He—­and you forbear to name his name—­is gone,—­flying vainly from the consciousness of guilt with the curse of Cain upon him,—­hastening toward the day when Satan shall clutch his own!

A heavenly peace descends upon you that night,—­all the more sacred and calm for the fearful agony that has gone before.  A Heaven, that seemed lost, is yours.  A love, that you had almost doubted, is beyond all suspicion.  A heart, that in the madness of your frenzy you had dared to question, you worship now, with blushes of shame.  You thank God for this great goodness, as you never thanked him for any earthly blessing before; and with this twin gratitude lying on your hearts, and clearing your face to smiles, you live on together the old life of joy and of affection.

* * * * *

Again with brimming nectar the years fill up their vases.  Your children grow into the same earnest joyousness, and with the same home faith, which lightened upon your young dreams, and toward which you seem to go back, as you riot with them in their Christmas joys, or upon the velvety lawn of June.

Anxieties indeed overtake you, but they are those anxieties which only the selfish would avoid,—­anxieties that better the heart with a great weight of tenderness.  It may be that your mischievous Frank runs wild with the swift blood of boyhood, and that the hours are long which wait his coming.  It may be that your heart echoes in silence the mother’s sobs, as she watches his fits of waywardness, and showers upon his very neglect excess of love.

Danger perhaps creeps upon little, joyous Nelly, which makes you tremble for her life; the mother’s tears are checked that she may not deepen your grief; and her care guards the little sufferer like a Providence.  The nights hang long and heavy; dull, stifled breathing wakes the chamber with ominous sound; the mother’s eye scarce closes, but rests with fond sadness upon the little struggling victim of sickness; her hand rests like an angel touch upon the brow, all beaded with the heats of fever; the straggling, gray light of morning breaks through the crevices of the closed blinds,—­bringing stir and bustle to the world, but in your home—­lighting only the darkness.

Hope, sinking in the mother’s heart, takes hold on Faith in God; and her prayer, and her placid look of submission,—­more than all your philosophy,—­add strength to your faltering courage.

But little Nelly brightens; her faded features take on bloom again; she knows you; she presses your hand; she draws down your cheek to her parched lip; she kisses you, and smiles.  The mother’s brow loses its shadow; day dawns within as well as without, and on bended knees God is thanked!

Perhaps poverty faces you;—­your darling schemes break down.  One by one, with failing heart, you strip the luxuries from life.  But the sorrow which oppresses you is not the selfish sorrow which the lone man feels:  it is far nobler; its chiefest mourning is over the despoiled home.  Frank must give up his promised travel; Madge must lose her favorite pony; Nelly must be denied her little fete upon the lawn.  The home itself, endeared by so many scenes of happiness and by so many of suffering, must be given up.  It is hard, very hard, to tear away your wife from the flowers, the birds, the luxuries, that she has made so dear.