"Yes"; she assented quietly, "I have heard him speak of that. Brett never forgets,' he said. 'I can always count on him as an implacable foe.""

"And then," Brett went on, "my son came one day and told me that he wished to marry Felicia Ravenel." He paused a moment. "I can never tell you what I felt when I heard that name. All the past rushed back on me, and I saw that fate had given me my chance to strike a last blow. So I told him that I would never consent to such a marriage, and that if he persisted I should cut him off not only from association with me, but from any share in my fortune."

"Well ?" Miss Felicia's tone implied that there was no finality in this.

"Then "—was it anger or was it pride in the father's tone? -" he told me that his word was given, and that while he was sorry to grieve and alienate me, he was bound, as man and as gentleman, to stand by it. There the matter rested, until I learned yesterday that he had left for this place. I followed, determined that the Ravenels should at least know my exact position, and when I reached my hotel, a note was put into my hands a note which bade Geoffrey Brett be in the garden here to-night to meet Felicia Ravenel."

"And so, without any arrangement of yours or mine," the woman beside him said, "Geoffrey Brett and Felicia Ravenel have met to-night. Do you think that it has been for nothing? -or to give you an opportunity to express bitterness and repay, as you put it, scorn for scorn? No; I am quite sure that it was for something much better. It was, perhaps, that I might tell you that in the years since we parted I have learned a great deal in the garden here, where I have chiefly spent my life. And the best thing which I have learned is that strength comes from suffering and renunciation. It is like the pruning of the rose-trees. One cuts them back severely, and for a time their bloom appears to be thwarted and stunted, but afterwards there comes the fuller, the more perfect, blooming. When I gave you up I seemed to cut away all the better part of myself, all the leafage and the flower of life; but you never understood that the force compelling me to this was not hate-but love."

"Love, Felicia ?"

"Love, Geoffrey-the love which has its deep root in the beginning of our lives. My mother was slowly dying of a lingering disease, and it was for me to choose whether I would leave her to a sadness and desolation which would surely shorten her already short days, or whether I would surrender my own happiness to stay with her and brighten her life to its end. Geoffrey,"-her voice was very solemn in its sweetness now "I cannot express how earnestly I thanked God, after she died blessing me, that I had had the strength to choose as I did, and to send-yes, to send even you away."

"And you did not think of me!" he cried in quick reproach. "You may have risen to heaven through your sacrifice, but I sank down almost to hell. For, determined that you should think I had forgotten you, I married a woman whomGod forgive me!-I did not love, and life with her-ah, I cannot speak of what life with her was!"

"I can speak, though," Miss Felicia said gently. "Life with her was a discipline of the soul in which you bore yourself so bravely, so well, that all the world spoke of it. Do you think I was not proud of that? And although I care less for the honor and wealth you have gained, I recognize what great power for good these things give you, and I think you would hardly have gained them in such full measure if you had been what is called a happier-that is, a more satisfied and contented man.”

"You are right," he said with something like wonder. "It was the unhappiness of my life, the emptiness of my home, the gnawing unrest at my heart, which drove me into action and developed all my powers. But at what a cost it has been gained-your sweetness and my success! Ah, Felicia, do you remember how I used to read Browning to you? There are some lines which always haunt me, when I think how much we have missed. For, whatever we have accomplished

"Each life's unfulfilled, you see

It hangs still, patchy and scrappy:

We have not sighed deep, laughed free,
Starved, feasted, despaired-been happy.''

"That is true," she assented with a sigh. "We have missed

much-who knows it better than I? But we must balance loss with gain. You have quoted one verse of our old, much-loved Browning. Let me quote another-one which I have said to myself many times during these long, lonely years:

"Then welcome each rebuff

That turns earth's smoothness rough,

Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go!
Be our joys three parts pain!

Strive, and hold cheap the strain;

Learn, nor account the pang: dare.

Never grudge the throe!""

"Felicia!" he said, as the exquisite tones sank over the last words. And then again, "Oh, Felicia!"

