Brotherly Love.

affections to mould him to her ivill , and , by the gentleness of her oivn character , smoothen the asperity of his . Besides , as Ave have previously mentioned , he had outpoured all his softer nature to her , and she could perceive a better and kindlier feeling struggling in his bosom , Avhich the fosterizig of affection might develope in its maturity . How far love might have assisted her in these deductions we will not pretend to determine .

But notwithstanding this lenity to his defects , Ida could not conceal from herself the fact that , her lover was fearfully vindictive . The tenacity with ivhich he remembered the most trifling slight , and his fierce denunciations of those from whom he sustained it , ivhich even her presence ivoiild hot always repress , filled her with apprehension . She had been brought up in a school of strict piety . Her father , a Lutheran minister , had suffered severely from the enmity of an early period , and endured

persecution for an adherence to the creed of his convictions . But all that lie had sustained was unable to weaken his sentiments of brotherly love for the ivhole human race , and ivhen he lay on Ms death-bed , though reduced to the greatest extremity by the perfidy of his former friend , and the bigotry of those who persecuted him for his creed , iii his last appeal to heaven there ivas mingled a prayer for the forgiveness of those who had turned

his days to bitterness , and brought him to an untimely grave . The impression ivhich her father ' s precepts and death-bed had left on Ida ' s mind , was indelible , and her every endeavour was directed to the cultivation of an unbounded love for the human race . If resentment arose in her mind , it was only a transient denizen , and ivas soon replaced by forgiveness for the object which had excited it .

The want of a similarity of character in this respect was , perhaps , the only reason that prevented Ida answering in explicit terms ' the affection she felt for Simon , for she trembled at uniting her destiny to one who could feel violent or permanent resentment to a fellow-being . But her love whispered that the origin of this unamiable trait in her lover might be traced to his deformity , and that she ivould be the means of eradicating it . from natnvp .

The anxiety ivhich Ida felt for her lover , at this crisis , ivas heightened by the want of any person in whom she could confide . Her mother , Who was of rather a puritanical turn , and whose A'iews Avere more worldly than those of her departed-spouse , regarded the attachment of her daughter , for SiMon , as little short of insanity , and seldom omitted ah opportunity of evincing her disapprobation of it to Ida . To herthereforethe young

, , girl could not apply for consolation or advice . Maiden modesty pre-, vented her confiding in Alfred her solicitude , and , besides , she felt a hectic of resentment for the mortification he had occasioned her lover . From the young girls of her acquaintance she shrunk , in anything that related to Suhph , for their ill suppressed sneer at his name wounded her to the heart .

. Another day wore on , and Simon was not heard of . It ivas Ms practise to call daily to inquire after her health or to converse with her , and the