66 THE STRIKE AT SHANE'S. 



She sat clown by him, and he told her how he was 

 beginning to see that his life was not what it should bo. 

 That he had neglected his duty as- a husband and 

 father, and had lived too much alone, and that hence- 

 forth he wanted to take his family more into his confi- 

 dence. He would have told her that he loved her as of 

 yore, but it had been so long since he had spoken such 

 words ( f affection to her that the words came but 

 awkwardly to his lips, and he left them unspoken. 

 She replied, with tears in her eyes, that she knew that 

 their thoughts had been drifting apart, and she hailed 

 with joy the dawn of a brighter day, T^^hen their lives 

 would flow in the same channel. 



Soothed by these thoughts he soon fell asleep, and 

 his tired and worn out wife retired to rest, hoping that 

 the future might not dispel the bright hopes raised that 

 night. 



m 



