White and still she lay--a broken lily--beautiful and sweet even in death; her eyes were closed lightly, and upon her lovely lips was the first smile I had seen there since the day which had stricken her innocent life into the dust. Her right hand rested on Bambin's head, in her left she held the piece of silver ribbon I had given her,--the ribbon she had hoped to wear at her wedding. "They are for you," said Madame Jeannel softly. "She said you were fond of Bambin, and he of you, and that you must take care of him and keep him with you always. And as for the ribbon,--she wished you to take it for her sake, that it might be a remembrance of her in time to come." I fell on my knees beside the bed and wept aloud. "Hush, hush!" whispered Madame Jeannel, bending over me; "it is best as it is, she is gone to the angels of God." Science has ceased to believe in angels, but in the faith of good women they live still. The chief work of the "wise" among us seems to me to consist in the destruction of all the beautiful hopes and loves and beliefs of the earth; of all that since the beginning of time till now has consoled, or purified, or brought peace to the hearts of men. Some day, perhaps, in the long-distant future, the voice of Nature may speak to us more clearly through the lips of a nobler and purer system of science than any we now know, and we may learn that Matter is not all in all, nor human love and desire given in vain; but that torn hearts may be healed and ruined lives perfected in a higher spiritual existence, where, "beyond these voices, there is peace." Meanwhile Noemi's body rests in its quiet grave, and upon the faithful bosom lies the silver cross which her lover gave her. She was one of those who could endure all things for love's sake, but shame and falsehood broke her steadfast heart. And it was the hand of her beloved which dealt the blow of which she died! VI. The Little Old Man's Story "O love, I have loved you! O my soul, I have lost you!" --Aurora Leigh Chapter I.