THE WIFE'S
WIFE'S TRIALS

AND

TRIUMPHS.

A Tale.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

GRACE HAMILTON'S SCHOOL-DAYS;" "HEART'S EASE IN
THE HOUSE;" "KINGSDOWN LODGE," ETC. ETC.

XII.-A DAY-DREAM OF BETTER THINGS

92

THE WIFE'S TRIALS.

CHAPTER I.

LILIAN GREY.

"I leave thee, sister!. We have played
Through many a joyous hour,

When the silvery green of the olive shade
Hung dim o'er fount and bower!
Yes! thou and I, by stream, by shore,

In song, in prayer, in sleep,

Have been as we may be no more.

Kind sister! let me weep."-MRS. HEMANS.

"THIS day week!" said Lilian Grey, as she sat with her sister at their chamber-window, watching the last hues of sunset fade from the wavy hills that almost encircled the quiet little town of Kirby-Brough; "this day week, at this time, I shall be far, far away.'

Elizabeth sighed, and tried to thread her needle in the faint light that still radiated from the glowing west; but she made no reply. Lilian went on: "It seems so strange, Elizabeth, to think that after next Tuesday Kirby-Brough will never be my home again. That Sundays will come, and the bells will ring, and I shall not be sitting between you and Eleanor, where I have sat ever since I first went to church. And then the summer-the long, sultry, July days, when I always

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