rest conjugal intimacy
to so little purpose that on the appearance only of
inattention to you, and which you might have accounted for
in a thousand ways more natural and more probable, you
should pitch upon that single motive which alone is
injurious to me?

I have not, I own, wrote so often to you as I wished and as
I ought, but think of my situation and then ask your heart
if I be without excuse. We are not, my dearest, in
circumstances most favorable to our happiness; but let us
not, I beseech you, idly make them worse by indulging in
suspicions and apprehensions which minds in distress are but
too apt to give way to. Your most faithful and tender
husband,

G.W.

BRIEF BUT SINCERE "OLD NOLL."

Oliver Cromwell seemed to have similar difficulties when he wrote:

MY DEAREST: I have not leisure to write much; but I could
chide thee that, in many of thy letters, thou writest to me
that I should not be unmindful of thee and thy little ones.
Truly, if I love you not too well, I think I err not on the
other hand much. Thou art dearer to me than any creature;
let that suffice. I rest thine

OLIVER CROMWELL.

POE'S HEART IN A TIME OF TRIAL.

In the midst of his trials, Edgar Allan Poe, the famous American poet,
wrote to his wife:

MY DEAR HEART, MY DEAR VIRGINIA: Our mother will explain to
you why I stayed away from you this night. On my last great
disappointment I should have lost my courage but for you, my
little darling wife. I shall be with you to-morrow, and be
assured until I see you I will keep in loving remembrance
your last words and your fervent prayer. May God grant you a
peaceful summer with your devoted

Edgar.

THE LOVE OF BISMARCK.

Bismarck, the man of iron, to the last day of his life was tenderly
devoted to his wife, using the most endearing terms in writing to her.
While he was in Paris, during the early days of their married life, he
wrote to her:

They say that here one may see the most beautiful women in
the world--women whose charms are a scepter more powerful
than a king's. I have seen them all, my little heart, and
now I know why you hold me in such unbreakable chains; for
there is none of all these fair ones so richly dowered as my
darling with all that gives a woman empire over the hearts
of men.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek