A shudder, and the man was dead, and Jane was left all alone in the world. Poor, besotted, frantic Michael Green, all sin-scorched as he was, had passed from the judgment of men to the more merciful judgment beyond. Yet the orphan, if alone, lacked neither sympathy nor protection. Nor did she ever lack from that moment the respect and confidence of the man of whose heart she had from the first been mistress. So that the true happiness came in time which is so often the sweeter for being deferred.
Henry Sedley.
DEFEATED.
Give me your hand—nay, both, as I confront you. Let me look in your eyes, as once before. I gaze, and gaze. Oh, how they change and soften! I stand within the portal: lo! a door—
A door close shut and barred. I knock and listen. No sound, no answer. Doubtingly I wait. Oh! for one glance beyond that guarded entrance, The power that mystic realm to penetrate.
I touch the barrier with hands entreating, If it would yield to me, and none beside. What bitter pain, what sense of loss and failure, To come so near, and come to be denied!
Softly I call, but only silence answers— Silence, and the quick throbbing of my heart. Immovable, the frowning bar abideth: Kneeling, I kiss the threshold and depart.
Mary L. Ritter.