Her hand fell on his. "Geoffrey," she said, "we neededbe sure we needed that earth's smoothness should have been turned rough for us. But is there need that, through the memory of that past bitterness, we should turn it rough for others? Should we not rather thank God if, from what we have suffered, we are enabled to smooth, rather than to roughen, other paths-especially the paths of those we love?"

He rose to his feet. 66 'Where is the other Felicia ?" he said. "I want to ask her if she will do my son the honor of marrying him."

THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC LIBRARY.

BY JAMES J. FOX, D.D.

NOTABLE and promising effort, on a large scale, to place at the disposal of English-speaking Catholics, who have intellectual interests, books combining a spirit of faith with the graces of literature or the fullness of scholarship, is the series which has been started by Messrs. Kegan Paul, under the editorship of the Rev. Dr. Wilhelm. The antidote for the pernicious influence exerted by means of books of all sorts of anti-Catholic and anti-Christian principles, opinions, estimates of life, and ways of thought on all serious subjects, is to oppose to this literature another that will present Catholic ideals in such living, attractive form as will enlist attention and command respect.

The present series promises to offer the best results of the labors of competent scholars, in every language and in every branch of study, that are judged helpful towards promoting religious growth in cultured men and women. The volumes which form the first fruits of this enterprise are varied in character and indicate a high general standard of excellence. They are translations from the French.

The initial number is the first volume of Abbé Jacquier's History of the Books of the New Testament. It opens with a general introduction to the chronology and language of the New Testament; and then proceeds to a close and critical study of the epistles of St. Paul from the historical point of view.

In the other volumes of this work he takes up the remaining books according to their probable dates: The Synoptic Gospels; The Acts of the Apostles; The Catholic Epistles; and The Johannine Writings. The author has already acquired for himself a high reputation for erudition and acumen. He approaches his subject with all the knowledge that is to be

History of the Books of the New Testament. By E. Jacquier. Authorized Translation from the French by Rev. J. Duggan. Vol. I. London: Kegan Paul; New York: Benziger Brothers.

gained from the study of contemporary scholars, which he employs with sobriety and due attention to the rights of Catholic tradition. The present translation will, we have no doubt, be welcomed in our seminaries; and it is to be hoped that the editor of the Catholic International Library will have the entire work of the Abbé Jacquier translated in due time.

The next volume of the Library that claims our attention just now is a translation of M. Paul Allard's Lectures on the Martyrs. A notice of the original appeared not very long ago in these pages. In ten masterly lectures the distinguished historian, together with a brief sketch of the spread of Christianity in the Roman empire, discusses the character of the antiChristian legislation, the causes of the persecutions, the number and social standing of the martyrs, the methods of procedure, and the moral worth of the martyrs' testimony to the truth of Christianity. M. Allard's strength lies in the fact that he is indefatigable in the collection of evidence, and offers none that is not well established. In his hands the martyrs of the early Church become a formidable obstacle to those who would reduce Christianity to the level of a mere natural religion.

Another historical volume is a translation of M. Louis de Combes' fine study on the finding of the true cross by St. Helena † The author first identifies, as thoroughly as possible, the various places connected with the Via Dolorosa, the Passion, and the Burial of our Lord. He then considers the question, upon which the Gospel gives not a hint, of what became of the instruments of the Passion. He gleans whatever light he can from Jewish and Roman customs, regarding the burial of the cross; and discusses the fate of the holy places from the time of our Lord till the beginning of the fourth century.

The history of St. Helena, the early life of Constantine, and the political and warlike events which led to his becoming the master of Rome, are related with little regard to some of the venerable legends that have grown up around these subjects. M. de Combes' estimate of Constantine is in contrast with some of the ancient eulogies of the liberator of Christianity.

* Ten Lectures on the Martyrs. By Paul Allard. Authorized Translation by Luigi Cappadelta. London: Kegan Paul; New York: Benziger Brothers.

The Finding of the Cross. By Louis de Combes. Authorized Translation by O. L. Dessoulavy. London: Kegan Paul; New York: Benziger Brothers.