 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 465 
 
 head purely and therefore I hope will weigh with 
 you, if those of the heart would not to be as early in 
 this short time as you can afford. I wish Mrs. Ander- 
 son to receive visits in the city a few days before she 
 goes to the mountains with me, and I wish to have one 
 long day's ride with her, unaccompanied by care- 
 takers. I have promised myself the pleasure of show- 
 ing her, all alone, the beauties of the Val de Due, and 
 some mountain-views that will be new to her. Will 
 that tempt you, or must I plead further ?' 
 
 " Will three days in the city suffice for the dignities 
 of the occasion ?' I asked. 
 
 " ' Four would be better,' he replied, demurely. 
 
 " ; I believe you are deliberately entrapping me,' I 
 said. 
 
 " ' Be watchful, then,' was the provoking answer; 
 ' for when I have fairly caught you, farewell to your 
 debating of times and seasons. All shall then be mine 
 all !' 
 
 " ' Three days in the city,' I repeated. 
 
 " i Four,' he reiterated, ' and one for the ride, and 
 another to make preparations. That will give you 
 three whole days after this to to look your fate in the 
 face. With my help, I think you can sustain them 
 but do not ask for more. You gave me the question : 
 I have decided it. Come, now, shall it not be so ? 
 Dear Eleanore, he whispered, ' if there is no good rea- 
 son against it, let it be as I have said. My judgment 
 as well as my love asks it, and inethinks I have waited 
 long enough.' 
 
 " ' Very long, sir ! It is scarcely a year since first 
 we saw each other.' 
 
 " i It is fifty,' he said, ' by all computation that I 
 can make. It seems another life so long gone in the 
 past, when I did not love you.' 
 
 20* 
 
CHAPTEE LY. 
 
 " So it was settled, dear Anna. It was yesterday, 
 and I have to-day and to-morrow for he cheated me 
 at last out of a day, as I discovered by his laughing in 
 my face, this morning, when I was counting on my 
 fingers, to settle it all definitely. 
 
 " ' You lost a day in your reckoning, Eleanore,' he 
 said, ' and it will have to come off this end of the time, 
 because, you see, it can't be lost at the other.' 
 
 " i I never will have faith in you again,' I said. 
 4 You are no better than other men, who think it 
 clever to deceive a woman.' 
 
 " How much I need you now, Anna ! Only think 
 of my going through all these days amongst strangers 
 not a woman to whom I can speak. La Signorita 
 would be kind, and is, as far as her power goes ; but 
 that does not meet my want. I want an English 
 tongue, and a soul like yours, dear friend, to move it. 
 Leonard is hurrying matters along, though not helping 
 me much, by setting Phil to inquire if I am going to 
 get a papa for him ; and he came in just now from the 
 garden, where they had been walking, shouting with 
 laughter at Phjl's hot resentment of having anybody 
 for papa but him. The argument had grown a little 
 warm between them, and Phil, wanting help to sustain 
 his view of the case, rushed headlong into the house, to 
 get final authority upon it. 
 
 " Isn't Turnel Annerson going to be my papa ?' he 
 asked, with flushed face and angry eyes. * Isn't he, 
 mamma ?' 
 
 " ' Not unless he behaves exceeding well and oare- 
 fully for the next two days, Phil.' 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 467 
 
 " 4 He will, mamma I believe lie will,' said the 
 poor child, anxiously. 
 
 " i But you are angry with him, Phil. Do you 
 want him now for your papa ?' 
 
 " ' Yes, yes, mamma dear. I'm angry "betause I 
 love him.' 
 
 " * There's a precious off-shoot from the mother-tree,' 
 said Leonard, gathering us both into his arms, to Phil's 
 great joy and contentment. 
 
 " We are to be married on Tuesday morning, at the 
 Hotel du Kord receive a few visits that day, and 
 the next, take the promised ride. There will be pres- 
 ent only Messrs. Hedding and Huntley, and the Sena- 
 nos, old and young ; the latter having entreated me to 
 ask permission for them to go. The good little crea- 
 tures seem really very much attached to me, and look 
 quite sad, for a moment, when my going is mentioned. 
 Don Alexandro and La Signorita both bid me say 
 they hope you will come and take my place. They 
 like 'Americanos ' very much, they think, now. 
 
 " I shall hardly be able to write you again, my dear 
 sister, until I am in the mountains, but I hope your 
 next letter will bring us news that you are to sail be- 
 fore the steamer following this will reach you. It 
 would be such a delight to have you see and know my 
 happiness, without being obliged to relate it to you. 
 
 " Thine, as ever, ELEANORE." 
 
 " P. S. Leonard stands over my shoulder, having 
 this moment come in, to see that I write you about 
 coming. He says, when you arrive, you are to ask for 
 Mr. Hedding, at the hotel I have named ; or, in case 
 of his absence, which is unlikely, for Mr. Huntley ; 
 and these gentlemen will be instructed how to send 
 you comfortably to us. You are to come there first, 
 remember, and after a long visit, I may consent, if you 
 desire it, to your looking for something to do. I can't 
 endure to think of its being more than two months yet 
 before we can see you, unless you corne by steamer, 
 which would be attended with some trouble and risk 
 of delay, by reason of the change you have to make at 
 Panama. Adios, dear Anna!" 
 
468 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 When this letter came, I was in San Francisco, 
 making preparations to sail, too full of interest in the 
 voyage and its issue to be capable of much in anything 
 about me. The Marsdens were as kind and helpful as 
 ever. Their school had passed into other hands, and 
 they were living in the lower part of Bush Street, 
 which had already grown from the desert of a year 
 ago into a thoroughfare. 
 
 The third day of my stay with them, as I was sit- 
 ting at a front window, I saw a man, carefully wrapped 
 up, walking slowly by their house, whose bearing 
 seemed familiar to me. Afterward I observed him, 
 again and again, pass and repass. He was evidently 
 very feeble, and walked with his face so covered that I 
 did not make him out till I placed myself in the door 
 one day, and looking closely at him, saw that it was 
 Mr. Garth. I was too much pained and surprised to 
 speak instantly, and he had passed by before I could 
 decide that I ought to have stopped him. When next 
 he came and he seemed to have regular times of go- 
 ing out I spoke to him from the door, calling his 
 name. 
 
 He turned and gazed at me for a moment, and then, 
 approaching, said : " Is it Miss Warren ?" 
 
 " It is," I replied ; " and I am very much pained 
 to see your poor looks." 
 
 " I have been very ill," said he, " of fever, in the 
 mines, and now I believe I am dying." 
 
 I invited him in, and his pale face blanched to a 
 still more ashy hue when I told him, in answer to his 
 inquiries, that Mrs. Bromfield was then no longer Mrs. 
 Bromfield, but Mrs. Anderson, living in Chili, and 
 that I was going to visit her. 
 
 " I am glad to hear of her happiness," said the poor 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 469 
 
 invalid. " Anderson is a noble fellow, and worthy of 
 her, I believe which is saying a great deal, Miss War- 
 ren, of any man. But I can't help feeling it bitterly, 
 sometimes, that I should be left to fall to the ground 
 alone. I had no right, I know, to hope to interest her ; 
 but one cannot always measure one's deserts correctly. 
 I am not dying of unrequited love, though, Miss War- 
 ren ; don't think it. I held up and went on very well, 
 till I was imprudent enough to expose myself by work- 
 ing in my brother's place, in the water, on the Middle 
 Yuba ; and that brought all this on that, and being 
 treated by some of the murdering quacks who infest 
 the mining regions." 
 
 I often saw him afterward, in the few days of my 
 stay, but he seemed to decline very rapidly ; and 
 when I sailed, carrying kind messages to our friends, 
 and some beautiful presents to Phil, whom he yet 
 remembered with the old affection, I thought he 
 scarcely could survive a fortnight. So sadly perished 
 the scholar and gentleman. 
 
CHAPTEE LYI. 
 
 I was more fortunate than either of my friends had 
 been in their passage ; arriving early on the thirty -ninth 
 day from San Francisco, I landed and went in haste to 
 the Hotel du Nord, heeding nothing scarcely noting 
 the strange aspect of the foreign city, and anxious 
 only to find one or other of the gentlemen who had 
 been named to me, and get on the road as quickly as 
 possible to my dear Eleanore, and her husband and 
 child, all whom my heart longed to embrace. I sat in 
 the public parlor half an hour, which seemed as long 
 as half a day would at other times, waiting, while a 
 lively Chileno girl was searching, or pretending to 
 search the house, for Mr. Hedding. I thought it must 
 be large, and the man must have strange habits, if it 
 takes all this time to ascertain whether he is within or 
 not. At last I said to myself, I'll just step along the 
 passage to that room where the chatter is going on so 
 incessantly, and see if anything can be learned there. 
 I knocked at the door, and when it was opened, three 
 servants, two girls, and a waiter, with a white apron 
 before him, presented themselves, all olive or between 
 olive and brown in color. 
 
 "Mr. Hedding," I said, speaking the name very 
 distinctly. 
 
 " listed quiere ?" said the man. I did not know 
 what this was ; but assuming that it meant did I want 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 471 
 
 the person I had named, I answered very emphatically 
 " yes." Then in the universal si si. 
 
 " Bueno," said he calmly, " Yo lo busco." 
 
 I went back to the parlor and waited again. Still 
 he did not come, and losing all patience, I returned to 
 the door, where, upon tapping once more, I found the 
 same parties social as ever. 
 
 " The man," I said, and seeing I was not under- 
 stood, I spoke the name again, and bethought myself 
 to put a shilling into the fellow's hand. It changed 
 the face of affairs as well as of him in a moment. I 
 returned again to the parlor, and in a few minutes a 
 very gentlemanly-looking man, of middle size, with a 
 head well covered with snowy hair, an erect carriage, 
 and quick, firm step, entered the room, with his specta- 
 cles in his hand, and, approaching me, said, " Do you 
 wish to see Mr. Hedding, ma'am ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " That is my name." 
 
 I handed him my card. " Ah !" he said, looking 
 pleased and clear at once, " you are the friend of Mrs. 
 Anderson. You are very welcome. How do you do ?" 
 
 I replied to his welcome and inquiries ; but told him 
 I was more anxious to get on the road to my friends' 
 home than for anything else. Could he tell me about 
 the time or manner of going ? 
 
 " You go by stage, ma'am, to , within seven 
 
 miles of them, and there you have to take mules. It 
 would occupy three days at least perhaps a part of the 
 fourth. Mrs. Anderson has written me a note since 
 she arrived, giving a sketchy account of her journey, 
 which seems to have been very pleasant ; but she was 
 going to Paradise, you know, ma'am, and had her arch- 
 angel beside her, and a cherub with her, one may say : 
 
4:72 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 for the boy is as charming, in his way, as the 
 mother." 
 
