66 knew the character of the man she had preferred | simple black coffin; crowds of friends, and a to the faithful and honest Francis. "No," said greyhound, sadly and slowly following, close the he, "I suppose that was matter of little conse- steps of the bearers. quence, so long as money could be held out as an inducement, however obtained. Know, then, that this Müller is a highwayman, who lives allday in a sumptuous house, supported by his night robberies! This man endeavoured to rob me not long since; I spared his life, on condition that he should leave this country. My chain of evidence is indisputable, and he knows it. I congratulate you, madam, on the maternal discrimination you have displayed in the choice of a husband for your lovely daughter!" Geneviève, kneel, my beloved; let us pray!" The beautiful young mother knelt with her children on the balcony, and while the mournful procession passed they wept and prayed— their best friend was gone! Such were the tears that were shed over the grave of Hoffman! "Our blessed Lady preserve us!" ejaculated LINES Madame Herrmann, quite stupified at what she WRITTEN AFTER BIDDING ADIEU TO MY SISTER, had heard and seen. 66 Allow me, now, madam," said Hoffman, "to present to you a son-in-law, who has, in truth, but eight hundred florins for the commencement of housekeeping; but I promise him double the sum in the course of the year, and it is to be hoped that, with prudence and economy, Francis and Geneviève may do well after all their trials!" "I cannot oppose the will of Providence!" sighed Mrs. Herrmann. "Well, my young friends," said Hoffman, in order to avoid the overwhelming gratitude of the young people, "will it not be better to live, than to die together?" and tears streamed down the cheeks of the benefactor, and those he had rendered too happy for any other mode of expression. Let those who know not the luxury of such tears as Hoffman shed at this moment, purchase it by a beneficent action such as his (if in their power), and verily they shall find in it a rich reward. * On the 24th of July, 1822, all Berlin was in mourning. Hoffman was no more! In one of the principal streets a house stood conspicuous by its great extent, and over the doors was inscribed, "Office for printing, and casting types, Francis Herrmann." For Francis, having no second name of his own, had taken that of his wife. There they lived, loving and beloved, giving bread to hundreds, kind and thoughtful for each individual, for each had seen affliction, and could feel for that of others, now that a happy love, and perfect trust in one another, with competency, gave them leisure to do good. Industry and frugality had brought to their door their general attendant-prosperity; and, since two lovely children had been added to their domestic circle, nothing was wanting to their cup of happiness. The embroidered neckcloth that Francis had worn with such pride in his sorrow and poverty was considered sacred, and kept under a glass case. Geneviève and Francis are, together with their children, in the room which contains this precious relic: a funeral procession passes by, a ON HER DEPARTURE FOR INDIA. The drops, at first MARY HARRIet. HOME DUTIES. BY MISS ANNA MARIA SARGEANT. "What bachelor-like gloves ! exclaimed Charles Bouverie, addressing his youthful bride, as he was preparing one morning for departure from his suburban cottage; and as he spoke he displayed a pair of those useful articles of dress through which his fingers protruded in several directions. "No one would take me to be a married man," he laughingly continued, "but I will leave them for your fairy fingers to repair, my love;" he added, gaily tossing them on his wife's work-table. The lady raised her eyes from the piece of needlework over which she was bending, and smiled, but made no reply. Now, for the information of our gentle readers, it must be told that the hero of my tale had, like many other young men, selected a partner to please his own fancy without consulting the matured judgment of his good mother. The elder Mrs. Bouverie entertained apprehensions that the young lady in question was unfitted by education and habits for the duties which her present position involved; but the son, with the too common blindness of love, could not see with the same eyes, and determined to hazard his happiness by making the trial. Louisa was one of those passively amiable characters, not unfrequently to be met with amongst the class of society to which she belonged. She was by birth a gentlewoman, but her stepmother having, by the death of her hus- | band, but a scanty income wherewith to support herself and three daughters, and a strong desire to make an appearance beyond her means, she and her sisters had been educated in a manner but ill calculated to make them either good wives or good mothers. Being the youngest, and naturally of a retiring disposition, Louisa had mixed less in dissipated circles, and consequently escaped much