"I strive to forget thee,

I seek to be free,
But strong are the fetters
Which bind me to thee.

"I wander the meadows,

I roam through the glade,

I join in the revel,

I muse in the shade.

"Oh! when shall I break me,

From sorrow's dark chain,
And greet life's companions
With transport again?

"I strive to forget thee,

I seek to be free,

But strong are the fetters

Which bind me to thee."

"Such marriages are like a dead graft to a dead tree."

See p. 88.

CHAPTER VI.

Love on Neither Side.

"I'll love no more,'-I said, with quivering sigh;
Too full this heart has been of hope and trust;
Love's lightest flowers have but to bloom and die,
Hope's fairest fabrics crumble into dust.

"I'll love no more-this aching heart shall beat
At words of cold indifference no more;
And acts of heartless meaning it will treat
As with forgetful draughts from Lethe's shore.

"Thou'lt love no more-can words alone efface
The image that long years have graven deep
Upon the heart? Will tireless memory trace
No vision to destroy the peaceful sleep?

"Thou❜lt love no more-poor, sad, and doubting one,
Is hope within thy fainting bosom crushed?
And dreams of peace, have they for ever fled,
And joyous songs for aye within thee hushed?

"Has thy sick heart no spot to rest upon,

Like the tired dove, no ark of refuge near? Is there no breast to shelter thee? nor one Kind hand to wipe the bitter blighting tear?" Isabella B. Byrne.

OME persons may be surprised at the title chosen for this chapter, and think it impossible that marriages can take place where there is love on neither side, or that married life can be tolerated where no

spark of true love ever sets the heart beating, or quickens the pulse, or dances in the eye, or illumines the countenance, or lends pathos to the voice, or blesses the life. But the fact is that many such connections are known to us, and their terrible results are constantly brought to our notice.

Such marriages are like a dead graft to a dead tree. What would be thought of a gardener who grafted a dead stick upon a dead tree ? Supposing also he tended it carefully, watered it regularly, manured it thoroughly, protected it from blight, and used his utmost endeavour to keep it from injury and spoil. Would not common sense say that his actions were absurd, that his conduct was the height of folly, that he was aiming at impossibilities? Supposing further that he bought branches laden with fruit or flowers to place upon his monstrosity prior to inspection by his employer. Utter failure would be the result. So is marriage with love on neither side. It is a living death, a mockery, a delusion, a sham, the blackness of despair.

"The marriage-life is always an insipid, a

vexatious, or a happy condition. The first is, when two people of no genius or taste for themselves meet together, upon such a sentiment as has been thought reasonable by parents and conveyancers from an exact valuation of the land and cash of both parties. In this case the young lady's person is no more regarded than the house and improvements in purchase of an estate; but she goes with her fortune, rather than her fortune with her. The vexatious life arises from a conjunction of two people of quick taste and resentment, put together for reasons well known to their friends, in which especial care is taken to avoid (what they think the chief of evils) poverty, and ensure to them riches, with every evil besides. These good people live in a constant restraint before company, and too great familiarity alone. When they are within observation they fret at each other's carriage and behaviour; when alone they revile each other's person and conduct. In company they are in purgatory; when only together, in a hell."*

It may be asked, What motives prompt those who unite themselves together in matrimony without the slightest affection on the one side or the other?

Sometimes young people are forced into such

*"Laconism."