 Would he kindly ascertain, I asked, the times of 
 going, and inform me ? 
 
 " Yes, immediately," and he left me for that pur- 
 pose. My impatience increased during the waiting to 
 a most uncomfortable degree. I felt the slowness of 
 everything in this Spanish city, and wondered how 
 Eleanore's keen, fiery temperament had ever endured it. 
 
 When Mr. Hedding returned, he brought the dis- 
 heartening news that the diligencia, as they call a stage, 
 went but once a week, and had gone the day before. 
 
 " Then," said I, feeling perfectly unable to endure 
 the delay, " I must hire some special conveyance. May 
 I ask your good offices in this also ?" 
 
 " Certainly, ma'am. Do you speak Spanish ?" 
 
 " Unfortunately, not a word." 
 
 " Then I fear you may find some difficulty in get- 
 ting along with the people on the road, unless I could 
 find a driver who speaks a little English. But even 
 then, they are such a graceless set of petty rogues, from 
 first to last, that you would be at their mercy." 
 
 " If I had Antonio now," I rather muttered than 
 said. 
 
 "Ah! you mean Col. Anderson's man, a trusty, 
 faithful fellow ; but he went with them." 
 
 " What can I do, sir ?" I asked. " I wish so much 
 to go that I w T ill pay any reasonable price, and over- 
 look many inconveniences. I would like to start to- 
 day at once." 
 
 " I will go out and do the best I can for you," said 
 Mr. H., "but you had better take patience into the 
 counsels directly ; for I assure you, ma'am, Chili extras 
 and expresses, and all that sort of thing, will try any 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 473 
 
 spirit much more an American's, because we are the 
 people, of all the world, for dispatch and impromptu 
 proceedings in these things." I had it on my tongue 
 to say that he seemed to have suited himself with en- 
 viable success to the temper of the country, so deliber- 
 ate was his speech and action, while I was fretting 
 intensely within, at the prospect of delay. But I 
 restrained myself, and the good gentleman, after a few 
 more words, went on his kind errand. It was more 
 than an hour before he came in, and then he was 
 looking so warm, that I hastened to cool him, as fast as 
 possible, with regrets, thanks, apologies, and hopes, all 
 poured out confusedly for his relief. He had succeeded 
 in finding and engaging a driver who was called very 
 honest, " among Chilenos, remember, ma'am," and had 
 selected a horse and carriage which would be here at 
 one o'clock. 
 
 I was truly thankful for this success, and with a 
 meekness and docility which I am sure ought to have 
 charmed him in any woman, I accepted his advice in 
 regard to my luggage, leaving most of it to be sent by 
 Col. Anderson's freight-wagon, which went up and 
 down twice a month. He gave me a list of the prices 
 I was to pay on the road, the amount my driver was to 
 receive, with reiterated charges not to give him a dol- 
 lar of it till I was ready to have him leave me a glos- 
 sary of the few indispensable words I should need to 
 use, and thus I set off, with many expressed misgivings 
 on the part of the good gentleman that I was under- 
 taking a rash and almost dangerous enterprise. 
 
 " But I see," he said, " you are, in one thing, at 
 least, like your charming friend. What you want to 
 do must ~be done." He wished me all manner of good 
 fortune, shook my hand, spoke some last words of 
 
474: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 warning, in Spanish, to the driver, and we rattled away 
 through the streets of the city; then over a rough 
 country, with incredibly bad roads ; then over a con- 
 siderable plain, and finally, hills and rough roads again, 
 and so on, till darkness came and hid everything from 
 my view for at least two hours and a half before we 
 stopped for the night. But I am not going to tell you 
 of the bed of untanned oxhide I had there, or the break- 
 fast, or the slow starting, or anything else that worried 
 or amused me, but hasten on to the end of my jour- 
 ney, which I am sure you must wish to see as much as 
 I did. 
 
 I rode three days considerable part of the last two 
 through an unsettled country of towering mountains, 
 with deep, fearful chasms between them, not wide 
 enough to deserve the name of valleys anywhere, ex- 
 cept in three or four places, where were clustered a few 
 huts, with now and then a smartish adobe house. In 
 these spots gardens bloomed and flourished, and here 
 and there a few poorly-fenced fields were redeemed 
 from the domain of nature. It rained slight showers 
 twice, which made the traveling much better than it 
 could have been two months earlier; and often, in 
 passing the diificult or dry, dusty places, where the 
 rain had not fallen, I asked myself how did Eleanore 
 go through all this ? 
 
 But then I remembered the archangel, and felt 
 that all was right with her. 
 
 It was late in the fourth evening when we reached 
 
 , and I could do nothing toward finishing my 
 
 journey till morning came. I had seen but two per- 
 sons beside Manuel, rny driver, in the whole journey, 
 who could speak English ; and I was very fearful I 
 should find no one here. If not, how was I to get my 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 475 
 
 further progress settled ? I did not pay Manuel that 
 night, telling him I must see him in the morning. If 
 there were no other chance, I must negotiate through 
 him. I slept well, for I was very weary, and I had 
 here the first bed I had lain upon since leaving the 
 ship. 
 
 When I woke, the morning was cloudy, and, walk- 
 ing to my window, my breath seemed to be taken 
 away by the enormous hight of the dark, frowning 
 mountain, that reared itself into the mist and clouds 
 of the upper air, within fifty rods of me. It was 
 raining above there, but none had yet fallen where 
 I was, and I hurried through my toilet, and set out on 
 the labors of the day with no little anxiety. 
 
 I could make no one understand me, and had to 
 hunt over the public rooms of the Fonda myself for 
 Manuel. He was not to be seen, but men who seemed 
 to have just left their sleep were gathering into an 
 apartment across the hall from mine, and I waited and 
 watched for sight of him, finding, after several attempts, 
 that it was hopeless to look for any other means of 
 making my wants known. I could get a stolid, pa- 
 tient hearing from any one I met ; indeed, they seemed 
 rather pleased to have an excuse for stopping so long 
 from their sauntering, lazy motion ; but it always 
 ended in "No sabe, Signorita no tiende no Ingles." 
 
 What on earth am I to do if he doesn't come ? 
 I asked myself; but then I remembered thankfully 
 that I had been prudent enough to keep his money, 
 which was the surest possible guarantee that I should 
 see him by-and-by. 
 
 I was looking anxiously from the door, and being 
 looked at in return by some not pleasant eyes a wo- 
 man of my color being rarely seen there w T hen, sud- 
 
4Y6 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 denly, I was gladdened by the sight of a Saxon face. 
 The man who wore it was a sort of halt- way gentleman 
 in his garb, and seemed to have some business in hand, 
 for he was walking more like a live person than any- 
 body I had seen since leaving the city. He had en- 
 tered the street, or plaza, where I stood, a little below, 
 and was moving away in the opposite direction, so 
 that I had but one resource, and that was to follow 
 and accost him instantly. 
 
 "Pray, sir," I said, when, by hastening to the 
 wonder of everybody I had overtaken him, " do you 
 speak English ?" 
 
 " Yes " with a look of unequivocal surprise. 
 
 " Then, will you have the kindness to give me a lit- 
 tle help ? I arrived here last evening, on my way to 
 El Mino Yalverde " 
 
 " Ah ! that is our place Col. Anderson's, isn't it ?" 
 
 " The very same," I said, almost unable to believe 
 in my good fortune. " Do you belong there ?" 
 
 " Yes ; I am one of his foremen, and am down with 
 a team and some of the hands, after machinery." 
 
 " Then you can help me to some means of going 
 out, can you not? I am an old friend of Mrs. An 
 derson." 
 
 " Are you Miss Warren, whom they expect from 
 California?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Then there is an old shipmate of yours here now 
 Antonio; he came down with us yesterday, and 
 spoke of you on the road ; I will send him to the Fonda, 
 and he will be able to do everything for you ; I sup- 
 pose you would like to be on the road soon ?" 
 
 " Yes, as quick as possible ; but do you drive wa- 
 gons all the way ?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 477 
 
 " Our heavy teams we do ; but there is no road that 
 a light wagon could go over, and passengers always go 
 on mules. Mrs. Anderson went on one." 
 
 " Well," I replied, " I will try it though I am 
 not a rider. Can you put a trunk into your wagon ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, anything you have can go with us ; 
 but you could not stand our slow travel. It will be 
 well on to five o'clock by the time we get up, and 
 you will go in two hours, or two arid a half." 
 
 I accordingly returned to the house, paid Manuel, 
 who soon appeared, and, having got him to order me 
 coffee and eggs for breakfast, I sat down to wait for 
 Antonio. 
 
 There was a kind of aching expectation in all my 
 nerves. I was not more than half sensible to the won- 
 ders and grandeur of the spot I was in, though I looked 
 at the awful mountains with my face right up to hea- 
 ven, and followed out with my eye a zig-zag path up 
 the precipitous side of one, which I greatly feared was 
 the very one I should have to try, by-and-by, on a 
 perilous mule's back. 
 
 Before my breakfast was brought in, Antonio came. 
 I could almost have kissed the creature, I was so heart- 
 glad, in that wild, strange spot, of the sight of his 
 honest, affectionate face. 
 
 " Antonio," I said, " you are a treasure you are 
 better than gold to me now ! Sit down on my trunk " 
 chairs are very scarce in the Andes " and tell me 
 how I am to get out to Col. Anderson's." 
 
 Either his English had improved marvelously, or it 
 was so much better than the vile attempts at it I had 
 heard along the road, that it seemed so. 
 
 u I got a firs'-rate mule of master's here," he re- 
 plied ; " I put you on him, and walk." 
 
478 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " Oh, no," I said ; " if your mule is very good, let 
 me ride it, and I will hire one for you." 
 
 But he would not hear of this. He could walk as 
 fast, he said, as I would ride. " I walk home in two 
 hour, Miss Warren ; and Signorita and Mas'r Philip 
 and the Colonel all be so glad you come. Talk much 
 about you." 
 
 " Do you live in their house," I asked. 
 
 " Yes, I live with Colonel all the time ; no been 
 here before since we come." 
 
 " Then," said I, " it must have been Providence 
 that sent you now, I think." 
 
 " No, Signorita ; mistress send me for some very 
 nice chicken to lay egg. I bought many, and they go 
 in wagon, by-and-by." 
 
