The American book of beauty Author:Lady Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE MINISTER'S DAUGHTER. BT MISS CAROLINE HARRIETT! T T K D A 1 . I Do not love to speak to many, of our poor friend and early playmate, the Minister's Dau... more »ghter. There is a sacredness about her sorrow, it has something so almost mysterious in its dispensations, and is borne with a fortitude and a resignation so saintlike, that it seems ever, to me, unfitted for ordinary handling, and language an inappropriate exponent of her mournful tale. A grief like Caroline's should have no other interpreter than the sad and solemn characters which it has written on her still beautiful brow. She never weeps — at least no one sees her weep; and her gentle voice, which from her very childhood had a tone of sadness, is heard by no mortal ears in the language of complaint. What dirgelike music may be uttered in the haunted depths of that wounded spirit, is known only to herself and the angels ; but to the world, she speaks always calmly, and even cheerfully, at times. You, who knew Caroline through all her young days, will remember well that, light-hearted as that sweet child was, there was even then, at times, a sort of shadow on her brow—an air of thought not natural, and infinitely touching, in one so young. As she grew toward womanhood, the shadow became permanent, without deepening; and the graceful girl, with her long fair hair, and somewhat antique fashion of dress, gave us both the impression of one predestinated to suffer. " She waa of those whose very morn Gives some dark hint of night, And in her eye, too soon, waa born A sod and softened light: And on her brow youth get the seal Which yeare, upon her brain Confirmed too well — and they who ferf May scarcely weep again." . Seated, amid the shadows of a summer evening, in the old study which her father had fitt...« less