or happi- 
ness awaited her, she knew that there could be for her ouly 
one deep , even as there was only one deep . 

Of what, then, did she wordnetdesire ? 

Of the quiet domestic  of woman's household life ; of 
her husband away, as he was this evening, and returning, as 
she expected he would return, on the morrow ; of kind words 
and gentle caresses, of winter evenings by the fireside, of long 
summer mornings in the garden, and of a whole existence 
flowing on thus through years with the same calm and even 
tide. The change, the adventure, the romance she had once 
longed for no longer troubled her ; the  of her  had 
won its long sought rest. 

It was some time before she left the window and returned 
to the hearth. The Canoness was in a deep sleep ; the  
shone with a warm and vivid . Nathalie sat down on a 
low stool ; she smiled even to herself as she remembered the 
winter evenings thus spent, with a book on her lap that still 
remained unread ; and then came back the memory of doubt, 
, and separation, of  poured forth on a sister's 
bosom, of the voice which had ever cheered her with pure and 
holy counsels, of the calm death-bed, and of