The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1884-10-22
TIE DEAR OLD WIFE.
Her Heart Aches with Longing Tor One
Word of Love.
Iron Harper's Bazar.l

from Harper's Bazarl
Why shonld the woman who has been
the faithful wife Of years need other
identifying appliances than the remem.
brances OF all that she has been and
done in those years? She and her hus-
band are growing old together; she
does not love him an iota the less for his
grayness, his badness, his pallor, his
craven lines; under all Of them she sees
the man who won her heart so many
years ago. In his taste for beauty, his
refinement and cultivated sense, so much
more acute than hers that he alone Of
the two must needs see change, and feel
loss and dissatisfaction, and manifest
the feeling? Yet how many days there
are, whether it be from this feeling
or from simple indifference, that the old
wife wearies and her heart aches with
longing for one word OF all the old words
that used to be poured in her ear, for one
caressing gesture Of the hand, for one
action that has no other end or aim in
view but the evident promotion OF her
happinessp No matter how old she is,
NC Sut tNtn MI ItI luitcsCOft ytHIb anu
ten, the woman does not live who can
live happily without love, and il she has
husband, and they are living together
in apparent amity, without his love and
some proof Of it, She knows that there
have been old lovers long married, she
remembers the sweet ballad Of "John
Anderson my 10, john" which never
moved her when she was young, but
now seems TO have been written for her.
self, and she signs for some expression
from her husband that shall make her
state resemble that OF those old lovers.
1t is the indifference that breaks her
heart, she does not know, in her
darkness concerning it and the reasons
for it, how soon it may turn to hate;
she does not know but she would rather
il were bate, and done with. Without
that love which has been the breath of
her life in the past, she must fail, or
( sink and wither into self.centred indif-
ference herself; with il, she could still
lift her portion of the world like Atlas.
She is singularly unselfsh il the want
Of it does not make her review her life
and all its labors and sacrifices, and
arouse an Indignation over the injustice
Of her lot, in which either the flame OF
her life or Of her love must burn out. II
would cost the husband of this old wife
"A man who doubtless does kindnesses
to oihers-but little thought or exertion
TO manifest love that may be warm be-
meath its crust, brief mentions Of gratih.
cation or Of pain now and then, smiles,
condolences, turning for sympathy when
together, movements of old fashioned
courtesy when with others; oil this
would not greatly impair his own powers
through exertion, and il would raise her
again to her proud place among happy
wives, whose love and whose receipt Of
love outlast their very life. Fortunate
for the world is it that, if there are some
who do differently, the greater number
of husbands see, under the mask that
age has built, the woman Of their love.
and would utter for her epitaph no
worse words than
Underneath this stone doth .ie
As much virtue az could die,
Which, when alive, did yigOr give
10 as much beauty an could live"