and wife.

Christie and Charles are lovers still--for they are man and wife.

Christie and Charles are one forever--for they are man and wife.

This wife brightens the house, from kitchen to garret, for her husband;
this husband works like a king for his wife's comfort, and for his own
fame--and that fame is his wife's glory. When one of these expresses or
hints a wish, the other's first impulse is to find the means, not the
objections.

They share all troubles, and, by sharing, halve them.

They share all pleasures, and, by sharing, double them.

They climb the hill together now, and many a canty day they shall have
with one another; and when, by the inevitable law, they begin to descend
toward the dark valley, they will still go hand in hand, smiling so
tenderly, and supporting each other with a care more lovely than when
the arm was strong and the foot firm.

On these two temperate lives old age will descend lightly, gradually,
gently, and late--and late upon these evergreen hearts, because they are
not tuned to some selfish, isolated key; these hearts beat and ring with
the young hearts of their dear children, and years hence papa and mamma
will begin life hopefully, wishfully, warmly again with each loved
novice in turn.

And when old age does come, it will be no calamity to these, as it is to
you, poor battered beau, laughed at by the fair ninnies who erst laughed
with you; to you, poor follower of salmon, fox, and pheasant, whose
joints are stiffening, whose nerve is gone--whose Golgotha remains; to
you, poor faded beauty, who have staked all upon man's appetite, and
not accumulated goodness or sense for your second course; to you, poor
drawing-room wit, whose sarcasm has turned to venom and is turning to
drivel.

What terrors has old age for this happy pair? it cannot make them ugly,
for, though the purple light of youth recedes, a new kind of tranquil
beauty, the aloe-blossom of many years of innocence, comes to, and
sits like a dove upon, the aged faces, where goodness, sympathy and
intelligence have harbored together so long; and where evil passions
have flitted (for we are all human), but found no resting-place.

Old age is no calamity to them. It cannot terrify them; for ere they had
been married a week the woman taught the man, lover of truth, to search
for the highest and greatest truths in a book written for men's souls by
the Author of the world, the sea, the stars, the sun, the soul; and th