The stability of wedded happiness may be fairly tested in six years; and that number has elapsed since the wedding-eve at Sunnybank;--a month or two more--for hickory logs are heaped upon the carved andirons, and the arrowy blaze sheds a red glare upon a group of familiar faces:--Charley, unaltered, save that the benign lustre of his eye--formerly seen only by his best friends, has become habitual;--Morton Lacy, handsomer in the prime of manhood than as the slender student; and, her elbow resting on his knee, sits upon a low divan, his wife. If Time has dealt leniently with the others, he has acted repentantly towards her. She is younger, in face and manner, at twenty-seven, than she was at seventeen. Her husband's equal in many respects, and treated by him as such--she has never endured the servile subjugation of soul, which transforms intelligent women into inane, mindless machines. In yielding to his superior judgment, when in contrariety to hers, her will has parted with none of its strength in the bend which proved its pliancy. Submission is a pleasure, not a cross. "I read to-day of a Mr. Latham, called to the ---- street Church, Baltimore," says Charley. "Is it Emma's husband?" "The identical personage!" replies Ida, with pride. "A high compliment to so young a preacher!" "He is a man of superior talents," pronounces Mr. Lacy; "a divine of Ida's making." "Of Mr. Lacy's, you mean--and maybe, after all, the Sabbath-school is entitled to the honour of teaching him that the healing of men's souls, not their bodies, was his vocation. Dr. Hall and I had a pitched battle whenever we met, over our interference with his pupil, until his trial-sermon, which was delivered in our church. The Doctor strode across the aisle, at the close of the services, wiping his eyes. 'I forgive you, madam, and that meddling husband of yours! My stars! what a parson I was near spoiling!'" "Does Miss Laura meet your wishes, as Mrs. Latham's successor?'" "Entirely. Mr. Lacy supports her authority, or the stigma attached to her father's memory would weaken her influence. She looks sad to-night. It is the third anniversary of his miserable end." "He was burnt alive--was he not?" "It is supposed so. He was found dead--his body partly consumed--upon the hearth of his room. Probably he fell down in a drunken fit. The blow was almost too great for Laura's reason. Natural affection covered the remembrance of all his faults. The children were taken by their mother's relations, to whom he would not allow them to go, in his life-time. Laura has continued with us." "Still a passion for _proteges_! The last time I saw Miss Read, she inquired what your newest hobby was." "What did you reply?" inquires Mr. Lacy. "That ladies dismissed hobbies, when they were provided with 'hubbies--' an execrable play upon words, which she may have construed into an ill-natured fling at her single-blessedness."