The morning which broke after that night of storm was serene and beautiful.  The air had a crystal clearness, and as you looked away up into the cloudless azure, it seemed as if the eye could penetrate to an immeasurable distance.  The act of breathing was a luxury.  You drew in draught after draught of the rich air, feeling, with every inhalation, that a new vitality was absorbed through the lungs, giving to the heart a nobler beat, and to the brain a fresh activity.  With what a different feeling did I take up my round of duties for the day!  Yesterday I went creeping forth like a reluctant school boy; to-day, with an uplifted countenance and a willing step.

Having a few near calls to make, I did not order my horse, as both health and inclination were better served by walking.  Soon after breakfast I started out, and was going in the direction of Judge Bigelow’s office, when, hearing a step behind me that had in it a familiar sound, I turned to find myself face to face with Henry Wallingford!  He could hardly have failed to see the look of surprise in my face.

“Good morning, Henry,” I said, giving him my hand, and trying to speak with that cheerful interest in the young man which I had always endeavored to show.

He smiled in his usual quiet way as he took my hand and said in return,

“Good-morning, Doctor.”

“You were not out, I believe, yesterday,” I remarked, as we moved on together.

“I didn’t feel very well,” he answered, in a voice pitched to a lower key than usual; “and, the day being a stormy one, I shut myself up at home.”

“Ah,” said I, in a cheerful way, “you lawyers have the advantage of us knights of the pill box and lancet.  Rain or shine, sick or well, we must travel round our parish.”

“All have their share of the good as well as the evil things of life,” he replied, a little soberly.  “Doctors and lawyers included.”

I did not observe any marked change in the young man, except that he was paler, and had a different look out of his eyes from any that I had hitherto noticed; a more matured look, which not only indicated deeper feeling, but gave signs of will and endurance.  I carried that new expression away with me as we parted at the door of his office, and studied it as a new revelation of the man.  It was very certain that profounder depths had been opened in his nature—­opened to his own consciousness—­than had ever seen the light before.  That he was more a man than he had ever been, and more worthy to be mated with a true woman.  Up to this time I had thought of him more as a boy than as a man, for the years had glided by so quietly that bore him onward with the rest, that he had not arisen in my thought to the full mental stature which the word manhood includes.