NOVEMBER. 319 



length, however, comes the intelligence that he has 

 chosen a paramour, and is expending upon her the 

 gains which should support his family. Stung to the 

 quick, she rises up in grief and indignation. She 

 finds some good neighbour to care for her children 

 for a few days, and she departs alas ! on a melan- 

 choly expedition ! She is utterly strange to the world 

 no matter ; she has little money no matter ; in 

 the greatness of her vexation she defies all other 

 troubles and difficulties. See with what closeness 

 and self-reservation she moves on ! She greets no 

 one, she shuns all greetings by the way, or, if she 

 answers them, it is only by a short, sharp nod, and 

 she involuntarily quickens her pace. Rest, food, she 

 seems not to require ; her heart is filled with black 

 and eager jealousies, and she shrinks even from the 

 kindest eye, lest it look into the secret of her soul. 

 Poor, unhappy woman ! her task is a fruitless one. 

 She may find her faithless husband, and may weep, 

 and expostulate, and upbraid ; but the heart that is 

 once led from its home by strange charms, there is 

 faint hope of reclaiming. 



How far more enviable is the woman that I have 

 now in my eye. I see her crossing the heath, a 

 little broad-built woman, in an old gray cloak, 

 beneath which she carries in her arms an infant ; 

 and a troop of others, one scarcely appearing older 

 than another, trot after her. She has lost her hus- 

 band by death, and suddenly finds herself alone, far 

 from friends. She has spirit enough to scorn the 

 assistance of the parish ; she sets out, and trusts to 