 I took my breakfast while he was gone to get his 
 and arrange his affairs ; and at last he came, leading to 
 the door a sturdy, shining brown mule, with a very 
 shabby side-saddle, that might have been the property 
 of Mrs. Noah before they took to the ark ; it was so 
 very aged, that I feared to trust myself upon it with- 
 out trying the girths and stirrups ; but Antonio looked 
 so hurt at my pulling and examining them, that I de- 
 sisted, and stepping on a large stone near the door, I 
 took my seat in it. Mr. Johnson, the foreman, had 
 come to receive my luggage, and when all was adjusted, 
 I pulled the bridle-rein and followed Antonio, a little 
 nervously at first, but with a lively sense, all the time, 
 of the spectacle I should be in any other part of the 
 world I had ever seen. 
 
 It was our road, as I suspected, that lay up the 
 breast of the high mountain not the highest one and 
 through what seemed to me a slight depression between 
 it and the next peak, south. Bat when we reached 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 479 
 
 the top of our ascent, I found there were still great 
 elevations on either hand, and we looked back into the 
 narrow basin we had left, and oif over wild, rugged 
 groups of mountains, with slender valleys, and dark, 
 wooded gulfs between them an endless confusion to 
 my eyes. The rarefied air swept through the elevated 
 passes, and moaned softly among the sorrowing ever- 
 greens that welcomed it, as if it grieved for the living 
 sea and the distant populous worlds it had left below. 
 How profound the solitude of that cloud-piercing 
 world ! How awful the power that had sent forth 
 such proclamation of itself ! 
 
 When we reached the next valley, Antonio told 
 me we were a little more than half way. Our path 
 often left the rude wagon-road, making " cut-offs " up 
 or down the mountains. 
 
 It was Mrs. Anderson's favorite ride, he said, to the 
 top of the next hill, and when we got there, we could 
 see the smoke from Valverde. 
 
 " I go first, and tell her you come," he suggested. 
 
 " No, no, Antonio ; I can't spare you." 
 
 " Mula safe," he said ; " he know the way home ; 
 bring you right there." 
 
 " But I don't wish them to know till I get there," 
 said I. " I want to walk into her house without a 
 word." 
 
 He laughed, as understanding something of my 
 feelings, and we held our way to the hacienda. 
 
 From the hight overlooking it, I could, as Antonio 
 had said, discern something more like a palpable wreath 
 of light than smoke, changing and shifting slowly among 
 the piles of evergreen foliage. Two giant birds of 
 prey floated lazily, in majestic circles, in the thin air 
 above us ; but except them and ourselves, no living 
 
4:80 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 thing was in sight. The mountains were bald in 
 patches, but generally thinly covered with the ever- 
 greens I have mentioned, sparsely intermixed with the 
 more generous foliage of larger-leaved trees. 
 
 Down, down, down we went the verdure increas- 
 ing with our descent, or, rather, the evidences that 
 there had been verdure, and would be again, when the 
 new rains of the season had brought it forward. 
 
 The wonder I continually entertained, was how 
 did anybody ever find this spot, or dream that it con- 
 tained treasure ? Indeed it was " a wild and wondrous 
 region," as Col. Anderson had told Eleanore. 
 
 At last we emerged upon a hand's-breadth of level 
 ground a miniature valley, which a large house 
 would almost have filled and then our path lay 
 across a little elevation beyond, from which we saw 
 the houses, through the scattering tree-tops, and heard 
 noises ; and then Antonio's impatient feet literally 
 danced to be gone before me with the good news. But 
 I could not let him. 
 
 " You must let me go first, now," said I " there's 
 a good soul and you shall have the first word some 
 other time." 
 
 We entered upon the short bit of worn road, that 
 might be called the street of the hacienda, and a few 
 rods in advance 1 saw a house, with neatly-curtained 
 windows, standing alone, and a little back from the 
 dust-line, with a rustic piazza, supported by small 
 knotty trunks and thatched with evergreen boughs, 
 which I immediately guessed to be Eleanore's home ; 
 and glancing at Antonio, I saw by the direction of his 
 gleaming eye that I was right. Mula knew it also, 
 and set his ears forward, and shambled into three or v 
 four steps of trotting to bring me to its front. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 481 
 
 How clean-swept was every inch of the dry ground 
 on which I alighted ! The door stood open, and I was 
 hoping to steal in before anybody should see me ; but 
 when I had scarcely two steps left between me and the 
 threshold, there appeared the happy face and well- 
 remembered form of the master-spirit of this little 
 world, with wide-extended arms, that took me in and 
 folded themselves about me with a heartiness which 
 filled my eyes instantly. 
 
 " Where is she ?" I whispered, when he had kissed 
 my cheek. 
 
 " In a back room," he answered, in the same tone, 
 " and doesn't know that you are here. Come softly, 
 and we'll surprise her." 
 
 I followed without speaking. She had heard his 
 footstep, but not mine, and was occupied for the mo- 
 ment with something that kept her face turned 
 from us. 
 
 " Come in, dear Leo. I was just thinking of some- 
 thing I have to say to you something very important." 
 
 "I am afraid you will have to put it oif, Nelly. 
 I can't possibly hear it now." 
 
 " But you must and shall, sir." 
 
 " I cannot, my queen. I have something to say to 
 you, instead." 
 
 " That will do quite as well," she replied ; and I 
 could hear the old laugh in her words. " I'd rather 
 hear you than myself. It was only a bit of stratagem 
 to keep you a few minutes." 
 
 Col. Anderson had pressed me from the doorway, 
 so that, after the first glance at her, I was out of sight. 
 She now turned toward him, and seeing his face, asked, 
 in quick, surprised tones : " What is it, Leo ? There's 
 a pleasant story in your eyes " approaching rapidly 
 21 
 
482 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 with the words. " Tell me what it is." And she drew 
 his arm coaxingly about her. 
 
 " Somebody has come." 
 
 " Ah ! your Mr. Hedding, is it ? or Huntley ? or 
 who else ?" seeing him shake his head. 
 
 " Somebody better than either. Here she is " 
 stepping suddenly aside and disclosing me. 
 
 We went spontaneously into each other's arms. 
 
 " I felt you were near us this morning," said she ; 
 " and I wanted to tell Leo so, but I was afraid of that 
 deep smile in his eyes. He thinks I don't see it, be- 
 cause he doesn't let it come out of them, but I do. 
 How good and handsome you look, dear Anna." 
 
 " Yes," said Col. A., "you both are handsomer at 
 this moment than usual ; so much so, that I am not 
 willing to act the part of mere spectator any longer ;" 
 and with a strong arm about each of us, he drew us 
 away to a lounge yes, a real Yankee lounge, got up 
 by Eleanore's own hands that stood across the room, 
 and there seated himself between us. 
 
CHAPTER LYII. 
 
 I shall not attempt to give you the sequel of that 
 meeting, nor how question and answer followed so fast 
 on one another, that Col. Anderson at last stopped his 
 ears, in an affected agony of confusion, and kissing 
 Eleanore, said, impudently, he should have to go, as a 
 measure of self-defense. It was necessary he should 
 preserve his intellects. 
 
 " Which will require little effort, sir, I should say, 
 if we are to judge by the magnitude of the thing to be 
 saved," was her answering thrust. 
 
 " There it is, you see, Miss Warren," he said, appeal- 
 ing to me. " So merciless she is. I am always sure to 
 get a heavier shot than I send, when I get this battery 
 opened upon me. But I am so spicily treated after 
 the wounding, that I love the warfare." 
 
 " Go away, sir," she said, looking after him with 
 such radiant large eyes, " and come again when you 
 can behave better. O Anna, I am so glad you have 
 come, and yet I was happier before than anybody could 
 deserve to be. You see what he is now, and he is 
 always so or better and nobler as he is graver. But I 
 shall not tell you about him. You shall see for your- 
 self. What is your first want, dear ?" 
 
 " Phil," I answered. 
 
 " He is gone a little way up the mountain, with one 
 of the men, who hurt his hand, and is disabled. You'll 
 
4:34: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 have to wait for him ; and I suppose the next thing 
 will be water and towels, or shall it be lunch ?" 
 
 " Oh, the water first, by all means," I replied, and 
 while the process it served was going on, our tongues 
 were going too all the thousand questions, and sort of 
 outside experiences we had had, which friends such as 
 we were, take off first and lay aside, as they do their 
 dusty garments, thereby opening the way to the inmost 
 heart-talk that would follow. I was eating a biscuit 
 and some sweetmeat which Eleanore had brought in, 
 when Antonio entered, and after many pleasant, cheer- 
 ing words, for the good gift he had brought her, to my 
 surprise asked some direction about the dinner. 
 
 " Is Antonio a house-servant, then ?" I asked, after 
 he had gone. 
 
 " He is my cook and butler," she responded, laugh- 
 ing, " and we find him invaluable, I assure you. He is 
 better than anything we could get of the natives to 
 say nothing of his being so attached to us, so cleanly and 
 agreeable, where they would be intolerable. He does 
 all the work with a boy to wait on him, and the house, 
 when he is home, is perfect in neatness." 
 
 " How very fortunate," said I, " and the creature is 
 so good and faithful." 
 
 " Yes," said Eleanore, her face shaded with a seri- 
 ous look of the past. " He seems to feel that there is 
 but one pleasure in life for him, and that is in serving 
 us. He will not take his wages from Leo, except 
 enough to supply his wants, and make a few presents. 
 He is very generous in that way to those he likes ; but 
 they are few out of our house. Most of the money he 
 spends goes for gifts to Phil, and the rest we are laying 
 up for him." 
 
 " Your house is small, Eleanore," said I. " What 
 are you going to do with me ?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 485 
 
 " You shall have my room, dear Anna, if you will 
 consent to share it with Phil, and sometimes with me." 
 
 I was surprised at these words ; but either she did 
 not observe that I was, or did not see fit to heed it. I 
 was moved almost to speech ; but there was no pause 
 in the flow of her varied talk, to give me an opportu- 
 nity for so unwelcome and delicate an utterance as 
 remonstrance would have been then, and therefore the 
 subject passed into silence, not, however, without a_ 
 firm resolve on my part, to do my duty in regard to it 
 some day. 
 
 In due time the little matters of settlement were dis- 
 posed of. I was shown the resources of the house, and 
 assigned my place in the largest sleeping-chamber, 
 where she still kept her own bed, and as we had never 
 been a hindrance to each other in these ways, so we 
 seemed now to take up our old relations of amity and 
 order at once. 
 
