There were two small but neatly, though plainly, furnished rooms, in
the second story of a house located in a retired street. In one of
these rooms tea was prepared, and near the tea-table sat a young
woman, with a sleeping babe nestled to-her bosom. She was fair-faced
and sunny-haired; and in her blue eyes lay, in calm beauty, sweet
tokens of a pure and loving heart. How tenderly she looked down, now
and then, upon the slumbering cherub whose winning ways and murmurs of
affection had blessed her through the day! Happy young wife! these are
thy halcyon days. Care has not thrown upon thee a single shadow from
his gloomy wing, and hope pictures the smiling future with a sky of
sunny brightness.
"How long he stays away!" had just passed her lips, when the sound of
well-known footsteps was heard in the passage below. A brief time, and
then the room-door opened, and Edward Claire came in. What a depth of
tenderness was in his voice as he bent his lips to those of his young
wife, murmuring--
"My Edith!" and then touching, with a gentler pressure, the white
forehead of his sleeping babe.
"You were late this evening, dear," said Edith, looking into the face
of her husband, whose eyes drooped under her earnest gaze.
"Yes," he replied, with a slight evasion in his tone and manner; "we
have been busier than usual to-day.
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