of the contaminating influence to which her elder sisters were exposed; but reared as she had been by a vain and injudicious woman, Mrs. Bouverie had too many grounds for the fears she entertained, that as a wife homeduties would be sacrificed to the pursuit of the trifles which had hitherto occupied her time and thoughts. The day glided away, and the young bride was busily occupied in finishing an elaborate piece of needlework, intended for the cover of an ottoman, which had engaged the principal part of her time since the expiration of the honeymoon, and she thought not of the request her husband had made. On his return in the evening, she with an air of triumph displayed it to his view, and it failed not to call forth the expected admiration, accompanied however by the remark, that it was too elegant for their humble home."We will put it aside then till we have a larger house," the lady returned; "meanwhile I will work another to match it." "But we have no thoughts of having a larger house, my dear Louisa," cried Bouverie, a little uneasy at the implied desire. "No, not at present certainly," she hesitatingly rejoined. "I thought, my love," he resumed after a painful pause, "that you were much pleased with the house and its situation, and I have laid out too large a sum upon the garden and greenhouse to think of leaving, especially as I have a lease for nine years." "Nine years!" repeated the wife, why, my dear Charles, you hope to be a partner in your uncle's banking-house long before that time, do you not?" "I do!" was his reply. Steady conduct on my part is all that is necessary to ensure it for me, and that I am resolved shall not be wanting. But do you deem this house unfit for us when I am a partner in the concern?" he asked. Louisa blushed and hesi tated. Had the question been put to her on the day when she first entered their present abode, she would unhesitatingly have answered, that she desired nothing better; but, unhappily for their mutual peace, her mind had since been biassed by the pernicious influence of her mother, who, upon visiting her daughter in her new home, had found fault with its size, its furniture, and in short with every thing it contained. The truth was, Charles Bouverie was at present only a clerk in a banking establishment, in which his father and uncle had formerly been partners, and Miss Darlington had been disappointed that he had not, on the occasion of his marriage, occupied his father's place. But the elder Mr. Bouverie wished to test the prudence of his nephew ere he admitted him into a situation of so much trust, and this he thought could not be better accomplished than by a year's delay. 66 'But you could then afford a better, Charles," the young wife at length returned. True! I might, dear, but I am not so ambitious as you are, Louisa," he half playfully, half earnestly rejoined. "At all events," he pursued, "I do not wish to anticipate leaving our home just as we are quietly settled in it; such a thought would destroy our domestic happiness." Well, Charles, if you think the ottoman covers too handsome for our parlours, I will make a present of them to my mother when the other is finished they will suit her drawing-room exactly." Bouverie bit his lips, and hastily turned over the leaves of a book which lay on the table before him, to vent the-what shall I call it, gentle reader?-anger is too strong a word to apply to the feelings of a young man who had but seven weeks before become a husband, yet it was something like it, notwith standing the object who had awakened it was young and lovely. "Louisa!" he cried, and it was the first time that his tones had ever sounded harsh to her ears, I may have done wrong in removing you from your mother's elegant home to one which is unfitted for you, but I cannot now repair the evil by consenting to live in a style beyond what my income will with prudence permit. The first impulse of the young wife was to throw herself into her husband's arms, and declare that any home she shared with him, however humble, would be far dearer to her than even that of her childhood: but she was prevented by the wringing of the gate-bell, announcing a visitor, and the subject was not renewed that night. "Where are the gloves, love, I yesterday left for repair?" Bouverie asked the following morning as he arose from the breakfast-table. A slight blush tinged the cheek of the young bride as she faltered forth that she did not know, and glanced at the work-table where she remembered her husband to have thrown them. "Have you not mended them?" he said, looking at her enquiringly. "To own the truth, I forgot them," she replied, "but they shall be done to day." Bouverie made no comment and took his departure after an affectionate farewell, but it was with a heart less happy than usual. Trifling as was the circumstance, it assumed an air of importance when connected with the events of the preceding day, for it revealed to him that his Louisa's thoughts