 There was a small room, or rather closet, which she 
 had had made off and lighted, between this and the 
 next one, which was occupied by Col. Anderson, and 
 this was his dressing-room. I was shown with some 
 pride all the order and comfort and neatness which she 
 had been able to create here, with rather slender re- 
 sources in furniture, which the cost and risk of trans- 
 portation forbade their bringing in any considerable 
 quantity ; and I remember as we were returning to the 
 parlor, her saying some confused words, which she 
 blushed in uttering. " Leo and I, have found that, dear 
 Anna, which robs external life equally of its plainness 
 and splendor. "We both forget the isolation and rude- 
 ness here, as we should their opposites, were we in the 
 midst of royal luxury. He is to me, and I am to him. 
 That suffices us. I am absolutely and wholly happy 
 
486 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 except in the moments when I remember that this 
 resplendent state on which I have entered, hangs upon 
 a single life, and that a mortal's. Do not think me 
 weak, dear friend. I have the sublimest sense of 
 power in this experience. It is a revelation of myself 
 to myself." 
 
 So I was established in this remote starry household, 
 and there I spent four months, almost the entire rainy 
 season, in an atmosphere of peace, love, refinement, 
 and harmony, such as it was never my lot to breathe 
 elsewhere. Intellect, taste, culture, wit, and sentiment, 
 lighted and warmed our daily life. 
 
 Col. Anderson was a man endowed with a mind at 
 once so comprehensive and exact, and with so much 
 executive force, that in his business matters there was 
 rarely any jarring or hindrance. He had great fore- 
 cast, and exercised a keen attention therefore he had 
 rarely an unsupplied want. His chief difficulty lay in 
 the inferiority of the labor he was obliged to employ ; 
 but as there was no escape from this, he went on the 
 first few months, diligently sifting his laborers, sending 
 away the bad and encouraging the good, until at last 
 he had about him, he said, as efficient a set of men as 
 he had ever employed. But in no case were his out- 
 door cares permitted to cloud the hours of leisure in 
 the house. He often communicated to his wife the 
 nature of the difficulties he met with ; but when he 
 came in from the works they were laid aside peremp- 
 torily, and a ride or a walk, or reading, or conversation, 
 closed the days upon us, all grouped together some- 
 times, and at others, knowing their intense happiness in 
 each other, I stole away by myself with Phil, and left 
 them sitting like two unwedded lovers, and treasuring 
 like them the charm of the hours, till they should sepa- 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 487 
 
 rate for the night. Long before my visit was over, I 
 gave my hearty assent to Eleanore's family arrange- 
 ments, seeing how harmoniously they moved on with 
 them, and with what entire respect as well as tender- 
 ness each was considered in them. I told her so 
 one day. 
 
 " Ah, dear Anna," she said, " I felt you would see it 
 so after a while. Leonard, I think, had your feeling and 
 thought about it at first ; but now he tells me he is so 
 grateful for my having entreated him to give me my 
 way for six months. He will never think of any other, 
 he says ; and I am sure the whole world would not 
 induce me to risk one spark of his precious love, by a 
 greater familiarity." 
 
 " You are right," I said, " dear Eleanore, I am 
 persuaded ; " but I do not feel certain that the same 
 views and practices would serve all sorts of people." 
 
 " Possibly not, Anna, lower persons than we are. 
 One blushes and grieves to think of the army of people 
 in whom sense is the only or chief bond of union ; but 
 there are also very many, dear, who would be as happy 
 as we are, if they would but search themselves out, and 
 estimate truly their sources of enjoyment. The laws 
 which govern our gratifications are as invariable as any 
 others in nature ; and if we will not study and heed 
 them, how can we expect to be blessed with the re- 
 wards of obedience. Leo and I are, thank God, so 
 mated in our mental being, that we have infinite joys 
 derivable from it alone. When some thought or sub- 
 ject of our own does not come to us, we go with equal 
 pleasure to serious or entertaining books to Ruskin 
 or Dickens or Carlyle though I confess the last is less 
 a favorite with me than with him. But in these, and 
 such as these in the great poets, and in the thinkers 
 
488 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 and teachers of our own country, whom I am proud to 
 bring to his acquaintance, we find such exhaustless 
 themes for our tongues, that we often bid each other 
 good-night as reluctantly as if we were not inmates of 
 the same house. Then we have the same zest in meet- 
 ing again, that two such persons, loving each other as 
 we do, would have under those circumstances. 
 
 " Did I tell you that he surprised me one day, a 
 short time before you came, by walking into the house 
 with that set of Ruskin in his arms. Hearing me re- 
 fer to him frequently in our talks on art, mental 
 growth, and so on, he had written to Mr. Hedding to 
 ransack the city for c The Stones of Venice.' They 
 were not to be had in the book-stores, and the good 
 old gentleman, by great diligence, found this set on a 
 gentleman^ library-shelves, and made out such a pite- 
 ous case about our seclusion and suffering tastes, and 
 so on, that he sold them to him. He said he supposed 
 he could wait for others from London better than we 
 could : and we were very thankful for them, I assure 
 yon. They are not a quarter read yet, because Leonard 
 has seen a great deal that he describes ; and this, and 
 all our discussion, makes the reading slow. 
 
 " We agree, dear Anna, in sentiment, in our hopes 
 for man, and in all the main estimates of what life is 
 to do for us. The only differences we have, are as to 
 means and practicabilities, and thus we have endless 
 agreement and disagreement without discord. 
 
CHAPTER LYIII. 
 
 The lack of music was the one substantial privation 
 of this position, which we all lamented at times, but 
 saw no remedy for. It would have been madness to 
 attempt bringing a piano over the mountains I had 
 crossed ; so we could only lament, and listen occa- 
 sionally to Col. Anderson's flute, which he played very 
 sweetly, but without variety or brilliancy. He was 
 only an amateur, and had too great a respect for Elea- 
 nore's taste, to gratify us often by his modest per- 
 formances. 
 
 One day, after luncheon, when there had been a 
 deal of sharp-shooting between us all round, and Elea- 
 nore, as usual, had borne off the banner, just escaping 
 him at the door, with a very saucy speech on her lips, 
 he took me aside, and told me confidentially that he 
 had a little surprise in hand for her, which he wished 
 me to help him prepare. 
 
 Of course I was ready. What was it ? 
 
 " A piano." 
 
 A piano ! It almost took my breath to think of it. 
 
 " You see, dear Miss Warren," he said, " I couldn't 
 endure to keep her here a year, or perhaps two, with- 
 out one. Music is so much to her life. And, beside," 
 he added, solemnly, Eleanore has such a religious con- 
 viction of what is due to our child, that I must be a 
 very infidel to neglect any joy or satisfaction for her 
 21* 
 
490 THE IDE4L ATTAINED. 
 
 that might be a blessing to it. I am, after much con- 
 versation and thought the subject was so new and 
 startling to me convinced that hers is the true philo- 
 sophy in regard to the offices and powers of your sex ; 
 and with God's help, who has given me so noble a 
 wife, no child of ours shall suffer blight or warping of 
 its nature through lack of aught that may make the 
 mother strong, happy, and harmonious. I have said 
 so much, that you might understand that this apparent 
 rashness is not mere weak indulgence of myself or her." 
 
 " I could scarcely judge either of you in that way," 
 I replied ; " but in your view of it, I see a higher 
 faithfulness than simply that of affection for her, which, 
 alone, I should have been little likely to question." 
 
 " Your heart is true and always to be trusted," he 
 said, laying his hand upon my shoulder ; and now that 
 you understand all, I know you will zealously second 
 my plans, and appreciate the importance of keeping 
 from her the possible disappointment that may await 
 me. If we fail, I must leave it to your ingenuity to 
 devise some plan for sealing Phil's lips. She must not 
 Know it at present. Miss Warren, remember that." 
 
 " How do you expect it ?" I inquired ; " and who is 
 to put it in order, if it comes safely ?" 
 
 " Oh, I have taken care of all that. Hedding and 
 Huntley are both coming, to see the works and spend 
 a few days. I haven't told her of them, either, and I 
 wish to take her a ride and keep her out till the wagon 
 comes, and the thing is proved. So if I may depend 
 upon you to see to it, and receive them in our stead, 
 I shall feel very grateful. Huntley is all sorts of a ge- 
 nius very musical himself, and could make a piano, 
 perhaps, for lack of a better hand at it. He pur- 
 chased it for me, and understands my wishes perfectly. 
 May I now leave the whole affair to you ?" 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 491 
 
 " I will do my very wisest and best," I replied ; 
 and hearing the sound of her coming feet, I immedi- 
 ately spoke on another topic, and the subject was dis- 
 missed. 
 
 But you may be assured that I did not, with the 
 cessation of speech, cease to think upon and admire the 
 nobleness, delicacy, and true manly tenderness, which 
 were thus endeavoring religiously to fulfill the measure 
 of duty and blessing to the unborn. I knew that he 
 had happiness, great happiness, in pleasing the beloved 
 of his soul ; but I saw, by the radiance of his beaming 
 eye, and the glow of his countenance while he spoke, 
 that there was here a holy, elevating, and sacred pur- 
 pose, higher even than that, which warmed this great, 
 true soul. Eleanore had spoken to me, long ago, in 
 one of her exalted, prophetic moods, of the children 
 that would one day be born, when it should be under- 
 stood how richly ennobling and high influences could 
 flow to them through the daily life and experiences 
 the susceptibilities and capacities of the mother. I re- 
 membered this, and her saying, once, that man could 
 exercise his most potent and beautiful influence over 
 the character and destiny of his children only through 
 pure and divine ministrations to woman in this great- 
 est office of humanity ; and I rejoiced with joy un- 
 speakable in the assurance thus afforded me, that ap- 
 preciation, and noble, delicate, and religious aid toward 
 the actualizing of these holy hopes, were to be hers. 
 The announcement cheered and exhilarated rne more 
 than I can tell, and gave me an almost feeling of 
 importance in the magnitude of the secret intrusted 
 to me. 
 
 When dinner was over, and Jose, Antonio's lieu- 
 tenant, brought the mules to the door, I hurried them 
 away as fast as possible, for the Colonel had told me 
 
4:92 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 that, the roads being much improved of late, the wa- 
 gon, which was to us like a train of rail-cars or a 
 steam-packet, might be there earlier than it had yet. 
 come, and, in any case, the gentlemen might be ex- 
 pected soon. 
 
 " You must make my case good to them," he said, 
 "for deserting in this unusual manner, but there is 
 nothing else I can do to keep her away till the ex- 
 periment is tried, and I will make all amends when I 
 get back." 
 
 As soon as they turned from the door, I took Phil, 
 who stood kissing his hand to them, to my heart and 
 confidence. 
 
 " A piano !" he exclaimed, with dancing eyes ; 
 " a piano, Miss Warren ! Oh, isn't that nice ! I be- 
 lieve mamma will teach me to play on it when I am 
 big enough don't you 1" 
 
 " Yes, darling." 
 
