Sister Dolorosa and Posthumous Fame

ng directions to Ezra, who was awkwardly packing his valise, he looked

oubled expression, as he finished his search. The

it with the others, could you, Ezra? It was not to g

rather to his own thought tha

aising himself from over the valise in the middl

wound which may have caused the groan that bur

he convent! Great

t," replied Ezra simply. "The

ugged, faithful countenance of the old man, and

day. He had never been able to understand why, having come, she had gone away with such abruptness. Scarcely had he begun to speak to her when she had

just wounded and dying. It was as if he had betrayed her into the utmost expression of her love for him and in that moment had coldly admonished her of h

again, this sadness only deepened. For health had brought back the ardour of life. The glowing colours of the world returned; and with these there flowed back into his heart, as waters flow back into a well that has gone dry, the perfect love of youth and st

th having given up too easily; for might he not, after all, have won her? Might he not, little by little, have changed her conscience, as little by little he had gained her love? Would it have been possible, he asked himself again and again, for her ever to have come to him as she had done that day, had not her consc

iful of the beautiful ones which make up that land, and his homestead being dear through family ties and those intimations of fireside peace which lay closest the heart of his ideal life. But amid all his happiness, that one lack which made the rest appear lacking-that vacancy within which nothing would fill! The beauty of the rich land henceforth brought him the dream-like recollection of a rough, poor country a hundred miles away. Its

to his life by that high bond through which he had sought to link their sundered pathways. But, on the other hand, the haunting

ear the suspense no longer, and made up his mind to go back, if but to hear tidings whether she yet were living in the convent. He realised, of course, that under no circumstances could he ever again speak to her of his love. He had put hi