“That depends from whom they come,” she answered, and repented of it as soon as said.  She looked up after a while, but there was no shadow on his face.  She saw that he was sharing her joy, and then she knew that not a ripple of doubt would ever disturb their smoothly flowing life.

Miss Evans left at an early hour, and reaching her home, wrote till nearly midnight.  Her nature was one that was most elastic at night; her brilliancy seemed to come with the stars.

Page after page fell from her desk to the floor; thought followed thought, till the mortal light seemed to give place to the divine.  At length the theme grew so mighty, and words seemed so feeble to portray it, that she laid down the pen and wept,—­wept not tears of exhaustion, but of joy at the soul’s prospective.  Sublime was the scene before her vision; enrapturing the prospect opening before earth’s pilgrims, and she felt truly thankful that she was privileged to point out the way to those whose faith was weak, and who walked tremblingly along the road.

She gathered her pages, laid them in order, and then wrote the following in her journal: 

“Night, beautiful night; dark below but brilliant above.  I am not alone.  These stars, some of them marking my destiny, know well my joys and my griefs.  They are shining on me now.  The waters are darkest nearest the shore, and perchance I am near some haven of rest.  I have been tossed for many a year, yet, cease my heart to mourn, for my joys have been great.  The world looks on me, and calls me strong.  Heaven knows how weak I am, for this heart has had its sorrows, and these eyes have wept bitter tears.  The warm current of my love has not departed; it has turned to crystals around my heart, cold, but pure and sparkling.  There is a voice that can melt them, as the sun dissolves the frost.-I turn a leaf.  This shall not record so much of self, or be so tinged with my own heart’s pulsations,—­this page now fair and spotless.

“I thought, a month ago, this feeling would never come again.  I hold my secret safe; why will my nerves keep trembling so, when down, far down in my soul, I feel so strong?

“To-night I must put around my heart a girdle of strong purpose, and bid these useless thoughts be gone.  I must not pulsate so intensely with feeling.  My fate is to stand still and weave my thoughts into garlands for others.  I must lay a heavy mantle on my breast, and wrap fold after fold upon my heart, that its beating may not be heard.  Why have we hearts?  Heads are better, and guide us to safer ports.

“’T is past the midnight hour.  What scratches of the pen I have put upon this virgin page.  So does time mark us o’er and o’er.  We must carry the marks of his hand to the shore of the great hereafter.  Beyond, we shall drink from whatever fount will best suffice us.  Here, we must take the cup as ’t is passed to us, bitter or sweet-’t is not ours to choose.  These boundaries of self are good.  Where should we roam if left to our inclinations?  Let me trust and wait God’s own time and way.”