 " Do you know," he asked, thoughtfully, and seem- 
 ing to reach far back into the shadowy past for it 
 " do you know that Harry used to play, away off in 
 the other land ?" 
 
 "No, Phil, I didn't know it." 
 
 " Yes, he did, Miss Warren ; and mamma used to 
 show him how." 
 
 " But you must not talk to mamma about that, dear 
 Phil. It will grieve her." 
 
 " No, I won't ; but I 'member it. I am so glad we 
 shall have one here ; I like to have mamma play for 
 me to dance." 
 
 Antonio was full of business, for he understood 
 affairs also, and was bustling about outside prepara- 
 tions for the extra dinner, and we were both watching 
 for any sign of approach down the mountain. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 493 
 
 At last the shouts of the muleteers were heard, and 
 shortly after, the great wagon, with its immense bur- 
 den, and long train of little patient slaves, rumbled 
 into the street, and stopped before the large store- 
 house a few rods below. There were no strangers there 
 though ; but Antonio soon came in with the cheering 
 news that they were coming. They were to start from' 
 
 at two o'clock, and as it was now a little past 
 
 four, we might expect them immediately. At once 
 there was a little bustle of preparation running through 
 the house. 
 
 I shifted a table and some chairs in the parlor, to 
 make room for the welcome arrival; strong in faith 
 that all would be right with it, and that next day, if 
 not earlier, we should hear some of the sweet sounds 
 which Eleanore could make it discourse, to delight us. 
 In my care, I went out myself to see that it was pro- 
 perly handled in the unloading and bringing in. It 
 was certainly well packed, being apparently in the 
 center of a gigantic bale of some soft material, and all 
 strongly sewed in sail-cloth. When all this was re- 
 moved, and the exhumation fully effected, I saw a 
 smallish, old-fashioned instrument, which I greatly 
 feared must disappoint our hopes. It was of antique 
 make, and English, as I judged, from the unfamiliar 
 name, Whitehouse, which alone appeared upon it. 
 
 We had but just got it safely in doors, when the 
 two gentlemen came, and after being introduced to 
 Mr. Huntley, I proceeded with the explanation of their 
 host and hostess' absence. They accepted it with entire 
 good nature, entering heartily into the spirit of the 
 affair, at once, and Mr. Huntley, after returning from 
 his room, put his hand readily to the setting up and 
 tuning, saying, good humoredly, he had done a little of 
 
404: THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 almost everything since he had been in Chili, and it 
 should go hard with him, but he would make this un- 
 dertaking of the Colonel's successful. He lost not a 
 moment till dinner was laid, and then, taking only the 
 Yankee measure of time "for that important event, 
 came back and resumed his labors examined this and 
 that, groaned here, whistled despairingly there, and by- 
 and-by muttered a few syllables of encouragement to 
 himself keeping very busy all the while tried the 
 keys tuned the strings, tried them again, tuned a 
 little more ran over them, caught his breath painfully 
 when some unexpected discord rang out, stopped, set it 
 right, and tried them again and again, growing flushed 
 and heated all the while with the exertion, and the 
 consciousness of the shortening time called for lights, 
 and went on still more excitedly, but with a calm and 
 steady hand, and at length hurried a chair up to the 
 instrument, sat down and played, from memory, one of 
 the Strauss waltzes. 
 
 " There," said he, exultingly, " it's all right but that 
 A, sounding the rebellious key, and I fear we may have 
 to get a new string for that. I am afraid it will jar 
 Mrs. Anderson's fine ear. I'll try it once again, though. 
 Yes, that improves it a little more yes that is better, 
 very good in fact. Now, Mr. Hedding" this gentleman 
 had been sitting, talking with me and Phil, telling us 
 how he had brought stores of rare seeds and flower-roots 
 for Mrs. Anderson "now, Hedding, I call that a 
 triumph, by Jove ! When Mrs. Anderson comes home, 
 I think she'll be a little surprised. I believe I'll con- 
 ceal myself, just to see the effect." 
 
 " You'll have but little time, sir," I said, " for strata- 
 gem ; for I think I hear their voices in the still air from 
 that hill-side ; and if so, they will be here in a few 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 495 
 
 minutes." And so they were, and you must imagine 
 Eleanore's incredulous look, and how her large eyes 
 opened upon us wider and wider, and how, having 
 shaken hands mechanically with her guests, she allowed 
 her exulting husband to seat her at the instrument, 
 and how, after a few touches of it, she seemed to 
 become convinced that it was a veritable piano, and 
 proceeded to make it tell the story itself by such an 
 outpouring of sweet sounds as had never before startled 
 that little valley, and how the peons and their dark 
 wives and children gathered around, and pressed up to 
 hear, and how, after this, she rose, and with tearful 
 eyes, clasped and kissed the dear hand that had con- 
 ferred this great pleasure on her, and then gave a cor- 
 dial and meaning welcome to both the gentlemen, and 
 how the evening passed in alternate music and talk, 
 till a late hour, when we all retired even Phil having 
 been allowed to sleep there, with his head pillowed on 
 my lap, when he could no longer keep waking ; and 
 how, when he was laid in his little bed, Eleanore came 
 and bade me good night, with such an earnest and reli- 
 gious thankfulness in her eyes, that I said, without her 
 speaking, " Yes, dear friend, you are indeed richly 
 blest." 
 
CHAPTEK LIX. 
 
 Our guests remained a week with us, prolonging 
 their visit from day to day, in pure surrender to the 
 beautiful life we enjoyed. There were rides and walks 
 and visits to the works, in which both were largely 
 interested ; there were games at chess between the three 
 younger ones, Mr. Hedding generally managing to 
 keep me under a perpetual challenge to backgammon ; 
 there were discussions political, theological, and sci- 
 entific; there were conversations upon art, esthetics, 
 life, death, matter, spirit. Mr. Huntley, when tried, 
 proved an accomplished talker. He was a Cambridge 
 man, and the difference in conversational resource be- 
 tween him and our host was well characterized by the 
 latter one evening, when, smarting under a tempo- 
 rary defeat, he said : " Ah, Huntley, you and I are 
 too unequally matched in this ring. The years 
 that went over me in my wanderings on the deserts 
 and in the jungles of the east, were spent by you in 
 the drawing-rooms of London and the salons of Paris. 
 You can level me at one fell swoop with authorities of 
 which I am ignorant, or which I know only by report." 
 
 " And you," replied his antagonist, " can throw 
 about me, before I know what you are doing, the giant 
 arms of some law, which nature, in your love-passages 
 with her, has revealed to you and there I am, bound 
 and prostrate at your feet. What are all the musty 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 497 
 
 opinions of the schoolmen speculations between man 
 and man compared to a decree which lives and works 
 daily and hourly in the elements that sustain us ?" 
 
 Eleanore looked proudly at her husband as these 
 words fell upon her ear, and gratefully at him who 
 uttered them. " You have spoken truly, Mr. Huntley," 
 she said, " and in your self-disparagement have proved 
 the highest claim to acknowledgment. I admire that 
 soul, which, valuing its own possessions, sees and con- 
 fesses richer treasure in another. I think it is the se- 
 cret of deep and true happiness in our relations ;" and 
 her eyes turned, as she spoke, to Col. Anderson's, with 
 a language that needed no interpretation from the 
 tongue. 
 
 In some manner and for some reason whether of 
 greater fitness in years or tastes I scarcely know but 
 it often happened, when the conversation was not gen- 
 eral, that Mr. Hedding and I found ourselves a little 
 apart, and on subjects less cosmic than our young 
 friends were apt to settle down upon, when once they 
 had loosed their pinions in the field of thought. True, 
 we sometimes sat and listened when a more than usu- 
 ally eloquent strain was falling from some one of those 
 living, hopeful tongues ; but, however it happened, it was 
 quite natural and easy for us to treat ourselves as the 
 " old folks." The young ones were all musical ; they 
 often sang and played whole hours away ; for Huntley 
 had inexhaustible stores of pieces in his memory 
 English, Scotch, and Irish ; marches, lilts, jigs, waltzes ; 
 opera pieces, and pieces that were older than opera. 
 He was a cyclopedia, Eleanore said, of music, thougli 
 not remarkable in execution. 
 
 " We want to be inspired now, after all this hum- 
 drum playing," he would say to her. " We must have 
 you here for that." 
 
498 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 And then often came a grand, solemn improvisa- 
 tion, or a brilliant and capricious one, or a tender and 
 timid one ; but whatever it was, it was living. There 
 was no mistaking and no resisting it. We could chat 
 or pursue our game while Mr. Huntley was doing his 
 best, or even while she was playing written music ; but 
 when the instrument was made to interpret her, it was 
 quite otherwise. Then it was as if her soul spoke to us 
 its highest conceptions, and we listened perforce. 
 
 Their last evening with us was brilliant in music, 
 conversation, and wit. It was prolonged till a late 
 hour, and as we were parting for the night, I said to 
 Mr. Huntley : u You will return to the gayeties of the 
 city, after this seclusion, with a keen relish for them." 
 
 " The city !" he exclaimed. " Think of that, An- 
 derson ! We are both compelling ourselves to go away 
 from you all, and here is Miss Warren singing the 
 praises of the city. I assure you it has never been so 
 dull as it will be now, to me, and I am quite certain it 
 will be equally so to my friend, will it not?" ad- 
 dressing Mr. Hedding. 
 
 " You are right in that," he replied ; " for, really, I 
 have been thinking of trying to get myself into society 
 by asking Col. Anderson to give me a situation here. 
 Have you anything that would suit me, Colonel ?" 
 
 " Yes, admirably," replied he, looking with that 
 deep smile, as he spoke, first at Eleanore, and then at 
 me. It brought the color to my face ; and she, too, 
 turned her glowing eye upon me, and pressed my hand 
 on her arm. What did all this mean ? 
 
 But we were just separating, and so there was no 
 time to ask only time for speculation and dreamy con- 
 jecture after I reached my room. 
 
 In the morning our guests took their departure 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 499 
 
 not without repeated promises to visit Yalverde again 
 before the flowers should have faded. Mr. Huntley, 
 with his universal readiness and faultless taste, had 
 laid out and planted a flower-garden and numerous 
 beds around the house, and already vases were in 
 requisition for the eschscholtzias and lupines of the wild 
 lands, and we were promised, in a couple of months, to 
 be overrun with the annuals of the garden. 
 
