The changed brides

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky! Thou dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot; Tho’ thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remembered not.—SHAKSPEARE.

Yes, there thou art below the hill, By evergreens encircled still, Old hall that time hath deigned to spare, Mid rugged rocks and forests fair, And nightshade o’er the casement...

“Drusilla! Drusilla Sterling! Is it you? Is it really you! Oh, my poor child, how happy I am to see you!” exclaimed Miss Lyon, in the utmost surprise and delight, as she advance...

The late Mrs. Chief Justice Lyon had been a notable manager. She had looked well to her household, utterly scorning the idea of entrusting her domestic affairs to the hands of a...

That night “a most horrid spectre,” wrapped in a long winding sheet, and bearing a corpse candle that cast a cadaverous color over his countenance, stalked through the lower reg...

Little Drusilla had the freedom of the house. When her tasks were over in the housekeeper’s room she might wander where she would, and was tolerated like a pet kitten.

Mr. Alexander being twenty-two years of age, and having completed his college course, graduated with some honors, and returned home to spend a week or two of the beautiful sprin...

Childhood’s lip and cheek Mantling beneath its earnest brow of thought; And in the flute-like voice murmuring low, Is woman’s tenderness, how soon her woe! Her lot is on thee, s...

The world was not for her, nor the world’s art For one as passionate as Sappho’s heart. Love was born with her, in her, so intense, It was her very spirit, not a sense.—BYRON.

Alexander arrived at his town house early in the afternoon. He was met by his confidential servant, Dorset, an old man who had been in the service of the family for nearly thirt...

Joy trickled in her tears, joy filled the sob That rocked her heart till almost heard to throb; And paradise was breathing in the sigh Of nature’s child, in nature’s ecstacy.—BY...

How beautiful she looked, her conscious heart Glowed in her cheek and yet she felt no wrong. Oh, love, how perfect thy majestic art, Strengthening the weak and trampling on the...

His house she enters there to be the light, Shining within when all without is night; A guardian angel o’er his life presiding, Doubling his pleasures, and his cares dividing.—R...

It is a quiet picture of delight, The pretty cottage hiding from the sun In the thick woods. We see it not till there, When at its porch ... quiet’s especial temple.—W. G. SIMMS.

For the first few days of their honeymoon, the bridegroom stayed home with his bride—walking, riding, or playing with her in the mornings, and reading, singing, or conversing wi...

Here high-born men were proud to wait, And beauty watched to imitate Her gentle voice, her lovely mien, And gather from her air and gait The graces of its queen.—BYRON.

“I was so upset by what you told me, Anna, that I really forgot to ask you how long you have been in the city,” said Alexander, as soon as the horses were in motion.

As soon as Alexander Lyon had bid good night to his uncle and cousin, he hurried to the livery stable where he had left his horse, doubting that it would be open at so late an h...

The day and night described in the last chapter were the types of many, too many days and nights that followed them. Alexander Lyon had placed himself in a false position and ha...

Richard Hammond shook hands with his uncle and his Cousin Anna and then turned towards Alexander, and the kindness of his heart overcoming all his jealousy for the moment, he fr...

Yet for all this, let him stand In my thoughts, untouched by blame, Could he help it, if my hand He had claimed, with hasty claim? That was wrong, perhaps, but then Such things...

Alexander had his troubles too, and they were not the less trying because he had brought them on himself by his own wrong-doing—rather the more so, in fact, since remorse was ad...

She was seriously ill, though she still kept up, moving about the house to attend to her domestic affairs all day, and sitting up to receive her husband half the night.

And now the morning sky resumes her light, And nature stands recovered of her night, My fear, the last of ills, remains behind, And horror heavy sick upon my mind.—IBID.

This was the short session of Congress, which would close on the fourth of March. The fashionable season, therefore, was nearly over, and it was ending in true carnival style.

Never since he had entered upon his life of deception had his double-dealing so much disturbed him. The discovery of his duplicity was now impending. His uncle had proposed his...

The means that fortune yields must be embraced And not neglected; else if fortune would, And we will not, her offers we refuse, And miss the means of action and success.—SHAKSPE...

Although that little paper furnished a proof that Alexander Lyon was as free from marriage-bonds as he wished to be, yet it would have been better for his own purpose for him to...

Meanwhile, Drusilla slept long and deeply, like one much worn in mind and body. It was afternoon when she opened her eyes. She saw Pina sitting by her side. At first, she though...

“Alick! Alick! Oh, Alick, where are you? Answer me! Speak to me, if you can! Oh, give me some sign where to search for you,” Drusilla cried, running wildly out into the wintry n...

I heard thy light, careless farewell, love, And patiently saw thee depart— Ay, patiently. But could words tell, love, The sorrow that swelled in my heart? Yet tearless and still...

The sun was shining with a more genial splendor; the air was soft and warm; the ground was quickening with the springing grass and the trees with the rising sap and budding leav...

One struggle more and I am free From pangs that rend my heart in twain; One long last sigh to love and thee, Then back to busy life again.—BYRON.

One hurried kiss, one last, one long embrace, One yearning look upon her tearful face. And he was gone, and like a funeral knell The winds still sighed—Beloved, fare thee well!—...

And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to the ear And break it to the hope.—SHAKSPEARE.

_The peace that others seek they find; The heaviest storms not longest last; Heaven grants even to the guilty mind, An amnesty for what is past. I only pray to know the worst, A...

Oh, weary struggle! Silent tears Tell seemingly no doubtful tale; And yet they leave it short, and fears And hopes are strong and will prevail. My calmest fate escapes not pain;...

They were passed in paroxysms of vehement and inconsolable sorrow, alternating with periods of dull stupor, partly the result of reaction from high excitement, and partly the in...

A party of friends, all light-hearted and gay, At a certain French cafe, where every one goes, Are met in a well-curtained, warm CABINET, Overlooking a street there, which every...

If Sorrow has taught me anything, She has taught me to weep for you, If falsehood has left me a tear to shed For Truth, those tears are true.—OWEN MEREDITH.

Concealment is no more; facts speak All circumstance that may compel Full credence to the tale they tell, And now her tortured heart and ear, Hath nothing more to feel, or hear....

Saviour, if this wild prayer be wrong And what I seek I may not find, Oh, make more hard, and stern, and strong The frame-work of my mind!—OWEN MEREDITH.

Her brain is sick with thinking, Her heart is almost sinking, She cannot look before her, On the evil haunted way; Uphold her, oh! restore her! Thou Lord of life and day.—MONCTO...

The night drave on * * * The wind blew as ’twad blaun its last, The rattling showers rushed on the blast, The speedy gleams the darkness swallowed. Deep, lang and loud the tempe...

It was now broad day, and it was raining hard. The coach was drawn up before the door of the large, low building, the one hotel in the mountain hamlet. Hostlers and porters were...

The bride elect listened to the words of the forsaken wife, first in surprise and incredulity, then in pity and indignation, and last in a rapture of relief, ineffable and indes...

“Ask your beautiful grand-daughter, sir, who, doubtless, to serve her own pleasure, has lent herself to the basest fraud ever practised upon a man,” answered Alexander, now livi...

Nay, but Nature brings her solace, for a tender voice will cry,— ’Tis a purer life than his, a lip to drain her trouble dry. Baby lips will laugh it down, his only rival bring h...