Mrs. Hazleton was greatly agitated. She had always looked on Alice as excluded by her misfortune from the usual destiny of her sex, as consecrated from her birth for a vestal's lot. She had never thought of her being wooed as a wife, and she repelled the idea as something sacrilegious. "Impossible, Louis," she answered. "You know not what you ask. My Alice is set apart, by her Maker's will, from the sympathies of love. I have disciplined her for a life of loneliness. She looks forward to no other. Disturb not, I pray thee, the holy simplicity of her feelings, by inspiring hopes which never can be realized." "Speak, Alice," cried Louis, "and tell your mother all you just now said to me. Let me be justified in her eyes." Alice lifted her downcast, blushing face, while the tears rolled gently from her beautiful, sightless eyes. "Mother, dear mother, forgive me if I have done wrong, but I cannot help my heart's throbbing more quickly at the echo of his footsteps or the music of his voice. And when he asked me to be his wife and be ever with him, I could not help feeling that it would make me the happiest of human beings. Oh, mother, you cannot know how kind, how good, how tender he has been to me. The world never looks dark when he is near." Alice bowed her head on the shoulder of Louis, while her fair ringlets swept in shining wreaths over her face. "This is so unexpected!" cried Mrs. Hazleton. "I must speak with your parents." "I come with their full consent and approbation. Alice will take the place of Helen in the household, and prevent the aching void that would be left." "Alas! what can Alice do?" "I can love him and pray for him, mother, live to bless him, and die, too, for his sake, if God requires such a sacrifice." "Is not hers a heavenly mission?" cried Louis, taking the hand which rested on his arm, and laying it gently against his heart. "This little hand, whose touch quickens the pulsations of my being, will be a shield from temptation, a safeguard from sin. What can I do for her half so precious as her blessings and her prayers? If I am a lamp to her path, she will be a light to my soul. 'What can Alice do?' She can do every thing that a guardian angel can do. Give her to me, for I need her watchful cares." "I see she is yours already," cried the now weeping mother, "I cannot take away what God has given. May He bless you, and sanctify this peculiar and solemn union." Thus there was a double wedding on the morrow. "But she had no wedding dress prepared!" says one A robe of pure white muslin was all the lovely blind bride wished, and that she had always ready. A wreath of white rose-buds encircling her hair, completed her bridal attire. Helen wore no richer decoration. Spotless white, adorned with sweet, opening flowers, what could be more appropriate for youth and innocence like theirs?