"It will pass away like the morning cloud and the early dew." Mr.Emerson noticed the shade upon the face of his bride, and drawing near to her, said, tenderly-- "I can forgive you a sigh for the past, Irene.

Ivy Cliff is a lovely spot, and your home has been all that a maiden's heart could desire.
It would be strange, indeed, if the chords that have so long bound you there did not pull at your heart in parting." Irene did not answer, but let her eyes turn backward with a pensive almost longing glance toward the spot where lay hidden among the distant trees the home of her early years.

A deep shadow had suddenly fallen upon her spirits.

Whence it came she knew not and asked not; but with the shadow was a dim foreboding of evil.
There was tact and delicacy enough in the companions of Irene to lead them to withdraw observation and to withhold further remarks until she could recover the self-possession she had lost.

This came back in a little while, when, with an effort, she put on the light, easy manner so natural to her.
"Looking at the signs ?" said one of the party, half an hour afterward, as she saw the eyes of Irene ranging along the sky, where clouds were now seen towering up in steep masses, like distant mountains.
"If I were a believer of signs," replied Irene, placing her arm within that of the maiden who had addressed her, and drawing her partly aside, "I might feel sober at this portent.