A DANGEROUS TRIP TO DERBY-TOWN The next morning broke brightly, but soon clouds began to gather and a storm seemed imminent.

We feared that the gloomy prospect of the sky might keep Dorothy and Madge at home, but long before the appointed hour John and I were at the Royal Arms watching eagerly for the Haddon coach.

At the inn we occupied a room from which we could look into the courtyard, and at the window we stood alternating between exaltation and despair.
When my cogitations turned upon myself--a palpitating youth of thirty-five, waiting with beating heart for a simple blind girl little more than half my age; and when I remembered how for years I had laughed at the tenderness of the fairest women of the French and Scottish courts--I could not help saying to myself, "Poor fool! you have achieved an early second childhood." But when I recalled Madge in all her beauty, purity, and helplessness, my cynicism left me, and I, who had enjoyed all of life's ambitious possibilities, calmly reached the conclusion that it is sometimes a blessed privilege to be a fool.

While I dwelt on thoughts of Madge, all the latent good within me came uppermost.

There is latent good in every man, though it may remain latent all his life.