"But the tomb, dear Lady Hamlet, is only the repository of the dust; it will itself become like the dust it covers; but never, like that awakened dust, be infused with new life, a life far more glorious than all that we can form an idea of; and we must look not _upon_, not _in_ the grave, but beyond it, where death is swallowed up in victory." "_You_ can do this, and you are happy," she replied. A cold revulsion struck on Lord Albert's heart as she paused and breathed with labouring breath,--"and can _you_ not do so?" he asked in deep low tone and shuddered as he spoke. She shook her head; and after a moment's pause said, "all the happiness I know is confined to a few brief moments--a few electric gleams of pleasure, which vanish in their birth; a feverish uncertain and fearful catching at delight, which yet eludes my grasp. These are all the means which I possess to obtain happiness; yet, such as they are, and such as my success in them is, I would not exchange them for yours--what! exchange your cold, leaden, measured _theories of feelings_, for they are nothing more--or the beating pulse of spontaneous joy, which even in this moment of our communing is mine; no, Lord Albert, no--meanly as I think of myself when measured by your standard in the general tenour of our existence, and in the scale of being, there are moments when I soar above all that was ever dreamt of in your philosophy,"--and as she spoke her eyes danced in a deceptive brilliancy that for the moment turned Lord Albert's brain. He shuddered as he felt the pressure of her arm on his while she uttered these words, and his uncertain footsteps slid upon the base of a marble tomb. In the action of recovering himself, a kind of change seemed to pass through his frame; so much are we influenced by trivial circumstances, which yet are surely not the agents of chance; in so doing his eyes rested on an inscription engraven on the stone, and as if glad to escape from answering her, he read the following lines: They were so one, it never could be said Which of them ruled, or which of them obeyed; He ruled because she would obey, and she By him obeying, ruled as well as he. There ne'er was known betwixt them a dispute, Save which the other's will should execute. "The lines are indeed beautiful," said Lady Hamlet Vernon, "and I could be content to be the mould under that stone, if I had ever enjoyed an existence to which they might with truth have been applied--but as it is, _non ragionam di lor_;" and she sprang lightly forwards, adding in a tone of affected levity, "let us make haste back to Restormel; why, dear Lord Albert, we shall be laughed at if it is known that we have been to church." The spell was broken, he made no reply, and they continued the remainder of their walk in silence.