Never did a couple set forward on the
flowery path of early and well-suited marriage with a fairer
prospect of felicity.
It was the misfortune of my friend, however, to have embarked his
property in large speculations; and he had not been married many
months, when, by a succession of sudden disasters, it was swept from
him, and he found himself reduced almost to penury. For a time he kept
his situation to himself, and went about with a haggard countenance,
and a breaking heart. His life was but a protracted agony; and what
rendered it more insupportable was the necessity of keeping up a smile
in the presence of his wife; for he could not bring himself to
overwhelm her with the news. She saw, however, with the quick eyes
of affection, that all was not well with him. She marked his altered
looks and stifled sighs, and was not to be deceived by his sickly
and vapid attempts at cheerfulness. She tasked all her sprightly
powers and tender blandishments to win him back to happiness; but
she only drove the arrow deeper into his soul. The more he saw cause
to love her, the more torturing was the thought that he was soon to
make her wretched. A little while, thought he, and the smile will
vanish from that cheek- the song will die away from those lips- the
lustre 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.
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