 We had visited the "works" many times, and 
 watched with a deep interest the riddling of the great 
 mountains. There were three separate mines being 
 opened, with all sorts of vertical, lateral, and ascending 
 and descending shafts a perfect labyrinth it seemed 
 to Eleanore and me. There were the old and new gal- 
 leries, up and down, to the right and the left, winding 
 hither and thither, and all seeming endless in their 
 grim blackness. At all hours of the day and night 
 they swarmed with men, quarriers, drillers, carriers; 
 and many times each day the dull, heavy boom of 
 the great blasts reverberated through the valley and 
 from side to side of the towering mountains in thunder- 
 ing echoes. 
 
 The work was driven with an energy and quiet- 
 ness that were admirable to witness ; no confusion, no 
 noise, no disorder anywhere ; one potent and enlight- 
 ened will directing every step and every blow to its 
 exact purpose one clear eye computing every foot of 
 progress one accurate and always calm mind compre- 
 hending and controlling, without the slightest show of 
 authority, all that vast application of labor. It inspired 
 me with a more enthusiastic admiration of Col. Ander- 
 son than I had before entertained, to see how he moved 
 among these men, of all grades of capacity and all va- 
 rieties of ambition and desire laborers, mechanics, 
 
500 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 machinists, and sub-engineers governing all perfectly, 
 yet so utterly without pretense or show of doing it, 
 that they were never made conscious of his relation to 
 them. 
 
 Mr. Hedding had expatiated warmly upon this fea- 
 ture of his capacity. " He has the power," he said, 
 " to make himself felt everywhere, and yet a stranger 
 might spend a day here and ask at night who was the 
 head man, if it were not that he is so superior in every 
 way, that he could not be mistaken for a subordinate." 
 There was the most unwavering confidence in his judg- 
 ment, as well as. in his executive ability, so that when 
 he pronounced favorably of any branch of the under- 
 takings he had in hand, everybody was set at rest with 
 regard to it. And how proud Eleanore was of all this. 
 With what worship she looked on him, when letters 
 came bearing testimony to his judgment, his scientific 
 knowledge, and worthiness, in everything that belongs 
 to the complete man, to be trusted. 
 
 " We leave all to you, sir," was the constant language 
 of those whom he consulted. " We are convinced there 
 can be no greater safety than this. Employ whatever 
 force and capital you think best suited to develop our 
 interests, and advising us of your wants as early as you 
 can foresee them, rest assured that they will be sup- 
 plied." 
 
 From our friends came pleasant epistles to us 
 all, filled with delightful recollections of their visit, 
 and pitying themselves that they were no longer of our 
 circle, " which, I assure you," said Mr. Hedding in his 
 note to me, "it would not be easy to match in this 
 city." With the second post after their return, came 
 a letter from Senor Senano, very polite and stately, 
 containing a formal application to me to come to them 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 501 
 
 in the capacity of governess. He hoped for a speedy 
 and favorable answer, from what my friend, Mrs. An- 
 derson, had told them, before she was herself taken 
 away by the excellent Colonel. 
 
 "What shall I say, dear friends?" I asked, when 
 the letter had been read in full session at supper. 
 
 Phil voted instanter no. 
 
 Col. Anderson followed on the same side, with rea- 
 sons and arguments as plenty as blackberries. Even 
 Antonio, who was serving us, put in his nay. But 
 Eleanore was silent. "Have you no voice on this 
 question, my queen ?" asked the husband. 
 
 " Yes, Leo, and my voice is ay." 
 
 We were all betrayed into an expression of surprise. 
 
 "Why, Nelly," began Col. Anderson. 
 
 " Oh madame," exclaimed Antonio, catching his 
 breath and subsiding into instant silence. 
 
 "Mamma, mamma," cried Phil, a don't let Miss 
 Warren go away. I want her to stay here. I believe 
 she ought to stay here." 
 
 " One at a time, my darling," she replied to the 
 man and the child. You, good Antonio, wish her to 
 stay, I know, because we all love her, and are so happy 
 to have her with us ; and that would be right if there 
 were nothing else to be thought of but our happiness 
 for this present time. But we must think of Miss War- 
 ren as well as ourselves, and though we shall miss her 
 very sadly, from our table, and our house, and our 
 garden, we ought not to keep her here, if it will not be 
 best for her. I think so, Antonio, and so I vote ay on 
 this question. Will you come to the parlor now," she 
 said, rising and leading the way with Phil in one hand 
 and myself in the other. " Leo, come and sit down here, 
 and let us consider." For my own part, I remained 
 
502 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 silent. I was not in the least hurt by her decision ; for 
 our affection for each other was above every doubt. 
 Not a shadow could possibly fall on that. But I was 
 curious to hear a more explicit statement of her thoughts 
 than she had given to Antonio. 
 
 "Well, Nelly," said her husband, "what is it? I 
 know you are thinking of something that would be 
 worth hearing. Will you give it us ?" 
 
 " I did not propose to argue this question, dear 
 friends," she said, taking a hand of each of us. "I 
 asked you, Leo, to sit down and consider. That did 
 not mean to discuss. Now reflect for a little, and see 
 if you do not vote with me. We are talking, dear 
 Anna," she said, " as if you were absent, and I endeavor 
 to think and feel about your going, as far above the 
 level of the present hour as possible. I try to forget 
 how much T shall long for you how much we shall 
 feel your loss from this blessed household, and think of 
 your future only, and I am persuaded that you ought 
 to go to the city." 
 
 " I am more than half inclined to agree with you," 
 I. said, " because I have so often found you right here- 
 tofore. Nevertheless, I do not care so much for pecu- 
 niary interests now, that I need to sacrifice so much as 
 I should in giving you all up for the sake of a salary." 
 
 " It is not pecuniary interest alone that I consider," 
 replied Eleanore. "But I should like you to enter 
 upon a social life in the city, which will never be pos- 
 sible to you here. You are able to speak Spanish pas- 
 sably now, and therefore you will not be so isolated in 
 the Senano household as I was. You will not have 
 the same reason that I had, in this worshipful master, 
 for shunning company, and, in short, I feel assured that 
 we shall all be much happier a year hence if you go. 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 503 
 
 Now, Leo, you shall have the privilege of withdrawing 
 your former vote and reversing it if you choose." 
 
 And so it was settled, with the clear concurrence of 
 all but Phil, that I should reply affirmatively to Don 
 Alexandra's letter, wich I did, promising to go to them 
 at the end of a month. What intense enjoyment was 
 compressed into that period ! What hopes and plans 
 of future meetings there or in the city. How the 
 packet was to be charged with parcels to Mr. Hedding's 
 care for me; and in return, how I imagined myself 
 picking up now and then a choice book, or a gem of a 
 picture, or, with Mr. Huntley's help, a piece of rare 
 music to delight these dear souls, in this secluded little 
 house. At last the morning of the day came. The 
 
 Colonel was to accompany me to , and his 
 
 second foreman, a very gentlemanly, quiet man, was to 
 act as my escort to the city, whither he had to go on 
 
 ^siness. Bancroft Library 
 
 When I parted from Eleanore, her swimming eyes 
 smiled into mine as she said, "I hope I am not af- 
 flicting myself so much in vain, Anna. Keep your 
 heart alive, dear friend, and think what a bright, beau- 
 tiful, and sufficient world home is to a woman." The 
 calmly spoken words startled me, and returned to my 
 inner ear, hours afterward, in the heat of that day. 
 Was I traveling toward a bright and peaceful home ? 
 I asked myself, with a vague, wide wandering of my 
 imagination into the future. There came also an occa- 
 sional memory of the past streaks of something like 
 light across that misty expanse. On the whole, my 
 journey was accomplished in a state of mind pretty 
 nearly balanced between expectation and pleasing 
 memories. I had at the least a new home and new 
 persons before me, and if life should offer me nothing 
 
504 THE IDF. AT, ATTAINED. 
 
 more than it had already, a perpetual membership in 
 the beloved household I had just left, that indeed was 
 much. But why was it not now, as it would once 
 have been, enough ? Why did I look beyond ? 
 
 When we reached the Hotel du Nord, I was follow- 
 ing my companion, Mr. Burney, up stairs, to the par- 
 lor, when we met Mr. Hedding going down. His 
 undisguised pleasure in meeting me, his hearty cor- 
 diality, and his endless praises of Mrs. Anderson's gen- 
 erosity and kindness in urging my coming, quite touched 
 my heart. So much appreciation, so much pleasure 
 derived from my presence, warmed my blood into 
 strange pulsations. Would it not be happiness always 
 to be able so to give happiness ? 
 
 I retired late, but did not even then sleep till I had 
 questioned myself thus many times, and recalled many 
 times the earnest, lingering clasp, in which my hand 
 had been taken that night. 
 
 The next day I was installed in my new post, but 
 although I liked my employers much, and they liked 
 me, and the children were particularly fond of me, I 
 remained there only four months. At the end of 
 that time, I received the following short note from 
 Eleanore : 
 
 " VALVEKDE. 
 
 " Your cards were received with great joy, dear 
 Anna. Leo and I have talked of nothing else all the 
 evening. We have laid all sorts of delightful plans for 
 your future days, which we feel assured cannot fail to 
 be happy. If they are as much so as you both deserve, 
 and we wish they should be, you could not, I am sure, 
 ask more. As this will not reach you till after the 
 wedding day, let it bring to your home the assurance 
 of our congratulations, and of my joyous, heart-felt 
 sympathy with you, dear friend, in this long-deferred 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 505 
 
 experience. I feel happier in thinking of YOU as the 
 wife of that good, noble, genial man, than 1 should if 
 you had been placed upon a throne, and thereby cut 
 off from following your heart in this leaning of it. Leo 
 and I hope to see you before the rainy season sets in. 
 Will you not come to us ? Phil begs for a visit, and 
 Antonio smiles brightly when your name is spoken, 
 and seems to approve as warmly as any one of us the 
 new relation. 
 
 " Our hearts are full of love and hope for you, and 
 here is the little queenly flower of pure white cyclo- 
 bothra, Leo calls it which he has carefully pressed to 
 offer you. Put it in your herbarium, and under it 
 write the language which he intends it to express 
 to you from himself: 'May you be happy and be- 
 loved as I am/ It is the type of a victorious, exulting 
 heart, and never had any a better right than he to 
 send it, unless it were your rejoicing friend, 
 
 ELEANORE." 
 
CHAPTER LX. 
 
 I shall give you but one more short letter from 
 Eleanore, though I have large files of them. She is 
 now living at one of the two important points on the 
 globe where capital, employed by intellect and know- 
 ledge, is subduing the hindrances to material civiliza- 
 tion. Her husband is engaged there in work which 
 will record his name to future ages. I have many of 
 her letters from that place, but this is written in an- 
 swer to my last, informing her of the birth of this little 
 Eleanore Hedding : 
 
 " On the whole," she says, after giving me her ear- 
 nest congratulations and some particulars relating to 
 themselves, " on the whole, my dear Anna, I am glad 
 your child is a daughter. You are beyond any proba- 
 bility I hope any possibility of want ; and a daughter 
 comes so very near to a mother's heart by the sympa- 
 thies which fall between women, that I think, other 
 things being equal, her life will enrich your age more 
 than a son's would. A happy woman's experience is, 
 I sometimes fear, richer than any man's can be. Is 
 not mine more so than Leonard's, I wonder ? Can I 
 be so much to him as he is to me ? I will to be every 
 day, when I feel the wealth of his love, but I fear I 
 must fall short. 
 
 u We are still, dear Anna, the same lovers as when 
 you were with us in the dear old mountain-home, 
 there is such a fine and subtile influence flowing from 
 his life into my soul ! I feel it in the presence with 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 507 
 
 which he is clothed in approaching me. I feel it in 
 his voice, and in the outpouring tenderness which he 
 bears to every living creature. As a man, he gains 
 year by year in the completeness of the nature I first 
 loved. One feels in him so clearly, now, the great, 
 strong soul, at home and on easy terms with its mag- 
 nificent tenement, the body, which is equally at home 
 and at ease with the material world. 
 
 " If there is any fault to be laid at his door, it is, 
 perhaps, that he is too religiously proud of our daugh- 
 ters though it would be difficult to see how one could 
 help that, and they such children as they are. 
 
 " Nellie, who is now, you know, past five, is wild, 
 and grand, and imaginative, and tender, and terrible, 
 all in one, like the mountains that watched over and 
 whispered to her before she was born. And I think 
 the spirit of that dear, blessed old Whitehouse piano 
 lives in her little soul, she is so full of music trilling 
 parts of choruses and snatches and cadences all day 
 long, as a forest-bird its notes ; so that her father thinks 
 he never did a wiser or truer thing than surprising me 
 with it, as you remember he did, so charmingly. 
 
 " i We made ourselves a beneficent Providence to 
 her, did we not ?' he asks, as we watch her tiny fingers 
 playing over the keys of our grand new instrument. 
 
 " She has played more than a year, and actually 
 gets through several little pieces of Phil's, though I 
 have never shown her where to find a single key. " 
 
 " Dear Phil, no less precious and beloved by each 
 of us than he was, has constituted himself, in right of 
 his age, Nellie's care-taker ; and nothing can be more 
 charming than to see them strolling along the beach, 
 hand in hand for Phil never lets go of her there 
 when the tide is out gathering shells and delighting 
 in the endless frolic of the waters. 
 
 " Nellie is poetical, too, and loves to personify the 
 sea, finding in it many of the attributes of her human 
 idols ; but with all this, Phil cannot persuade her that 
 the water stood up on each side to let Moses and his 
 host pass through. She insists that their passage must 
 have been effected by means of a * 'tanal.' 
 
508 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 " ' But, Nellie, don't I tell you there couldn't be a 
 canal in the middle of the sea ! and folks go in boats 
 on canals. They don't walk or ride, as Moses did.' 
 
 " ' Well, then, wasn't it a dry tanal, like papa's, 
 Phil?' 
 
 " And then Phil says, despairingly : ' Oh, dear if 
 you was a boy, Nellie, you'd understand it.' 
 
 " Bertha, who is now well on in her second year, 
 bids fair to be quite another sort of character. She is 
 a miracle of beauty, with large, joyous blue eyes so 
 like her father and golden hair that lays in loose coils 
 all over her beautiful head, and a mouth so sweet, yet 
 spirited, even at this age, that we often laugh at her 
 little demonstrations Leo and I and say : ' How 
 like that is to Phil !' 
 
 " She is born of a more tranquil condition, to which 
 I had grown interiorly in those years of deep-settled 
 happiness, as well as attained externally by the changed 
 conditions of our life. She will have more native re- 
 pose, I think, than her sister; and it seems to me that, 
 for the artist in Nellie, may be substituted, in Bertha, 
 the more serious, earnest, loving nature of the philan- 
 thropist. 
 
 " It may seem absurd to you, dear friend, that I 
 should thus speculate upon the probable character of a 
 young child. But it is not, as you will know when 
 your own daughter has added some months to her age. 
 You will see prophecies, even then, of her future ; and, 
 beside, if you have been true to God and her, before 
 she saw the light, you already ~know something of what 
 you have done for her. 
 
 " You remember how high-strung, keen, variable, 
 yet centered upon ourselves, was my spiritual life be- 
 fore Nellie came to us how all my little artistic power 
 was in vivid and joyous play how I breathed in the 
 genius of that wonderful mountain-world all its poetry, 
 all its terrors of storm and tempest, as well as its genial 
 sunshine and tenderness. They were all daguerreo- 
 typed in her being, and are now showing themselves 
 to us every day. 
 
 " But the intervening years calmed and settled me 
 
THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 509 
 
 much. I looked out upon the world with a clearer 
 vision. Its suffering appealed to me its great move- 
 ments stirred my comprehensive powers to lay hold of 
 and harmonize them with my own hopes of human 
 progress ; but chiefly my sympathies were in exercise, 
 toward those who were less happy than ourselves, and 
 toward the millions who are yearly being born to per- 
 versions and pains and incapacity, for want of the light 
 I enjoyed. 
 
 "Therefore I know, independent of the expression 
 of baby deeds which may mean as much as the deeds 
 of the man or woman independent of broken, lisping 
 chatter, betraying the secret springs of sympathetic 
 tenderness independent of the calmness and almost 
 grandeur of self-poise we sometimes see, with waters of 
 inexpressible gratitude in our eyes I know, I say, in- 
 dependent of all these imperfect proofs, that Bertha is 
 born to a life of earnest, loving uses. The need to per- 
 form them has grown into her body and soul from 
 mine. She cannot live without them. 
 
 " Do not laugh at me for this. You will one day 
 'know it as the divinest and highest truth upon which 
 our life can lay hold for its practical healing and purifica- 
 tion so exalted and revered is the office of womanhood. 
 
 " Antonio remains with us the same self-sacri- 
 ficing, watchful, faithful creature that you knew him. 
 When I left my room, after Bertha was born, leaning 
 upon, or, rather, in Leonard's arm, the poor fellow 
 came to meet and congratulate me, with tears in his 
 eyes. ' Madame have three now,' he said ; 4 rich wo- 
 man very rich ; so handsome and good.' 
 
 " I hardly knew whether the praise applied to my- 
 self or my children, which doubt, when I suggested it 
 to Leonard, he said could only arise from sheer and 
 excessive vanity, which, considering all things, he must 
 be allowed to express his wonder at. 
 
 " We have plenty of room here, dear friend, and I 
 wish you and our good Mr. Hedding and the young- 
 lady who has appropriated my name, could come to 
 share some of it with us. There is the nursery to the 
 left of my room, and Leo's to the right, with his dressing- 
 
510 THE IDEAL ATTAINED. 
 
 room beyond ; and on the opposite side of the house is 
 a corresponding suite, which I would that you were in 
 to-day. Ours overlook the bright sea, and the blue, 
 distant mountains ; and when Leonard and I sit there 
 by ourselves, voicelessly talking, as we sometimes do, 
 to each other, in our souls, I think looking on the 
 great, grand world before me, and feeling what my 
 heart leans on there that God indeed is Love. 
 
 " i Have not our lives proved it so, dearest soul ?' 
 I said, one day. 
 
 " ' My own wife,' he replied, taking me very close 
 to his heart, in uttering the words, ' we have proved 
 God's love in all the common gifts of life that have been 
 ours ; but more richly than any man have I proved it, 
 in finding thee so dowered in the soul he gave thee, as 
 
 ferfectly to husband all that life could bring to us. 
 owe thee a debt for the sweet firmness and high 
 honor of thyself and me, that have preserved this love 
 blooming in my heart as freshly now as on the day, 
 long ago, when I sought to make thee mine ; I owe 
 thee a debt as the mother of our matchless children ; 
 I owe thee a debt for the grand religions culture 
 wherein my soul has risen toward God, with thine ; 
 I owe thee a debt for the faith them hast given me in 
 the capacities and destiny of man ; almost I owe thee 
 my own clear and unwavering trust in God and the 
 future, which I feel to be so sufficient an armor against 
 the poisoned arrows of sorrow, should they ever search 
 me out. How shall I pay thee all this, sweet one ?' 
 " ' So,' I replied, holding his generous heart to 
 
 THE EXD. 
 
A Book for the Century! 
 
 WOMAN AND HER ERA. 
 
 BY MRS. ELIZA W. PARNHAM. 
 
 2 Volumes, 12mo ? nearly 8OO pages. 
 
 The Publishers take pleasure in calling the especial 
 attention of readers and thinkers to this able and compre- 
 hensive work. It is original in its character, fundamental 
 in the treatment of its subject, and masterly in style. It 
 aims not simply at discussion, but fearlessly seeks an actual 
 solution of the great question which has agitated the intel- 
 ligent world so broadly for many years past. 
 
 The author offers it so says her Preface as the result 
 of twenty-two years' earnest thought, study and reception 
 a period long enough to give, of itself, a measure of value 
 to her labors that cannot fail to claim the attention of the 
 inquiring, the earnest and the thoughtful. 
 
 Mrs. Farnham is well known as a philanthropist, and 
 widely acknowledged as " one of the ablest and clearest 
 thinkers of the day" " a woman who has not many equals, 
 and but very few superiors of either sex." 
 
 The Publishers do not hesitate to pronounce this crown- 
 ing-piece of a score of years' faithful labor, one of tho 
 ablest works on the subject ever written if not, indeed, 
 Ute greatest book on Woman extant. Never before has 
 
2 WOMAJf AND RKli, EKA. 
 
 there appeared a work so entirely original, so ample, ex- 
 haustive and fundamental, upon this important question. 
 
 The author's treatment of the subject differs from that 
 of writers who have heretofore ; in broken and fragmentary dis- 
 sertations, attempted a description of Woman's " Right's, 
 Duties and Sphere." "Woman and Her Era" is in no 
 true sense a treatise upon the " Rights of Woman," neither 
 a homily upon her " duties," nor yet a discussion of her 
 " proper sphere." Its purpose is deeper and broader than 
 all these. It is a calm, candid, thoroughly rational and 
 fundamental inquiry into the NATURE OF WOMAN a con- 
 siderate and exhaustive analysis by Woman, of her own 
 exalted nature and office, and the relations, responsibilities, 
 privileges, duties and possibilities consequent thereupon. 
 
