nurse.  One day there came to our hospital a beautiful girl with a wealth of raven hair just like mine was before I became a nurse.  I nursed her through a tedious illness and when she went out from the hospital, as I had an abundance of clothing, I supplied her from my wardrobe with all she needed, even to the dress she wore away.  The clothing was all marked with my name.  Soon after I saw in the paper that a young woman who was supposed from the marks on her clothing and the general description of her person to be myself was found drowned in a freshet.  I was taken ill immediately afterwards and learned on recovering that I had been sick and delirious for several weeks.  I sought for my mother, inquired about my husband, but lost all trace of them both till I suddenly came across my husband in Brightside Park.  But Clarence, if you have formed other ties don’t let me come between you and the sunshine.  You are free to apply for a divorce; you can make the plea of willful desertion.  I will not raise the least straw in your way.  I will go back to the convent and spend the rest of my life in penitence and prayer.  I have sinned; it is right that I should suffer.”  Clarence looked eagerly into the face of Annette; it was calm and peaceful, but in it he read no hope of a future reunion.

“What say you, Annette, would you blame me if I accepted this release?”

“I certainly would.  She is your lawful wife.  In the church of her father you pledged your faith to her, and I do not think any human law can absolve you from being faithful to your marriage vows.  I do not say it lightly.  I do not think any mother ever laid her first born in the grave with any more sorrow than I do to-day when I make my heart the sepulchre in which I bury my first and only love.  This, Clarence, is the saddest trial of my life.  I am sadder to-day than when I stood a lonely orphan over my grandmother’s grave, and heard the clods fall on her coffin and stood lonely and heart-stricken in my uncle’s house, and felt that I was unwelcome there.  But, Clarence, the great end of life is not the attainment of happiness but the performance of duty and the development of character.  The great question is not what is pleasant but what is right.”

“Annette, I feel that you are right; but I am too wretched to realize the force of what you say.  I only know that we must part, and that means binding my heart as a bleeding sacrifice on the altar of duty.”

“Do you not know who drank the cup of human suffering to its bitter dregs before you?  Arm yourself with the same mind, learn to suffer and be strong.  Yes, we must part; but if we are faithful till death heaven will bring us sweeter rest.”  And thus they parted.  If Luzerne had felt any faltering in his allegiance to duty he was too honorable and upright when that duty was plainly shown to him to weakly shrink from its performance, and as soon as his wife was able to travel he left A.P., for a home in the sunny South.  After Luzerne had gone Annette thought, “I must have some active work which will engross my mind and use every faculty of my soul.  I will consult with my dear friend Mrs. Lasette.”