They entered the town, and then seeing her hand glide quickly to her side, he gently said: "I am afraid we are riding too fast for you." Her lips writhed for a moment with acute pain; but with a faint smile, which touched him with its sadness, she replied: "I am better now--the pain has almost left me, I am very sorry to trouble you so much, Dr.Bryant," "Trouble!" he murmured, as if communing with his own heart.

"I see you do not know me, nor ever will; for none have truly read my soul or sympathized." A look of bitterness passed over his face, and a sterner expression rested there than Mary had ever marked before.

She knew not what to reply, for she could not comprehend the change, and even as she pondered, he pointed to the western sky, and, much in his usual tone, asked: "Don't you think the sunsets here exceed any you ever beheld elsewhere ?" "In brilliancy they certainly do.

Yet I love still better the soft tints which often linger till the stars come out.

I think they blend and harmonize more beautifully with the deep blue of the zenith than any I have seen before, and I have watched sunsets from my childhood." "You are right; I have noticed in more northern latitudes a very perceptible difference in the appearance of the firmament.