Year: 1862




We shall be certainly very happy to-
gether, said Louise to her aunt, on the
evening before marriage, and her cheek
glowed with deeper red and her eyes
shone with delight. When bride says
iee, it may be easily guessed whom OF all
persons in the world she means thereby.


4 do not doubt it, dear Louise, replied
her aunt; see only that you continue TO
be happy together


'Oh who can doubt that we shall con-
tinue so. know myself. have faults,
indeed, hut my love for him will correct
them. And so long as we love each
other we cannot be unhappy Our love
will never grow old


Alas 7 sighed her aunt, thou dost
speak like q maiden of nineteen, ON the
day before her marriage, in the intoxica-
tion of wishes fulfilled, of fair hopes and
happy omens. Dear child, remember this
--eVea the heart in time grOios old. Days
will come when the magic Of the scenes
shall fade. And when this enchantment
has fed, then it first becomes evident
whether we are truly worthy of love-
When custom has made familiar the
charms that are most attractive, when
youthful freshness has died away, and
with the brightness of domestic life, more
and more shadows have mingled, then
Louise, and not till then, can the wife say
of the husband, He is worthy of love !;
then first the husband say of his wife, 'She
blooms in imperishable beauty But
truly, on the day before marriage, such
expressions sound laughable to me-


| understand you, dear aunt. You
would say that our mutual virtues alone
can in earlier years give us worth for each
other. But is not he to whom l am to
belong-for of myself l can boast nothing
but the best intentions-is he not the no
blest. worthiest of all the young men in
the city Blooms not in his soul every
virtue that tends TO make life happy" +"


My child replied her aunt, grant
it Virtues bloom in thee as well as in
him; ] can say thus to thee without fiat
terry. But. dear heart, they bloom only,
and are not yet ripened meath the suns
rays and the shower. No blossoms de-
ceive the expectations more than these. -
We can never tell in what soil they have
taken root Who knows the concealed
depths of the heart p


'Ah, dear aunt, you really rrighten nc


So much the better, Louise Such
fear is right; such fear is as it should he
on the evening before marriage. | love
thee tenderly, and will therefore declare
all my thoughts to thee on this subject
without disguise. am not as yet an old
A oY,1
looks forward into life with pleasure-the
world still presents bright side to us, !
have an excellent husband. | am happy.
Therefore | have the right to speak thus
to thee, to call thy attention to a secret
which perhaps thou dost not yet know, one
which is not often spoken of to a young
and pretty maiden, one, indeed, which
does not greatly occupy the thoughts oi
young man, and still is of the utmost
importance in every household secret
from which alone springs lasting love and
unaltemhlc happiness


Louise seized the hand Of her aunt IN
both of hers. Dear aunt you know l
believe you in everything. You mean
that enduring happiness is not insured TO
us by accidental qualities, by heeting
charms, but only by those virtues of the
mind which we bring to each other =
These are the best dowry which we can
possess; these never become Old


AS it happens, Louise. The virtues
also, like the beauties of the body, can
grow old, and become repulsiye and hate
full with age


How, dearest aunt? what is it you
say? Name me virtue which can be-
come hateful with years.


when they have become so, we no
longer call them virtues, as n beautiful
when time has changed her to an old and
wrinkled woman