CLEVEDEN. CHAPTER I. BY THE RIVER SIDE. "Or has the shock so harshly given, Confused me like the unhappy bark That strikes by night a craggy shelf, And staggers blindly ere she sink? And stunned me from my power to think, And all my knowledge of myself." TENNYSON: In Memoriam. THE first effect of the blow was utter stupefaction. Jenny recalled the words she had heard, remembered the day when she went down to Port St. Hilda, went over all with a VOL II. 101 1 dull benumbed consciousness of incapacity to feel, an incapacity that was satisfaction to her for a time. something of a She sat silent, stirless, not daring to change her position, lest thought and sensation should change too. But a human soul cannot be encouraged to remain in an attitude like this. To a mind not totally unhinged words must bring meaning. Life returns all too rapidly,-power to be, to do, to suffer; and the latter power is greatest of the three. Yet Jenny remained strangely calm, as people will do when a new and weighty sorrow falls upon sorrowful days. This new grief was bewildering,—perplexing alike to heart and brain. Milly had told her of the divided opinions that were in existence; and for a brief time her own opinion was divided too. This was the bitterest time of all. One |