Her gentle reproof,--her winning manner ever alluring us to that
which was right,--her unwearied endeavor to make all around her
happy,--these, combined with every womanly charm, made her appear, in my
eyes, more than human; and when death came, much and deeply as I
lamented the loss, I could scarcely wonder that Heaven had reclaimed its
own."
There was a pause, and then Arthur added,--"That I have not gone to the
same extent in folly as others, I believe I owe to her, for when
tempted, by my gay companions at college, to join them in the pleasures
of sin, her look of mild entreaty seemed ever before me, deterring me
from ill; and I often think, had she lived, I might to-day have been a
better and more useful man."
Agnes had been an attentive listener. "I do not wonder," she said, as he
ceased speaking, "that you so highly estimate woman's influence, for you
have largely benefited by it; but though dead, she yet speaketh. Do you
remember what Young says respecting dying friends? That they are
'Angels sent on errands full of love,
For us they sicken, and for us they die.
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