THE DESERTED WIFE. BY EMMA D. E. NEVITT SOUTHWORTH, AUTHOR OF “RETRIBUTION, OR THE VALE OF SHADOWS.” “Various the ways in which our souls are tried; Love often fails where most our faith relied; Some wayward heart may win without a thought, That which thine own by sacrifice hath bought; Whilst thou, forsaken, grieving, left to pine, Vainly mayst claim his plighted faith as thine; Vainly with forced indulgence strive to smile In the cold world, heart-broken all the while, Or from its glittering and unquiet crowd, Thy brain on fire, thy spirit crushed and bowed, Creep home unnoticed, there to weep alone, Mocked by a claim that gives thee not thine own, Which leaves thee bound through all thy blighted youth To him whose perjured soul hath broke its truth; While the just world beholding thee bereft— Scorns—not his sin—but _thee_, for being left.” MRS. NORTON’S DREAM. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 200 BROADWAY. PHILADELPHIA: GEO. S. APPLETON, 164 CHESNUT-STREET. M DCCC L. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1850, BY D. APPLETON & COMPANY, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. TO DOCTOR WILLIAM ELDER, OF PHILADELPHIA, WHOSE CONSTANT ASSISTANCE AND KIND ENCOURAGEMENT CHEERED, INSPIRED, AND SUSTAINED HER THROUGH THE TOILS AND TRIALS OF HER VOCATION, This Book is Inscribed, AS AN ASSURANCE OF GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE, BY THE AUTHOR. WASHINGTON, JUNE 3, 1850. INTRODUCTION. MARRIAGE. “Marriage is a matter of more worth Than to be dealt in by attorneyship.” _Shakspeare._ “The bloom or blight of all men’s happiness.” _Byron._