“Neither do I understand myself. My life is strange; although I love this man as I never loved before, I do not see that I can wed him. Perhaps we shall be one above, but no one must come between me and my labor,—not even the dearest idol.”
“Perhaps his love might make you stronger; help you to extend your usefulness by increasing your happiness.”
“Carlyle says, 'There is in man a higher than love of happiness; he can do without happiness, and instead thereof, find blessednss.'”
“Very true; and yet happiness might also be blessedness.”
“And yet you have read to me, in the fairy tale, that 'earthly love is misery,' that it 'fevers the blood of mortals, pales the cheek, makes the heart beat, and the voice falter, when it comes.' I cannot be thus consumed. I have another mission. Edith, who do you suppose wrote that tale?”
“I know not; it bore no name. Which of the three shades would you prefer to guide you, Dawn?”
“Virtue.”
“I knew your answer before you spoke it. May the spirit you have chosen remain with you forever, and may your career be as bright as your name.”
They parted; one to rest, the other to struggle long and earnestly with passion and feeling, ere the tide of peace flowed in.
It was morning when her soul cast off the contest, and as the shadows of night were swept away, so her mental shadows were lost in the soul's bright effulgence; for her emotions had been made subordinate, not destroyed, as they should ever be, to the spiritual. They were only submerged, not annihilated, ready to flow again when the hour should demand them.