And, oh, then, how Florence loved him! how far more luxurious, in its grateful and clinging fondness, was that love, than the wild and jealous fire of their earlier connection! Her own character, as is often the case in lingering illness, became incalculably more gentle and softened down, as the shadows closed around it. She loved to make him read and talk to her--and her ancient poetry of thought now grew mellowed, as it were, into religion, which is indeed poetry with a stronger wing. . . . There was a world beyond the grave--there was life out of the chrysalis sleep of death--they would yet be united. And Maltravers, who was a solemn and intense believer in the GREAT HOPE, did not neglect the purest and highest of all the fountains of solace. Often in that quiet room, in that gorgeous mansion, which had been the scene of all vain or worldly schemes--of flirtations and feastings, and political meetings and cabinet dinners, and all the bubbles of the passing wave--often there did these persons, whose position to each other had been so suddenly and so strangely changed--converse on those matters--daring and divine--which "make the bridal of the earth and sky." "How fortunate am I," said Florence, one day, "that my choice fell on one who thinks as you do! How your words elevate and exalt me!--yet once I never dreamt of asking your creed on these questions. It is in sorrow or sickness that we learn why Faith was given as a soother to man--Faith, which is Hope with a holier name--hope that knows neither deceit nor death. Ah, how wisely do you speak of the /philosophy/ of belief! It is, indeed, the telescope through which the stars grow large upon our gaze. And to you, Ernest, my beloved--comprehended and known at last--to you I leave, when I am gone, that monitor--that friend; you will know yourself what you teach to me. And when you look not on the heaven alone but in all space--on all the illimitable creation, you will know that I am there! For the home of a spirit is wherever spreads the Universal Presence of God. And to what numerous stages of being, what paths, what duties, what active and glorious tasks in other worlds may we not be reserved--perhaps to know and share them together, and mount age after age higher in the scale of being. For surely in heaven there is no pause or torpor--we do not lie down in calm and unimprovable repose. Movement and progress will remain the law and condition of existence. And there will be efforts and duties for us above as there have been below." It was in this theory, which Maltravers shared, that the character of Florence, her overflowing life and activity of thought--her aspirations, her ambition, were still displayed. It was not so much to the calm and rest of the grave that she extended her unreluctant gaze, as to the light and glory of a renewed and progressive existence.