The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1877-06-01
TEN YEARS AFTER MARRIAGE,

Ten years since the wedding day. Mrs.
| Rowland was alone. She had left her
husband in the little room where they
usually sat together through the evening,
while she put the children to bed.
Mrs. HowIand did not feel inclined to
return to the family sitting room, where
| she had left her husband, but remained
within the chamber with her sleeping
| little ones, in a musing, brOoding, un-
happy state of mind. Something of cold
ness and alienation had been growing up
between her and her husband for long
time past. The old tenderness of manner
which had been so sweet was all gone
| He was kind, thoughtful in regard to her
comfort, honorable and true, but getting
more formal and less afFectionate in man
ner every day. Ills wife, who had loved
him very tenderly and still loved him,
! had failed to give her life adequate re-
sponses to his; had, in the fret and fever
of disciplinary existence, suffered herself
to work amid disturbing elements in
stead of taking her place serenely by his
side And so, harmonious things had
| been permitted to jar, where all might
| have been peace.
1t was pressing upon the mind Of Mrs.
Rowland that her husband had ceased TO
love her, and this conviction was taking
all the sweetnes out of her life. 1t did
not once occur to her that she was herself
growing unlovely, that she had laid aside
nearly all the external things by which,
when a maiden, she had sought to win
| him. the sunny countenance, the aJluriDg
voice and manner, the scrupulOus attire,
the Difference to his taste and opinions,
the guard upon her temper, the wOmanly
,E,o 10
as one who ruled in the kingdom IF her
own soul. This was the being he had
loved. this was the woman he had taken
to walk with him through life. Alas, for
the fading idea! He had found, instead,
one who made scarcely an effort at self
government, whose feelings and impulses
we've not springs of actions. Deeply, pas
sionately she loved him, but not wisely;
self-abnegatiDg love pleases both itself
and the object of its devotion. Without
some change on the part of Mrs. Rowland
it was impossible for them to grow to-
gether again.
For nearly half an hour after her chill
dren were asleep, the mother sat in her
wretched mood, apart from her husband,
and feeling no inclination to join him.
4" All love has died." said She, am
nothing now" And as she said this her
heart shivered with an instructive reali-
cation of what her words involved. Then
fear for the loss of thing so precious as
husbands love seized upon her soul
and inspired a new purpose. a love
worth winning was surely worth an
effort to retain. And WIS not the way
to win, the way to keep? a new light
broke into Mrs HowlaDd's mind. She
began to see thiLgs in herself that were
very far from being in harmony with her
life when a undertakings that would
have certainly repelled a lover, and wore
tbey bonds for a husband?
These thoughts startled the awaken
ing wife. Then old memories were re-
vived, bringing back old states, pictures
warm with the hues OF love came out OF
the dim past.
" Is the cup broken and the wine spill.
ed ?" she asked of herself "God forbidl''
came from her lips in due utterance. Then
she lett the chamber where her children
slept, and with silent feet went towards
the apartment in which she had lett her
husband alone.
On the way she paused, stood still for
! a moment, then returned. The gas WAS