could be absorbed by a piece of useless finery to the exclusion of a request of his, which, however small, was of real utility; and which should, he thought, have been remembered from the very fact of its having been made by him. Husbands may be accused of tyranny in exacting such minute attention to their wishes, by young ladies who imagine that when they become wives they ought to have the same deference paid to them as before marriage; yet the really attached, devoted woman will know that every little proof of regard conveyed in the unostentatious but prompt attention to either expressed or known wishes, weaves a fresh link around the heart she is most desirous of entwining in the silken bonds of love. Alas! Louisa Bouverie had, on the contrary, severed the first link in the chain of her domestic bliss. She felt that her husband was disappointed and a little displeased, though he did not express his feelings, and this was sufficient to mar her happiness. Resolving, however, that another day should not pass without attending to his request, she commenced the task, her tears flowed fast as she did so, and unfortunately whilst thus engaged, she received a visit from her mother and sisters. Mrs. Darlington perceiving that she had been weeping, demanded an explanation, and when with great difficulty she had wrung from her daughter a confession of the truth, she burst with violent invectives against her son-in-law's conduct, accusing him of cruelty, and going so far as to declare that her child should no longer be subjected to it, but return to the home she had quitted. Louisa attempted to soften the lady's resentment, but the injudicious kindness of Mrs. Darlington had the baneful effect of inducing the weak-minded girl to believe that she really had some cause for complaint. Thinking thus, she put the articles in question into Bouverie's hand on his return, with the air of one who has been injured, and consequently received from him a cold acknowledgment, which served to widen the breach her slight neglect | had made. As month after month glided away, Bouverie further discovered that his mother's fears were not without foundation. He could not complain that Louisa was wanting in affection; yet he did not enjoy that uninterrupted happiness he had fondly anticipated, owing to a neglect on her part of those daily duties, the fulfilment of which in so great a degree constitutes the comfort of home, and her time and attention being engrossed by useless, or at least unimportant pursuits. It afforded no satisfactory apology to the husband that his wife had decorated his apartments with elegant ornaments, the workmanship of her own hands-that she had practised the newest and most fashionable piece of music-or even that she had been charitably employed in contributing to some fancy-fairif, in consequence, his meals were ill-cooked, or not punctually prepared for want of a mistress's timely directions, or overlooking eye; if his linen was unaired, or in disorder, for want of a few stitches; and if there were a thousand other little omissions which rendered his home anything but a region of order and peace; and, though he was naturally what is termed an easy temper, it must be acknowledged that he was frequently irritated under the neglect. "Will you settle those half-yearly bills for me, my love?" Bouverie asked one morning during the first Christmas holidays of his married life. "I have a great deal of business to attend to to-day, yet I wish them to be paid," and as he spoke he laid a packet of papers upon the breakfast-table, and with them notes and gold to the amount of thirty-five pounds. "Yes, certainly, if you will trust me with the money," Louisa laughingly returned. 66 Trust you!" he repeated, "I should be sorry to have so ill an opinion of you as to doubt your honesty; for sure it would be a breach of honesty to appropriate the money to any other purpose." 66 Nay," she pursued, still assuming an air of pleasantry, nay, my dear Charles, but money is tempting when there are so many beautiful articles of apparel displayed in the mercers' and milliners' windows; who knows but I may be induced to buy a cloak of the newest fashion, or a fresh stock of laces and ribbons ?" Bouverie smiled-" My Louisa knows that if she desire it she has only to ask and to have either, without committing a breach of trust," he observed. "Well, well, if you will persist in risking it, you must abide by the consequences," she gaily "That is very unfortunate; but have you nothing you can possibly wear on the occa rejoined; and she placed the gold in her purse, | able to appear in. The introduction may be the and the notes in her pocket-book, as she spoke. making of Henrietta and Selina; but, till my The day was favourable, and Louisa lost no next quarter becomes due, we really have not a time ere she commenced the execution of her pound to lay out." husband's commission. She first called upon those tradesmen who were her neighbours; but having fifteen pounds to pay to a tailor in Bond-sion?" street, which was in the vicinity of her mother's residence (that lady being too fashionable to re-pliment to Mrs. Harcourt as to appear in shabby side at any part but at the west end of the town), she took the opportunity of giving her a passing call. "We were just coming to see you, my dear," Mrs. Darlington exclaimed, as her daughter entered the drawing-room; "but I am glad you are come, we have such news!" "Pleasant news I presume by your smiles," Louisa returned. 