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THE EVENING BEFORE MARRIAGE. 249 
then, first, the husband say of the wife, ' She 
blooms in imperishable beauty.' But, truly, on 
the day before marriage, such assertions sound 
laughable to me." 
" I understand you, dear aunt. You would say 
that our mutual virtues alone can in later years 
give us worth for each other. But is not he to 
whom I am to belong for myself I can boast 
nothing but the best intentions is he not the 
worthiest, noblest, of all the young men of the 
city ? Blooms not, in his soul, .every virtue that 
tends to make life happy?" 
" My child," replied her aunt, " I grant it. Vir- 
tues bloom in thee as well as in him ; I can say 
this to thee without flattery. But, dear heart, 
they bloom only, and are not yet ripened beneath 
the sun's heat and the shower. No blossoms deceive 
the expectations more than these. We can never 
tell in what soil they have taken root. Who 
knows the concealed depths of the heart ? " 
" Ah, dear aunt, you really frighten me." 
" So much the better, Louise. Such fear is 
right ; such fear is as it should be on the evening 
before marriage. I love thee tenderly, and will, 
thejefore, declare all my thoughts on this subject 
without disguise. I am not as yet an old aunt. 
At seven and twenty years one still looks forward 
into life with pleasure ; the world still presents a 
bright side to us. I have an excellent husband. 
I am happy. Therefore I have the right to speak 
=^ 
