ithin. Then he quietly
arose, and, without looking at me, left the room. Oh! how deeply did
I regret uttering those unhappy words the instant they were spoken!
But repentance came too late. For about the space of ten minutes,
pride struggled with affection and duty. At the end of that time the
latter triumphed, and I hastened after my husband to ask his
forgiveness for what I said. But he was not in the parlours. He was
not in the house! I asked a servant if she had seen him, and
received for reply that he had gone out.

"Anxiously passed the hours until nightfall. The sad twilight, as it
gathered dimly around, threw a deeper gloom over my heart. My
husband usually came home before dark. Now he was away beyond his
accustomed hour. Instead of returning gladly to meet his young wife,
he was staying away, because that young wife had thrown off the
attractions of love and presented to him features harsh and
repulsive. How anxiously I longed to hear the sound of his
footsteps--to see his face--to hear his voice! The moment of his
entrance I resolved should be the moment of my humble confession of
wrong--of my faithful promise never again to set up my will
determinedly in opposition to his judgment. But minute after minute
passed after nightfall--hours succeeded minutes--and these rolled on
until the whole night wore away, and he came not back to me. As the
gray light of morning stole into my chamber, a terrible fear took
hold of me, that made my heart grow still in my bosom--the fear that
he would never return--that I had driven him off from me. Alas! this
fear was too nigh the truth. The whole of that day passed, and the
next and the next, without any tidings. No one had seen him since he
left me. An anxious excitement spread among all his friends. The
only account I could give of him, was, that he had parted from me in
good health, and in a sane mind.

"A week rolled by, and still no word came. I was nearly distracted.
What I suffered, no tongue can tell, no heart conceive. I have often
wondered that I did not become insane but from this sad condition I
was saved. Through all, my reason, though often trembling, did not
once forsake me. It was on the tenth day from that upon which we had
jarred so heavily as to be driven widely asunder, that a letter came
to me, post-marked New York, and endorsed 'In haste.' My hands
trembled so that I could with difficulty break the seal. The
contents were to the effect that my husband