THE TOWN.


strange that there should be the legend of pas-
sion and pain here, lovers and gladness; the
tryst, and the heart-break afterwards; for there
is something as smothering to all emotion in this
overpowering sweetness as in the fumes of ether.
It is a relief to come back to the swinging water
beside the sea-wall, the clear black skies sown
with innumerable points of light, and the fresh
wind from across the palmettos on Anastasia
Island.
 A sting of memory pierces through the down
 of content, as the scent of the roses is blown
 away; a thought of the keen brightness of
 Northern skies; a hint of the clean and almost
 bitter fragrance of yellow crocuses and pale,
 cold snowdrops, of that fresh, penetrating
 sweetness of new grass, which shows its fright-
 ened greenness under sodden leaves, along the
 sheltered borders of meadows, or beside the
 small springs of marshy orchards; of that sub-
 tle, faint, undetainable scent of the first white
Sviolets, of all the brave; glad life that greets
the north wind.