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124 BLACK SHEEP.change which her newly formed resolution to believehim innocent,to chase from her all that hacltormented her, could neverundo, had passed uponClare, since her girlish imagination hadbeen readyto exalt Paul Ward, " the author," Paul Ward,■"the artist," as she had called him, with all thereverenceher innocent heart accorded to such designations,into a hero; she had less impulse inher now, she had suffered, in her silent unsuspectedyvay, and suffering is a sovereign remedyfor all enthusiasm except that of religion. But.she discerned in the story something yvhich madeher reason second her resolution. And from thatday Clare grieved no more. She waited, she didnot know for what; she hoped, she did not knowwhy; she was pensive, but not unhappy. Sheyvas very young,very innocent,very trustful; andthe story of the murder was six months old.Soyvas that of the meeting, and that of the myrtlesprig;and all three were growing vague.The young girl's thoughts were very busy as.she rode from the Sycamores to Poynings, but notexclusivelywith Paul Ward.Her life presenteditself in a more serious as-