The deserted wife

All day within the dreary house, The doors upon their hinges creak; The blue fly sings in the pane—the mouse Behind the mouldering wainscot creeps, Or from the crevice peers abo...

“——Gentleness And a strange strength, a calm o’errulling strength, Are mixed within him so that neither take Possession from the other—neither rise In mastery or passion—but bot...

“Why should death be linked with fear? A single breath—a low drawn sigh, Can break the ties that bind us here, And waft the spirit to the sky.” MRS. WELBY.

The Rev. John Huss Withers. He had been recommended to the parish as his successor in case of his own demise by Mr. May. He had been a student some twenty years back with the ol...

The next morning early Emily May was over at the hall. She rode her own saddle-horse and little Gusty rode another, behind which was fixed a pillion, upon which Sophie was to re...

“A stalwart, active, soldier-looking stripling, Handsome as Hercules ere his first labor, With a brow of thought beyond his years, When in repose, till his eye kindles up In ans...

“So gaze met gaze, And heart saw heart, translucid through the rays, One same, harmonious, universal law, Atom to atom, star to star can draw, And heart to heart! Swift darts, a...

“Let me gaze for a moment that e’er I die I may read thee, lady, a prophecy, That brow may beam in glory awhile, That cheek may bloom and that lip may smile, But clouds shall da...

“Oh, ask me not to speak her fate, Oh, tempt me not to tell The sin that made her desolate,— Passion she could not quell Alas! the grave can only be Fit refuge of her misery.” A...

“Yet it may be more lofty courage dwells In one weak heart which braves an adverse fate, Than his whose ardent soul indignant swells, Warmed through the fight, or cheered throug...

Let me pass briefly over the events of the next few years. Four or five weeks of solemn merry-making, dull dinners, and duller evening parties, completed the wedding festivities...

“Mind, Hagar, you must be attentive to your uncle, he is not well, my love, and you must do nothing to annoy him—now, will you promise me, Hagar?” had been the earnest injunctio...

One more circumstance, patient reader, and I have done tiring you with the squabbles of children. It was one that more particularly introduced Hagar to the notice of Mrs. May, a...

“Thine was the shout! the song! the burst of joy! Which sweet from childhood’s rosy lips resoundeth, Thine was the eager spirit naught could cloy, And the glad heart from which...

“—October, heaven’s delicious breath, When woods begin to wear the crimson leaf, And suns grow meek, and the meek sun grows brief, And the year smiles as drawing near its death....

“Have you seen but the bright lily grow Before rude hands have touched it? Have you marked but the fall o’ the snow Before the soil hath smutched it?” BEN JONSON.

“The storm comes in fury! loud roars the wild blast— Like a quivering reed, shakes the towering mast, But on the bark dashes, proud, dauntless, and free, She rides like a gull o...

“Death is the crown of life: Were death denied, poor man would live in vain. Death wounds to cure; we fall: we rise; we reign; Spring from our fetters; fasten to the skies; When...

The forest rang with the cry of the hounds and the shout of the huntsmen. And now the sounds would die away and now peal out upon the air as the chase still kept up the winding...

They sat under the shed of the piazza at Heath Hall—Raymond and Hagar—in the same piazza that had been the stage of so many scenes of selfishness, tyranny, and violence—of weak...

‘Bride, upon thy marriage day, Did the fluttering of thy breath Speak of joy or woe beneath? And the hue that went and came O’er thy cheek like wavering flame, Flowed that crims...

“She is all simplicity, A creature meek and mild, Though on the eve of womanhood In heart a very child. She dwells among us like a star, That from its bower of bliss, Looks down...

“From the home of childhood’s glee, From the days of laughter free, From the love of many years, Thou art gone to cares and fears; To another path and guide, To a bosom yet untr...

The family met at breakfast the morning succeeding the events of the last chapter. The family—that is, with the exception of Rosalia, who had been spending a week at Grove Cotta...

The sun was setting on the evening of the third day from their departure from New York, as Mr. and Mrs. Withers stood upon the deck of the steamboat Venture, and watched the app...

“She is soft as the dew-drops that fall From the lips of the sweet scented pea; But then when she smiles upon _all_! Can I joy that she smiles upon _me_?” MACKENZIE.

Something less than a year had passed since the settlement of Mr. and Mrs. Withers in their new home. It was now early autumn. Let me introduce you into that large, beautiful, a...

The next evening when Raymond returned home, he placed in the hands of his wife an open letter, addressed to herself in Sophie’s hand-writing. A year ago, Hagar would have fierc...

“Foul jealousy! thou turnest love divine To joyless dread, and mak’st the loving heart With hateful thoughts to languish and to pine, And feed itself with self consuming smart:...

It was the first of November; a Sabbath day; it had rained all night; the dawn of morning found the rain still pouring down in torrents; it was a dark, dark day; _so_ dark that...

What is the worst of woes that wait on age? What stamps the wrinkle deepest on the brow? To view each loved one blighted on life’s page, And be alone on earth—as I am now.

“You are weeping, Rosalia; why do you weep?” asked Raymond Withers, taking the seat by her side as soon as the carriage door was closed upon them; “why do you weep so, dear Rosa...

“Thou knowest well what once I was to thee; One who for love of one I loved—_for thee!_— Would have done, or borne the sins of all the world; Who did thy bidding at thy lightest...

“DEAREST MOTHER:—Come to Hagar. Yes, come. Whatever you may have in hand, put it down, pack up, and come to Hagar. You will do so when I have told you all I have to tell you—ala...

“Oh! if indeed to _part_ With the soul’s loved ones be a bitter thing, When we go forth in buoyancy of heart, And bearing all the glories of our spring, Is it less so to _meet_...

All night the children slept on their rude pallet, lulled by the howling of the storm, as it came dulled through the thick walls of the fishing-house. All night Hagar slumbered...

Rosalia Aguilar was not one to enjoy an hour’s impunity in sinning. From the time of her passing Churchill’s Point—through all the days of her passage down the bay to Norfolk—up...

“Eagle, this is not thy sphere! Warrior bird! what dost thou here? Wherefore by the fountain’s brink Dost thy royal pinion sink? Wherefore on the violet’s bed Lay’st thou thus t...

“With wild surprise As if to marble struck, devoid of sense, A stupid moment motionless he stood Pierced by severe amazement, hating life, Speechless and fixed in all the death...

“Once more alone—and desolate, now, for ever In truth the heart whose home was once in thine: Once more alone on life’s terrific river, All human hope, exulting I resign.

The good ship Rainbow weighed anchor on the 1st of January, and bore away from Boston harbor before a fair wind. The voyage across the Atlantic ocean was rather tempestuous, but...

“MY DEAR AND ONLY SISTER:—Long before your eye follows these lines, the hand that now traces them will have moulded into dust. I write now propped up in bed, and my pen drops fr...

I do not know how _you_ feel, but I am fatigued with chasing up and down the world, from Maryland to the Mediterranean, and from the Balize to the Bosphorus, my eccentric set of...

“Radiant daughter of the sun! Now thy living wreath is won. Crowned of Fame!—oh!—art thou not Happy in that glorious lot?— Happier, happier far than thou, With the laurel on thy...

Forgive and forget! why the world would be lonely, The garden a wilderness left to deform, If the flowers but remembered the chilling winds only, And the fields gave no verdure...