GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE. Vol. XX. April, 1842 No. 4. Contents Fiction, Literature and Articles The Wife Lowell’s Poems Life in Death The Miner’s Fate Recollections of West Point Dreams of the Land and Sea St. Agnes’ Eve—A Chit-Chat About Keats The Affair at Tattletown The Bachelor’s Experiment The Duel Harry Cavendish The Two Dukes Review of New Books Poetry and Music Birth of Freedom Fragment Agathè.—A Necromaunt To a Spirit The Old Man Returned Home Stanzas from an Unpublished Poem Sweethearts and Wives Elegy on the Fate of Jane M’Crea Sonnets—Michael Angelo & Raffaello To Florence Return From Hawking There’s No Land Like Scotland Transcriber’s Notes can be found at the end of this eBook. * * * * * [Illustration: an oval-shaped lace doily] [Illustration: Painted by Prentice, Engraved by H. S. Sadd, N.Y. _The Wife._ _Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine_] GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE. Vol. XX. PHILADELPHIA: APRIL, 1842. No. 4. * * * * * THE WIFE. BY AGNES PIERSOL. It was the dead hour of the night. The room was a high wainscotted apartment, with furniture of a rich but antique pattern. The pale moonlight streaming through the curtained window, and struggling with the subdued light of a candle placed in a corner, disclosed the figure of a sick man extended on a bed, wrapped in an unquiet slumber. By his side sat a care-worn though still beautiful woman gazing anxiously on his face, and breathlessly awaiting the crisis of the fever—for it was now the ninth day since that strong man had been prostrated by the hand of disease, and during all that time he had raved in an incessant delirium. He had at length dropped into an unquiet slumber, broken at first by starts and moans, but during the last hour he had been less restless, and he now lay as still as a sculptured statue. His wife well knew that ere morning the crisis would be past, and she waited, with all a woman’s affection, breathlessly for the event. Aye! though few women have been wronged as Emily Walpole had been wronged, she still cherished her husband’s image, for he was, despite his errors, the lover of her youth.