'Delightful! but you must throw off your cloak and bonnet, for we have a great deal to tell you." "Nay, I must not stay long," cried Louisa, "I am going on an errand for Charles." "Oh, then of course his lordship must be attended to before any one else," her mother added, with a sarcastic sneer. "Nay, I am not confined to half an hour," she made answer; "I am only going to pay a little bill:" and she suffered her eldest sister to disrobe her of her bonnet and cloak as she spoke. "Then you really are not afraid to stop a few minutes to hear what we have to say?" Mrs. Darlington pursued in the same strain of bitter irony. The young wife's cheek was suffused with a flush of wounded pride; but she forbore to make any reply. "Nothing. We could not pay so ill a com attire; besides it will be a very grand ball. The charming widow went through such a list of earls and countesses, baronets and honourables, with whom she is on the most intimate terms; and there is no knowing whom we may meet with there." "I wish I could assist you," said Louisa musingly; "all I can do is, to lend my sisters my jewels; my dresses would not fit either of them, being much too small." Nor shall I of my own," she returned; "for the very day after the last quarter was paid, I had the milliner, and the dress-maker, and the pastry-cook, and a dozen others, like "You knew we were going to Mrs. Cran-hungry harpies upon me; and I was obliged to bourn's party last night?" observed the youngest Miss Darlington. "I really had forgotten it," Louisa returned. "But now you mention it, I remember that you told me you were invited." "Well, we spent such a pleasant evening, and were introduced to a lady who will be a most valuable addition to our circle of friends." "In what respect?" Louisa asked. "In every respect," exclaimed the mother, whose angry feelings were dissipated at the very mention of their new acquaintance. "She is rich and fashionable and influential, and knows such a number of titled personages that her friendship is of vast importance to us." "And pray who may this lady be?" her daughter inquired." "She is the widow of General Harcourt, who she says knew your poor papa very well; and she took such a great fancy to your sisters that she insisted on our accepting an invitation to a ball she gives next week at her mansion in Berkeley-square." "And you were nothing loth to accept it, I suppose?" Louisa smilingly observed. "Loth!" Mrs. Darlington repeated, "we were delighted but for one sad circumstance, which is, my dear, that we have not dress suit pay them part of their demands, or I could not have credit for the present quarter; but I would borrow the money of some other person to repay you, Louisa, as you have such a screw of a husband." "I fear I must not part with it, mamma," cried the young wife, her before-flushed cheek assuming an ashy paleness. "It is Charles's tailor I am commissioned to pay, and he is very particular about his debts.' "You think he would require you to deliver the receipt. Well, you need not make that a hindrance, you can affect to have mislaid it or dropped it." Oh, mamma, I dare not do it," cried Louisa in extreme agitation. "Well, never mind," exclaimed Henrietta, leaving the side of her sister, around whom her arm had before been cast with apparent fondness; "never mind, we can decline Mrs. Harcourt's invitation; it is of no consequence to Louisa if Selina and I lose the chance of such an introduction; she is provided for." "And I wish her joy of her choice," added Selina with a bitter smile. "I trust, Henrietta, that neither you nor I shall ever have a husband who would refuse us a few pounds to serve our mother." Home Duties. "Don't be so hard upon your poor sister," exclaimed Mrs. Darlington, who knew the character of her youngest daughter too well to hazard further harshness. "She loves you too dearly to suffer you to throw away the best chance you ever had of being well settled." These sarcasms were too much for the feelings, her domestic habits, but her uneasy mind, which of the sensitive and affectionate girl, and she affected her health; but she was not sorry to make this a plea to drown thought: thus fresh burst into a flood of tears. inroads were made upon the comfort and order of her house by her frequent absence. She at first so timed her visits as to be always at home when Bouverie's daily avocations were over; but soon, to morning calls evening parties were added; and