“The presence of his son may be beneficial,” said Harry, “but I do not believe the child can while him away from the sorrow he has met with.  It has been a hard—­a fatal blow, and has fallen with fearful effect upon my poor friend.”

In about an hour the servant returned with the child.  He had been neatly dressed in a new suit of clothes and looked the embodiment of childish innocence.

Taking him by the hand Dr. Humphries led him into the balcony where Alfred still sat with his face buried in his hands, deep in thought and racked with grief.

“Here,” said the old gentleman, “here is your son.  The living and well claim your attention as well as those who are gone and those who suffer.”

Alfred raised his head and gazed at the child for a moment.

“My boy,” he exclaimed at last, “you are the last link of a once happy chain.”  As he spoke he pressed the child to his bosom, and the strong-hearted soldier found relief in tears.

CHAPTER THIRTIETH.

DEATH OF THE SOLDIER’S WIFE.

The presence of his child lightened but did not remove the grief of Alfred Wentworth.  The love he bore his wife may be likened to the love of the eagle for liberty.  Cage it, and the noble bird pines away; no longer allowed to soar on high, but fettered by man, it sickens and dies, nor can it be tamed sufficiently to become satisfied with the wires of a cage.  So it was with the soldier.  His love for his wife was of so deep and fathomless a nature, that the knowledge of her being a maniac, and only returning to reason to die, changed the current of his nature, and from being a friendly and communicative man, he became a silent and morose being.  The world had lost its charms, and the blank left in his heart, the sear upon his mind, the agony at knowing that his wife—­his pure and peerless wife, had been compelled from her necessities to take that which was not her own, could never be filled, never be healed and never be eased.

A wife!  We know not from experience what it means, but there is a something, an inward voice, which tells, us that a wife is the holiest gift of God to man.  A wife! what is it?  A woman to cherish and protect, to give the heart’s affection to, and to receive all the confiding love with which her bosom is filled.  The partner of your happiness—­the source of all that makes man good and binds him to earth; the solace of woes, the sharer of joys—­the gentle nurse in sickness, and the fond companion in health.  Oh! there is a something in the name, which thrills the heart, and makes it beat with emotion at the sound of the word.  Amid the cares and pleasures of man, there can be no higher, no worthier desire than to share his triumphs with a wife.  When Ambition tempts him to mount yet higher in this earthly life, and take his stand among the exalted men of genius, who so fitting to be the partner of his fame as the