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274 the greatest calamity to which our nature is subject. What is it but having our happiness taken out of our own hands, and delivered, bound and bartered, into that of another." "But that other," exclaimed Ethel, "may delight in making it more precious than their own." "The chances are fearfully against it," replied the old man. "Nature and fate rarely accord their old dark variance. You are by the one formed to be beloved, and to love. As all experience shows, the probabilities are, that you will waste the rich treasure of your affection on one who has none to give in return, or who is wholly unworthy of the gift." "But," persisted his companion, "experience also shows instances of mutual and enduring affection." "And how Fate prepares the path for Love," returned Sir Jasper, "by surrounding it with difficulty, by trying it with poverty and by absence, till the worn-out