Yet there had been no bereavement--no affliction; nothing that we refer to a mysterious Providence.

No,--but the tempter was admitted.

He came with specious words and deceiving pretences.

He vailed the present good, and magnified the worth of things possessing no power to satisfy the heart.

Too surely has he succeeded in the accomplishment of his evil work.
At the time of the reader's introduction to Woodbine Lodge, a bright day was going down in beauty; and there was not a pulse in nature that did not beat in unison with the hearts of its happy denizens.