"I would, at least, be loyal and faithful," answered I; "and would

counsel you with an honest purpose, if not wisely."

"Yes," said Zenobia, "you would be only too wise, too honest. Honesty

and wisdom are such a delightful pastime, at another person's expense!"

"Ah, Zenobia," I exclaimed, "if you would but let me speak!"

"By no means," she replied, "especially when you have just resumed the

whole series of social conventionalisms, together with that

strait-bodied coat. I would as lief open my heart to a lawyer or a

clergyman! No, no, Mr. Coverdale; if I choose a counsellor, in the

present aspect of my affairs, it must be either an angel or a madman;

and I rather apprehend that the latter would be likeliest of the two to

speak the fitting word. It needs a wild steersman when we voyage

through chaos! The anchor is up,--farewell!"

Priscilla, as soon as dinner was over, had betaken herself into a

corner, and set to work on a little purse. As I approached her, she

let her eyes rest on me with a calm, serious look; for, with all her

delicacy of nerves, there was a singular self-possession in Priscilla,

and her sensibilities seemed to lie sheltered from ordinary commotion,

like the water in a deep well.

"Will you give me that purse, Priscilla," said I, "as a parting

keepsake?"

"Yes," she answered, "if you will wait till it is finished."

"I must not wait, even for that," I replied. "Shall I find you here,

on my return?"

"I never wish to go away," said she.

"I have sometimes thought," observed I, smiling, "that you, Priscilla,

are a little prophetess, or, at least, that you have spiritual

intimations respecting matters which are dark to us grosser people. If

that be the case, I should like to ask you what is about to happen; for

I am tormented with a strong foreboding that, were I to return even so

soon as to-morrow morning, I should find everything changed. Have you

any impressions of this nature?"

"Ah, no," said Priscilla, looking at me apprehensively. "If any such

misfortune is coming, the shadow has not reached me yet. Heaven

forbid! I should be glad if there might never be any change, but one

summer follow another, and all just like this."

"No summer ever came back, and no two summers ever were alike," said I,

with a degree of Orphic wisdom that astonished myself. "Times change,

and people change; and if our hearts do not change as readily, so much

the worse for us. Good-by, Priscilla!"

I gave her hand a pressure, which, I think, she neither resisted nor

returned. Priscilla's heart was deep, but of small compass; it had

room but for a very few dearest ones, among whom she never reckoned me.




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