 The work takes the highest ground yet claimed for 
 Woman, viz. : her innate superiority. 
 
 In support of this startling position the author does not 
 sentimentalize or argue merely, but critically examines 
 every leading point, with a purpose toward absolute demon- 
 stration. The analysis is made seriatim, beginning with 
 the Organic Statement, which will have to be sharply 
 handled and very closely dissected to be successfully con 
 troverted. Following this we have the Religious, Esthetic, 
 Historical and Intellectual divisions into which the subject 
 naturally falls. The work closes by setting forth the 
 Divine Purpose in the higher endowment of Woman, viz., 
 the performance of a Divine Artistic Maternity the very 
 noblest service, the author claims, that can be rendered 
 to humanity by any earthly being. 
 
 The book has a powerful appeal to Woman, not simply 
 as its subject, but as its subject made illustrious by the 
 treatment she receives, and by the measure and character 
 of the responsibility shown to be hers in the strictly natural 
 woman-offices. 
 
 In its faithful trust in the sufficiency of Woman's 
 nature to vindicate the dignity of Woman, lies one of the 
 
WOMAN AND HER EBA. 3 
 
 brightest characteristics and chief elements of strength iu 
 this important work. 
 
 The author does not believe that Woman is to improve 
 by likening herself to Man, but, on the contrary, by the 
 most complete development of the elements and powers 
 of every sort which both distinguish and contra-distinguish 
 her from him. And this not in a light, sneering, or con- 
 temptuous spirit toward the masculine nature, but in earnest 
 loyalty toward the feminine, whose day of high use and 
 genuine help for humanity the author believes is just now 
 approaching. 
 
 In the unqualified commendation which the publishers 
 do not hesitate to give this work, as challenging the world's 
 respectful and earnest consideration, they need not be under- 
 stood as indorsing all the positions or conclusions of the 
 author. It is not their purpose or wish to enter upon a dis- 
 cussion of the correctness of all the claims here made for 
 woman. The author speaks for herself in language easily 
 understood, and to this clear presentation of her own ori- 
 ginal views, the Publishers invite the candid attention of 
 the thoughtful, sincere truth-seeker, persuaded that what- 
 ever of truth or error may lie within the pages of the work, 
 its perusal and the careful examination of all the grounds 
 assumed and maintained can be neither hurtful nor danger- 
 ous to any mind, but on the contrary prove of service to 
 every man or woman of sufficient intelligence to comprehend 
 its ennobling lessons. 
 
 "WOMAN AND HER ERA" is published in two 
 elegant 12mo volumes. Price S3 ; Extra gilt, $4 ; Two 
 vols. in one, Library sheep, $3 50. 
 
 Copies sent, prepaid, on receipt of the price. 
 Address C. M. PLUMB & CO., 
 
 274 Canal Street, New York. 
 
An Autobiography of the Author of " Woman and her Era/' 
 
 JUST PUBLISHED. 
 
 ELIZA WOODSON; 
 
 OR THE 
 
 Early Days of one of the World's Workers. 
 
 A STORY OF AMERICAN LIFE. 
 
 The publishers invite attention to this newly published volume, 
 as a fit companion to " Woman and her Era." The one giving 
 the facts of the author's early years, introducing the life-story of 
 a brave, resolute spirit, endowed with unmistakable genius, which 
 no weight of oppression could long deter from asserting itself. 
 The other furnishing the rich fruitage of such a rare nature, the 
 valuable results of many years' thought and experience. 
 
 Those who have read " "Woman and her Era," cannot fail to 
 experience an eager desire for more knowledge of the early life 
 of the author for the particulars of her hopes, aspirations, trials, 
 disappointments, consequent struggles, and ultimate triumph. 
 
 On the other hand, every reader introduced to the life-record 
 of so earnest, resolute, and lofty-purposed a child as is embodied 
 in the character of the young " Eliza," in the autobiography here 
 noticed, will the better appreciate and understand her mature 
 womanhood, and experience an enlarged respect for what she is 
 and has done. 
 
 The excellence of the volume as an artistic creation, and its 
 value as a lesson to young and old, will appear from the follow- 
 ing critical notices which have already been awarded it. 
 
 " Mrs. Farnham is one of the ablest and clearest thinkers of 
 the day, and the book is written in her best style. She instructs 
 in the principles of a profound philosophy and pure morality 
 while writing the every-day experiences of a young but oppressed, 
 spirit, struggling with high aspirations against vulgar surround- 
 ings and brutal task-masters. It is a very superior book." 
 
 [San Francisco Daily Times. 
 
 " "We took up this volume just as the lamps were lighted, and 
 the children were dropping off to sleep in their little beds, and 
 when we laid it down, the dawn of another day was looking in af 
 the windows. It had cost us the loss of a night's sleep. 
 
 " Since reading ' Jane Eyre,' of which, though different, it con- 
 stantly reminded us, we have read nothing in the way of autobi- 
 ography half so interesting nothing in the way of fiction half so 
 thrilling." New Covenant. 
 
** If this story be true, the author has contrived to render a 
 narrative of actual life as entertaining as any work of fiction; if 
 fictitious, she has learned the greatest secret of all art to conceal 
 art and imitate nature most closely and successfully." N. Y. Atlas 
 
 " All young girls, we think, ought to read this remarkable 
 book. It contains the mental experience of a little girl, deep and 
 full of subtile emotions, enough so to task the lore of a sage. 
 
 " In the discrimination of her characters, the author has 
 shown power not inferior to the creation of 'Jane Eyre.' * * * 
 It possesses an interest the reader cannot shake off." N. Y. Express. 
 
 " Mrs. Farnham has long been known and respected by us, 
 and we have always been of the opinion that she had not many 
 equals, and but very few superiors, of either sex. Yet of her 
 child-life we were ignorant ; but now that we know so well her 
 strong heart, and her warm, tender sympathies, we are exceed- 
 ingly interested in reading the incidents of her early days, which 
 exhibited the germ of what has since been developed. * * * 
 We cannot describe the book, but wish it could be read by every- 
 body, for it is pure fact ; not a fictitious story, written merely to 
 entertain the reader for a time." Life Illustrated. 
 
 " ELIZA WOODSON" is a story which cannot fail to awaken 
 the liveliest interest of every reader. The most highly wrought 
 tales of fiction fade into insignificance beside this vivid drama of 
 real life. 
 
 Seldom do we meet a volume which can be read so advan- 
 tageously by both children and adults few are there so en- 
 couraging in their effect on youthful aspirations toward excellence. 
 The book will be found not only entirely unexceptionable in 
 style, plot, and incident, but a work which, while it attracts by its 
 graphic interest, cannot fail to elevate and instruct, inaugurating, 
 in an eminent degree, a New Era in Fiction. 
 
 Without trenching upon theological grounds, or obtruding any 
 obnoxious, mystical, or even doubtful tenet of faith, the book por- 
 trays with great fidelity the perils of a young and thoughtful 
 nature, exposed to the teachings of blind infidelity, and the light, 
 strength, and true faith inspired by diviner lessons. The book is 
 one which no person can read without profound interest, and 
 neither old nor young can rise from its perusal without feeling 
 helped to nobler purposes and truer action. 
 
 An Elegant 12mo, 425 pages. Frioe $1 50. 
 
 |3P A liberal discount to the Trade. Single copies sent by 
 mail, postpaid, on receipt of the price. Address 
 
 0. M. PLUMB & CO., Publishers, 
 23 274 Canal Street, New York. 
 
[From the Atlantic Monthly.] 
 
 1. Woman and her Era. By ELIZA W. FARNHAM. 
 
 2. Eliza Woodson; or, The Early Days of One of theWorld'sWorkers. 
 
 In the three and a half centuries since Cornelius Agrippa, no one 
 has attempted with so much ability as Mrs. Farnham to transfer the 
 theory of woman's superiority from the domain of poetry to that of 
 science. Second to no American woman save Miss Dix in her experi- 
 ence as a practical philanthropist, she has studied human nature in 
 the sternest practical schools, from Sing-Sing to California. She 
 justly claims for her views that they have been maturing for twenty- 
 two years of "experience so varied as to give it almost every form of 
 trial which could fall to the intellectual" life of any save the most 
 tavored women." Her books show, moreover, an ardent love of 
 literature, and some accurate scientific training though her style has 
 the condensation and vigor which active life creates, rather than the 
 graces of culture. ******* 
 
 The difference between her book and most of those written on the 
 other side is, that in the previous cases the lions have been the 
 painte -s, and here it is the lioness. As against the exaggerations on 
 the other side, she has a right to exaggerate on her part. As against 
 the theory that man is superior to woman because he is larger, she 
 has a right to plead that in this case the gorilla were the better man, 
 and to assert, on the other hand, that woman is superior because 
 smaller Emerson's mountain and squirrel. As against the theory 
 that glory and dominion go with the beard, she has a right to main- 
 tain (and that she does with no small pungency) that Nature gave 
 man this appendage because he was not to be trusted with his own 
 face, and needed this additional covering for his shame. As against 
 the historical traditions of man's mastery, she does well to urge that 
 creation is progressive, and that the megalosaurus was master even 
 before man. It is, indeed, this last point, which constitutes the 
 crowning merit of the book, and which will be permanently associated 
 with Mrs. Farnham's name. No one before her has so firmly grasped 
 this key to woman's historic position, that the past was an age of 
 coarse, preliminary labor, in which her time had not .yet come. This 
 theory, as elucidated by Mrs. Farnham, taken with the fine statement 
 of Buckle as to the importance of the intuitive element in the femi- 
 nine intellect, ( which statement Mrs. Farnham also quotes,) consti- 
 tutes the most valuable ground logically conquered for woman within 
 this century. These contributions are eclipsed in importance only by 
 those actual achievements of women of genius as of Elizabeth Bar- 
 rett Browning Rosa Bonheur, and Harriet Hosmer which, so far as 
 they go, render all argument superfluous. 
 
 In this domain of practical achievement Mrs. Farnham has also 
 labored well, and the autobiography of her childish years, when she 
 only aspired after such toils, has an interest wholly apart from her 
 larger work, and scarcely its inferior. Except the immortal "Pet 
 Mariorie," one can hardly "recall in literature a delineation so marvel- 
 ous of a childish mind so extraordinary as "ELIZA WOODSON. The 
 few characters appear with an individuality worthy of a great novel- 
 ist. Every lover of children must find it altogether fascinating, and 
 to the most experienced student of human nature it opens a new chap- 
 ter of startling interest. 24 
 "