“Mr. R. Lindsay

“Dear Sir:  Yours of the 3d came to hand yesterday.  As I wrote you before, I accidentally learned that Dr. Hartwell had been in Canton; but since that have heard nothing from him, and have been unable to trace him further.  Letters from Calcutta state that he left that city, more than a year since, for China.  Should I obtain any news of him, rest assured it shall be immediately transmitted to you.

“Very respectfully,

“R.  A. Fields.”

She crumpled the sheet, and threw it from her; and if ever earnest, heartspoken prayer availed, her sobbing cry to the God of travelers insured his safety.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

One day there came a letter postmarked from an inland town where Beulah had no correspondent.  The direction, however, was instantly recognized, and she broke the seal hurriedly.

“What has become of you, Beulah? and what can have become of my two letters which were never answered?  Concluding you never received them, I hazard a third attempt to reach you through the medium of letters.  You will readily perceive that we have removed to a distant section of the State.  Ernest was called to take charge of this parish, and we are delightfully located here, within a few minutes’ walk of the church.  Beulah, the storm which darkened over me, in the first year of my marriage, has swept by, and it is all sunshine, glorious sunshine, with me.  You know my home was very unhappy for a time.  My husband’s family caused misunderstandings between us, influenced him against me, and made me very, very wretched.  I could not tolerate Lucy’s presence with any degree of patience, yet she would remain in our house.  How it would have ended only Heaven knows, had not my husband been suddenly taken very ill.

“It was on Sabbath morning.  He was displeased with me because of some of my disputes with his sister, and scarcely spoke to me before he went into the pulpit.  Lucy and I sat together in the rector’s pew, hating each other cordially; and when Ernest began the morning service I noticed he looked pale and weary.  Before it was concluded he sank back exhausted, and was borne into the vestry room, covered with blood.  He had a severe hemorrhage from the throat, his physician said, but Ernest thinks it was from his lungs.  I was sure he would die; and oh, Beulah, what agony I endured, as I sat beside him and watched his ghastly face!  But his illness was ’the blessing in disguise’; he forgot all our disgraceful bickerings, and was never satisfied unless I was with him.  Lucy grumbled, and sneered, and looked sour; but I had my husband’s heart again, and determined to keep it.  As soon as he was strong enough I told him how wretched I had been and how sincerely I desired to make him happy, if Lucy would only not interfere.  He saw that our domestic peace was dependent upon the change, and from that hour his sister ceased meddling with my affairs.  What he said to her I never knew; but soon after his recovery she returned to her parents, and I was left in peace.