Heriot's Choice: A Tale

'If Thou shouldst bring me back to life, More humble I should be, More wise, more strengthened for the strife More apt to lean on Thee. Should death be standing at the gate, Thu...

O finer far! What work so high as mine, Interpreter betwixt the world and man, Nature's ungathered pearls to set and shrine, The mystery she wraps her in to scan; Her unsyllabic...

'I can pray with pureness For her welfare now-- Since the yearning waters Bravely were pent in. God--He saw me cover, With a careless brow, Signs that might have told her Of the...

'I have led her home, my love, my only friend, There is none like her, none. And never yet so warmly ran my blood And sweetly, on and on Calming itself to the long-wished-for en...

'Hush, Richard, she will hear us,' returned Mildred, anxiously; and then he came and rested his elbow on the sill beside her, and they talked in a low subdued key, looking over...

'Whose sweet voice Should be the sweetest music to his ear, Awaking all the chords of harmony; Whose eye should speak a language to his soul More eloquent than all that Greece o...

'What is life, father?' 'A battle, my child, Where the strongest lance may fail; Where the wariest eyes may be beguiled, And the stoutest heart may quail; Where the foes are gat...

'In the cruel fire of sorrow Cast thy heart, do not faint or wail; Let thy hand be firm and steady, Do not let thy spirit quail: But wait till the trial is over, And take thy he...

'And in that shadow I have pass'd along, Feeling myself grow weak as it grew strong; Walking in doubt and searching for the way, And often at a stand--as now to-day.

Dr. Heriot's attentions were undemonstrative but unceasing. For a greater part of the way Mildred lay back amongst her snug wrappings, talking little, but enjoying to the full t...

Later on in the morning Mildred was passing by the door of her brother's study, when she heard his voice calling to her. He was sitting in his usual chair, with his back to the...

'O, my Father's hand, Stroke heavily, heavily the poor hair down, Draw, press the child's head closer to thy knee-- I'm still too young, too young, to sit alone.'--Aurora Leigh.

'Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever; Do lovely things, not dream them, all day long; And so make Life, Death, and that vast For Ever, One grand sweet song.'

'At length, as suddenly become aware Of this long pause, she lifted up her face, And he withdrew his eyes--she looked so fair And cold, he thought, in her unconscious grace. Ah!...

Mr. Lambert was soon made acquainted with his son's disappointment; but his sympathy was somewhat chilled by Richard's composed tranquillity of bearing. Perhaps it might be a li...

'Is anything the matter? I suppose I have been a little faint; but it is nothing,' she said, feebly. Her head was on a soft pillow; her face was wet with cold, fragrant waters;...

Hey the green ribbon! we kneeled beside it, We parted the grasses dewy and sheen; Drop over drop, there filtered and slided A tiny bright beck that trickled between. Tinkle, tin...

'Is there within thy heart a need That mine cannot fulfil? One chord that any other hand Could better wake or still? Speak now, lest at some future day My whole life wither and...

Chrissy was sufficiently unwell the next day to make her aunt's petting a wholesome remedy. In moments of languor and depression even a whimsical and erratic nature will submit...

'The yearnings of her solitary spirit, the out-gushings of her shrinking sensibility, the cravings of her alienated heart, are indulged only in the quiet holiness of her solitud...

'Ask me no more: what answer should I give? I love not hollow cheek or faded eye: Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die! Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live; Ask me...

'And on we went; but ere an hour had pass'd, We reach'd a meadow slanting to the North; Down which a well-worn pathway courted us To one green wicket in a privet hedge; This, yi...

'This would plant sore trouble In that breast now clear, And with meaning shadows Mar that sun-bright face. See that no earth-poison To thy soul come near! Watch! for like a ser...

'Of marvellous gentleness she was unto all folk, but specially unto her own, whom she trusted and loved right tenderly. Unkind she would not be unto no creature, nor forgetful o...

'And still I changed--I was a boy no more; My heart was large enough to hold my kind, And all the world. As hath been apt before With youth, I sought, but I could never find Wor...

'All the land in flowing squares. Beneath a broad and equal blowing wind, Smelt of the coming summer, as one large cloud Drew downward; but all else of heaven was pure Up to the...

Chriss's impetuous young voice roused Mildred from her reverie. Chriss's eager footsteps, her shrill tone, broke in upon the stillness, driving the gossamer threads of fancy hit...

'Some one came and rested there beside me, Speaking words I never thought would bless Such a loveless life. I longed to hide me, Feasting lonely on my happiness. But the voice I...

'She looked again, as one that half afraid Would fain be certain of a doubtful thing; Or one beseeching, "Do not me upbraid!" And then she trembled like the fluttering Of timid...

'Heigho! daises and buttercups, Fair yellow daffodils, stately and tall, A sunshiny world full of laughter and leisure, And fresh hearts unconscious of sorrow and thrall! Send d...

'Half drowned in sleepy peace it lay, As satiate with the boundless play Of sunshine on its green array. And clear-cut hills of gloomy blue, To keep it safe, rose up behind, As...

'O fair, O fine, O lot to be desired! Early and late my heart appeals to me, And says, "O work, O will--Thou man, be fired, To earn this lot--" she says--"I would not be A worke...

'But thoughtless words may bear a sting Where malice hath no place, May wake to pain some secret sting Beyond thy power to trace. When quivering lips, and flushing cheek, The sp...

'The fields were all i' vapour veil'd Till, while the warm, breet rays assail'd, Up fled the leet, grey mist. The flowers expanded one by one, As fast as the refreshing sun Thei...

A few days after the Wharton Hall clipping, Mildred went down to the station to see some friends off by the train to Penrith. A party of bright-faced boys and girls had invaded...

'His dews drop mutely on the hill, His cloud above it saileth still, Though on its slope men sow and reap: More softly than the dew is shed, Or cloud is floated overhead, He giv...