He--and you forbear to name his name--is gone,--flying vainly from the
consciousness of guilt with the curse of Cain upon him,--hastening
toward the day when Satan shall clutch his own!
A heavenly peace descends upon you that night,--all the more sacred and
calm for the fearful agony that has gone before. A Heaven, that seemed
lost, is yours. A love, that you had almost doubted, is beyond all
suspicion. A heart, that in the madness of your frenzy you had dared to
question, you worship now, with blushes of shame. You thank God for this
great goodness, as you never thanked him for any earthly blessing
before; and with this twin gratitude lying on your hearts, and clearing
your face to smiles, you live on together the old life of joy and of
affection.
* * * * *
Again with brimming nectar the years fill up their vases. Your children
grow into the same earnest joyousness, and with the same home faith,
which lightened upon your young dreams, and toward which you seem to go
back, as you riot with them in their Christmas joys, or upon the velvety
lawn of June.
Anxieties indeed overtake you, but they are those anxieties which only
the selfish would avoid,--anxieties that better the heart with a great
weight of tenderness.
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