as, through her mother's misrepresentations, in her circle of acquaintances she was looked upon as a neglected and ill-used poor wife, it was deemed a charity to send " Mrs. Bouverie," as she was termed, a card of invitation. "What is the sum you require?" Louisa sobbed forth. "What is the sum you have in hand, my love?" demanded Mrs. Darlington soothingly. "Fifteen pounds." Well, my dear, that will do very well; it will make us fit to appear at Mrs. Harcourt's, and enable us to hire a carriage to go in, which we could not possibly do without. A fly would make us appear nobodies, and we should of course be looked down upon." Louisa sighed, and placed the money upon the table before her. A sudden revulsion of feeling took place in the bosoms of the selfish dear sisters, and they flew to embrace their " Louisa," begging pardon for the unkind remarks they had made, and assuring her of their affection for her. The wife returned home with feelings young far from enviable; she dreaded to meet her husband, lest he should make inquiries concerning the bills; and not having sufficient moral courage to reveal the truth, she thought she must have recourse to the mean subterfuge of falsehood. This pain was, however, spared her; for Bouverie being that evening much interested in the perusal of a new work he had purchased during the day, merely thanked her for her attention to his wishes, and requested her to file the receipts. To find her absent on his return from town, or engrossed with preparations for an evening visit, could scarcely fail to arouse the displeasure of her husband; but his expostulations were unavailing, being, through the medium of her mother, exaggerated into crimes. Home had once been the spot where his fondest affections and most ardent wishes had centred, but it ceased to be so when she, who should have been the principal attraction, showed a disregard for his happiness. It was with a bitter pang that he first turned aside into a path which led not to the once sacred precinct; but afterwards it grew familiar to him, and he thought any society preferable to that of his wife. "Where are you going to-night?" Bouverie somewhat pettishly asked, one evening, as he entered the parlour, and perceived his wife arrayed for a gala. Louisa coloured and hesitated, for she was really going to an entertainment at her mother's house; but Mrs. Darlington had, though without giving a reason, requested that she would by no means inform him." 66 Surely a husband has a right to know what society his wife keeps," he added, in a tone which savoured more of earnest than jest, though it affected the latter. Louisa strove to smile as she faltered forth, "I am only going to a little party at mamma's." "A party at your mother's!" he repeated in unaffected surprise. "Why, Charles, you know that mamma occasionally gives parties at home, or she could not very well visit her friends," the wife made answer. 66 When next Louisa met her mother and sisters she found them full of spirits, owing to the notice they had received at Mrs. Harcourt's ball. Henrietta had been much flattered by the marked attentions of a young baronet, who had just come into possession of the title, with the agreeable adjunct of an immense fortune; and Mrs. Darlington was already building airy castles upon this probably baseless foundation. So engrossed were they that they forgotten the sacrifice by which the pleasure had been purchased, and no mention was made of the sum they had borrowed. Louisa delicately forbore to allude to it, though her thoughts were constantly on the subject; but when week after week passed away, and payment was still delayed, her anxiety became so intense that she ventured to entreat her mother to relieve her mind by its liquidation, since she was in daily dread of discovery. Mrs. Darlington laughed at what she called her daughter's foolish fears, telling her she ought to summon courage to do as she pleased, and not bend to the will of her tyrannical husband; she further insisted that she should accompany them "This letter will explain," he made answer, sometimes in their visits to their friends, declaring that the close confinement in which she as he drew a paper from his pocket, and put it had for the last few months been kept was un-into her hand. The epistle was from her mother, dermining her strength and preying upon her and its object was to solicit the loan of fifty spirits. Louisa knew too well that it was not pounds, which sum she said was due to her Bouverie turned from her with an expression Louisa," he said, she could not understand. "I would after a few moments' pause, in which he had evidently struggled with his feelings, not wound you by the communication I am about to make, were it not that I feel it to be necessary. Your influence may perhaps save your unhappy mother from ruin, though my advice would be disregarded." "What can you mean, Charles?" the wife gasped forth, whilst her frame shook with agitation. |