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Years passed before Angelica and Ruth met again, for the latter was only travelling through Charleston, and left the next morning. But, what small events influence a life! What casual words sounding in the ears, and echoed over and over again in the memory, affect a whole existence! The history of nations shows the wonderful agency of trifles in working out important ends. A basin of water spilled on Mrs. Masham's gown, led to the removal of Marlborough, and so to the peace of Utrecht, which had its influence upon all Europe. An idle boast of the Duke of Buckingham, caused a terrible war between England and France.

The accidental visit, the unpremeditated admonition of Ruth Merriwether, changed the whole current of Angelica's life. When she felt oppressed by that sense of weariness and dejection which had long weighed upon her spirit, Ruth's voice exclaiming, "a plethora of happiness!" would ring mockingly in her ears. "A plethora of happiness, a surfeit of good gifts." Yes, it was true, she acknowledged it to herself; that was her disease. She had nothing to desire, and she had lost the very consciousness, the faculty of happiness. When once she commenced to reflect, she noticed that her husband found no enjoyment at his own home, that he sought his pleasures elsewhere; and she said to herself, "A doll, not a companion, he wearies of me; Ruth said he would." She observed that her little ones clung