A noble sacrifice

"'Tis many a year since the River Spirit hath burst his bonds, and thus run riot in the valley!" soliloquised Jack the boatman, pausing in his task of re-soling a much-worn shoe...

During the afternoon, Master Pryce the postman, passing the boatman's cottage on his weekly round, dropped in, as was his wont, for a chat, and over an animated discussion upon...

It was just six months after the arrival of the boatman's unexpected little guest, that very late one evening, when the long summer twilight had almost deepened to night, a myst...

"Nay, do not fear, or for a moment dream The bridge will fall! These stays, though slight they seem, Will steadfast, when our suns have set, still stand. Yes, they will safely b...

"I know not how others saw her, But to me she was wholly fair, And the light of the heaven she came from Still lingered and gleamed in her hair; For it was as wavy and golden, A...

"... My grief lies all within; And these external manners of Lament Are merely shadows to the unseen grief, That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul; There lies the substan...

"Ah, must your clear eyes see ere long The mist and wreck on sea and land, And that old haunter of all song, The mirage hiding in the sand? And with the dead leaves in the frost...

"... God hath not taken all that pains in forming and framing and furnishing and adorning this world, that they who were made by Him to live in it should despise it; it will be...

Early next morning the old vicar, astride his faithful grey mare, appeared before the boatman's cottage; and Primrose, mounting the pillion behind him, rode away with him in hig...

"O, pray you, noble lady, weep no more; But let my words, the words of one so small, Who knowing nothing knows but to obey, * * * * * * * Comfort your sorrows; for they do not f...

"She hath no scorn of common things, And, though she seem of other birth, Round us her heart entwines and clings, And patiently she folds her wings To tread the humble paths of...

"And indeed He seems to me Scarce other than my own ideal knight, Who reverenced his conscience as his king; Whose glory was, redressing human wrong; Who spake no slander, no, n...

The winter following the return of Primrose to her old home brought her no repetition of the previous year's travels and gaieties, and only such news of her friend Lady Bryn Afo...

"... The legend tells how sad The shepherd left his flock to watch the mere; And how at times his grief grew wild, and glad He hail'd the star which tells that day is near; But...

"As one who, from the sunshine and the green, Enters the solid darkness of a cave, Nor knows what precipice or pit unseen May yawn before him with its sudden grave, And, with hu...

"The ideal may never be found, yet even then its creation--unless life is a shadow and the soul a deceit--is a prevision of the infinite, a promise of ultimate fruition--an inti...

"Could you but know what 'tis to bear, my friend, One image stamped within you, turning blank The else imperial brilliance of your mind,-- A weakness, but most precious,--like a...

Percival Vere awoke next morning to a consciousness that some subtle change had come over his being, and after a day spent in some pleasant mountain rambling with Lady Bryn Afon...

"Percival," said Lady Bryn Afon on the last night of their stay at Glyn Melen, as he sat with her in the copse reading aloud, while Primrose was busy within doors directing the...

"It were all one That I should love a bright partic'lar star, And think to wed it; he is so above me: In his bright radiance and collateral light Must I be comforted, not in his...

It was on a bright evening in the end of May that the clatter of the Black Horseman's horse-hoofs, now every day looked for by Primrose and her guardian with mingled feelings of...

"I leave myself, my friends, and all for love. Thou, thou hast metamorphos'd me; Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, War with good counsel, set the world at nought; Made w...

"Life is--to wake not sleep, Rise and not rest, but press From earth's level, where blindly creep Things perfected, more or less, To the heaven's height, far and steep." --ROBER...

Primrose was not wrong in her conjecture that some great conflict of soul had been secretly undergone by Percival Vere during the year which had elapsed since their first meetin...

"Who loves a mistress of such quality, He soon hath found Affection's ground Beyond time, place, and all mortality. To hearts that cannot vary Absence is Presence, Time doth tar...

It was in the dim twilight silence reigning about the mysterious dark pools below the Craig Aran Peak, whither Percival Vere had followed Primrose with eager feet to her well-kn...

The winter months wore away quickly and happily for Primrose. Under Lady Rosamond's roof the days could hardly be dull or uneventful, even when they brought her into no communic...

"Every sense Had been o'erstrung by pangs intense, And each frail fibre of her brain (As bow-strings when relaxed by rain The erring arrow launch aside) Sent forth her Thoughts...

Not knowing whither she went, only impelled by a restless craving to rush from herself and her own thoughts, Shanno's steps unconsciously directed themselves up the old familiar...

A week later the dreaded confession of her vow had been made by Shanno to her mother, and in spite of Lady Bryn Afon's heart-broken tears and entreaties, and refusal to believe...

"And while we suffer, let us set our souls To suffer perfectly; since this alone, The suffering, which is this world's special grace, May here be perfected and left behind." --M...

"Friends, fare we forth together, as the birds Cross the wide ocean in the deep of night, Unresting, till their wistful eyes at dawn See the soft margin of the long'd-for land."...

"I go to prove my soul I see my prey as birds their trackless way: I shall arrive! What time, what circuit first I ask not; but unless God send his hail, Or blinding fireballs,...

"Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will." --SHAKESP...

"So, for us no world? Let throngs press thee to me! Up and down amid men, heart by heart fare we! Welcome squalid vesture, harsh voice, hateful face! God is soul, souls I and th...

"So, let him wait God's instant, men call years; Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul, Do out the duty! Through such souls alone God, stooping, shows sufficient of His...

"No indeed, for God above Is great to grant, as mighty to make, And creates the love to reward the love; I claim you still for my own love's sake! Delayed it may be for more liv...

So, being rid of the burden of so many weary weeks, Lady Shanno returned bravely to her solitary castle, and her knight to his humbler dwelling in the valley, looking for no hig...

"For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, The black minutes at end, And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave, Shall dwindle, shall blend, Shall change, shall...

"The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard, The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky, Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard; En...