ustre of those eyes will be quenched with sorrow--and the
happy heart which now beats lightly in that bosom will be weighed down,
like mine, by the cares and miseries of the world.

At length he came to me one day, and related his whole situation in a
tone of the deepest despair. When I had heard him through, I inquired,
"Does your wife know all this?" At the question he burst into an agony
of tears. "For God's sake!" cried he, "if you have any pity on me, don't
mention my wife; it is the thought of her that drives me almost to
distraction!"

"And why not?" said I:--"She must know it sooner or later: you cannot
keep it long from her, and the intelligence may break upon her in a more
startling manner than if imparted by yourself; for the accents of those
we love soften the harshest tidings. Besides, you are depriving yourself
of the comforts of her sympathy; and not merely that, but also
endangering the only bond that can keep hearts together--an unreserved
community of thought and feeling. She will soon perceive that something
is secretly preying upon your mind; and true love will not brook
reserve: it feels undervalued and outraged, when even the sorrows of
those it loves are concealed from it."

"Oh, but my friend! to think what a blow I am to give to all her future
prospects--how I am to strike her very soul to the earth, by telling her
that her husband is a beggar!--that she is to forego all the elegancies
of life--all the pleasures of society--to shrink with me into indigence
and obscurity! To tell her that I have dragged her down from the sphere
in which she might have continued to move in constant brightness--the
light of every eye--the admiration of every heart!--How can she bear
poverty? She has been brought up in all the refinements of opulence
* * *"

I saw his grief was eloquent, and I let it have its flow; for sorrow
relieves itself by words. When his paroxysm had subsided, and he had
relapsed into moody silence, I resumed the subject gently, and urged him
to break his situation at once to his wife. He shook his head
mournfully, but positively.

"But how are you to keep it from her? It is necessary she should know
it, that you may take the steps proper to the alteration of your
circumstances. You must change your style of living--nay," observing a
pang to pass across his countenance, "don't let that afflict you. I am
sure you never placed your happiness in outward show--you have yet
friends, warm frie