!--and, gracious Heaven!--whom, sir!--whom--whom did I see,
but my own Katie Alison!

"Doctor!--doctor!" exclaimed the old dominie, starting from his seat,
"what do I hear?"

"I cannot describe to you," continued the other, "the tumultuous joy,
combined with agony, the indescribable feelings of that moment. We
stood--we gasped--we gazed upon each other; neither of us spoke. I
took her hand--I led her to the carriage--I conveyed her to the
city."

"And, oh doctor, what then?" inquired the dominie.

"Why, sir," said the doctor, "many days passed--many words were
spoken--mutual tears were shed for Jamie Johnstone--and bonny Katie
Alison, the lassie of my first love, became my wife, and is the mother
of my children. She will be here in a few days, and will see her old
dominie."

THE CONTRAST OF WIVES.[B]

In the absence of that finely-adjusted balance of power which ought to
be found in the state of marriage, it becomes a nice question, whether
less evil results from an overstretched domination on the part of the
husband, or from his due submission or subjugation to an authority
exercised by her, and carried farther than is generally deemed
consistent with the delicacy of her sex, or the situation in which she
is placed. Connected with this question is that which comprises the
comparative evil arising from a superabundance or deficiency of the
intellectual powers of the wife. We are too well aware of the
uselessness, as well as the impracticability, of solving such
speculative questions, to say a single word on either side of the
vexed argument to which they have given rise; but we will be within
our province, and probably not beyond the wishes of our readers, if we
lay before them a _case of real life_, involving a solution of the
question in one exemplary instance, where the "grey mare" is not only
found to be the "better horse," but where, by her powers of judicious
leading, she saves not only herself but her partner from the dangers
of a rough road and a precipitous course. In those good days of old
Scotland, when the corporation hall formed the theatre wherein was
enacted the great play (comedy, if you please) of "Burgh Ambition,"
the influence of petticoat power extended its secret workings behind
the green curtain, and often regulated all the actions of the
performers in a manner which was not only totally concealed from the
spectators, but even from the moving puppets themselves. In one
instance--th