One moment our glance mingled ; the next , down rolled the heap of tan upon the kindled wood , and darkness snatched away that daughter of the light , and gave her back to me no more ! Fair ladies , there is nothing more to tell . Must the simple mystery be revealed , then , that Rachel was the daughter of the village squire and had left home for a boarding-school the morning after I arrived and returned the day before my departure ? If I transformed her to an angel , it is what every youthful lover does for his mistress . Therein consists the essence of my story . But slight the change , sweet maids , to make angels of yourselves . FANCY 'S SHOW-BOX . A MORALITY . What is guilt ? A stain upon the soul . And it is a point of vast interest whether the soul may contract such stains in all their depth and flagrancy from deeds which may have been plotted and resolved upon , but which physically have never had existence . Must the fleshly hand and visible frame of man set its seal to the evil designs of the soul , in order to give them their entire validity against the sinner ? Or , while none but crimes perpetrated are cognizable before an earthly tribunal , will guilty thoughts -- of which guilty deeds are no more than shadows , -- will these draw down the full weight of a condemning sentence in the supreme court of eternity ? In the solitude of a midnight chamber or in a desert afar from men or in a church while the body is kneeling the soul may pollute itself even with those crimes which we are accustomed to deem altogether carnal . If this be true , it is a fearful truth . Let us illustrate the subject by an imaginary example . A venerable gentleman -- one Mr. Smith -- who had long been regarded as a pattern of moral excellence was warming his aged blood with a glass or two of generous wine . His children being gone forth about their worldly business and his grandchildren at school , he sat alone in a deep luxurious arm-chair with his feet beneath a richly-carved mahogany table . Some old people have a dread of solitude , and when better company may not be had rejoice even to hear the quiet breathing of a babe asleep upon the carpet . But Mr. Smith , whose silver hair was the bright symbol of a life unstained except by such spots as are inseparable from human nature -- he had no need of a babe to protect him by its purity , nor of a grown person to stand between him and his own soul .
Nevertheless , either manhood must converse with age , or womanhood must soothe him XXXXX gentle cares , or infancy must sport around his chair , or his thoughts will stray into the misty region of the past and the old man be chill and sad .
If about at beneath by that upon whether while with