46 LEAVE ME NOT! TO MY WIFE.
Mr. Harter, in a tone that thrilled me even
then, proving how severely, by that long suspense, his partial endurance had been tried,
repeat once more, entreatingly, its formula,
"Sylvia, choose!” and then I heard no more.
My heavy head sunk lower and lower to Mrs.
M-Donald’s lap, and all worldly trouble swept
by me like a wave.
When next I raised it, two faces only were bending over me—two faces that had nothing in common but a look of anxiety and dismay. One was young, smooth, refined, even passably handsome; once it had been pleasant and wel- come to me in its kindness; but under this new phase of vision, it seemed hard, and eager, and celd. The other, with rougher lineaments, but softened and warmed by a feeling almost divine, bent above me with pity and tenderness like an angel’s. Love alone, most gentle, most com- passionate, purest, and least selfish of earthly passions, had etherialized that older and more rugged face, till it wore a beauty the youthful one never knew. I could not reason, nor think, nor weigh and ponder, had I felt disposed; for a time sense and memory were in abeyance, and I realized only that a shadowy trouble over- hung me, from which I sought protection. By a blessed impulse of instinct, I stretched out my hands, not to the wealth with which Mr. Harter might fill them; not to the husband I had wedded in haste by a contract which pride compelled me to ratify; but to the love in that kind face and noble heart, that has been my rock of refuge ever since.
LEAVE ME NOT!
BY J. R. GARRISON JONES.
LEAVE me not! leave me not! thou art my star!
Without thee my life would be dark;
I fly to thy bosom when sorrow-clouds lower,
As the dove to the sheltering ark.
Leave me not! leave me not ! others are kind,
But the light in their eyes is less true ;
The Heaven of their love is o'erclouded by storms,
While thine's ever sunny and blue.
Leave me not! leave me not ! thou art my joy;
I have poured all my heart's garnered store,
In one measureless flood of deep love, at thy feet,
And the angels could give thee no more.
Leave me not! leave me not! mournful thy bird
Would fold her bright wings, didst thou go;
And her songs gushing sadly, would tell but the tale
Of an o'erburdened heart in their flow.
Leave me not! leave me not! thon art my life;
By thy side I am nearer to Heaven;
The hopes of long years, and the laurels of fame,
For thy fond faith have gladly been given.
Leave me not ! leave me not ! canst thou forsake
The heart that to thee fondly turns
With a worship as deep as the Chaldean knows,
For his star in the broad Heaven that burns.
Leave me not! leave me not! shadows and clouds,
And a lone, weary pathway were mine;
The flowers droop and die when their light turns away
Like a flower I have lived but in thine.
Leave me not! leave me not! by the days that are past,
Though the world is both weary and wide,
The dreariest lot, and the saddest of homes,
Were the sweetest, if shared by thy side.
LEAVE ME NOT!—TO MY WIFE,
BY D. A. BIBB.
My heart is filled with quiet joy,
More high than that of childhood's day ;
The thoughtless gladness of the boy,
Which time and sorrow swept away,
A nobler feeling doth replace,
Whene'er I gaze, beloved, upon thy placid face.
And I rejoice that few beside,
See there the beauty which I find
For thus thou art still more my bride,
Thy life with mine more intertwined;
I stand the more from men apart,
Thy lover, and the loved of thy devoted heart.
And since we have not wealth to tempt
Attention from the false and vile;
And since I know thy soul exempt
From earth's ambitions as its guile,
I feel, beholding other's care,
As though I were a dweller of another sphere.
But late I scorned myself, and all
My fellow denizens of earth;
Thy smile released me from a thrall,
Thy kiss bestowed a magic birth;
Thy tears, like rain to drooping trees,
Refreshed my withering soul, and brought it strength and peace.
And now, like one inclosed within
A crystal fortress, safe from harm,
I look forth on the shapes of sin
That lure men, by their baleful charm,
To shame and woe, that would not be,
If each one loved some fellow-soul as I love thee.
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