Page:Orange Grove.djvu/368

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mortal destiny for which she was created and toward which she is tending.

Human tears are God's dew-drops, not always the symbol of sadness, but the workings of the most sacred emotions, which are thus softened and purified until the soul responds with the most touching sincerity. The Father's will be done!

Though Mr. Livingston tried hard to appear reconciled he could not conceal the heavy grief that settled upon his spirits. He sought to banish it by close application to his pencil, but the little silky brown head claimed admission there, and drove all other subjects from his mind. He journeyed, but the infinite charm that had been wont to steal over his senses when he gave himself up to revelry among the scenes of nature, had suddenly departed, and in its stead came another charm, one of peculiar sacredness, revealing an angel presence ever flitting before him and dulling his senses to the perception of other objects. Accompanied by Rosalind, it was only in her society that he found any consolation, either at home or abroad. She always met him with a cheerful smile which elicited one in return, and that grief must be very obdurate which will not give way in the presence of two smiling faces.

It was a hallowed hour in that lonely home, one of tender and sacred memory; when another form constantly glided before and whispered to them words of the most endearing love. Whether at home or abroad, on the velvet turf or in the dusty street, wherever the foot pressed or the eye rested, the little silky brown head came to remind them of