You have doubtless foreseen the result whilst listening to the prelude. The marriage took place. The wife’s money was all absorbed at the start, and debts began to be incurred almost immediately. The man was not of the sort likely to win a better position, and the woman, gently nurtured, found in him a hard, selfish domestic tyrant, who made her life of toil doubly bitter by his coarseness and the harshness of his conduct towards the children. Friends had said they would not help; but pity and the old affection for the woman whose childhood they had watched over conquered indignation, and much was done for her, often by stealth, or she and her little ones would have been no better for it. I will not tell the rest of a sad story; but what I have said gives a picture of results where neither conscience nor reason had a voice in deciding the future of two lives. Every rank of life furnishes samples of ill-advised marriages. A girl may be attracted by a handsome person, and not pause to find out whether the moral and religious character of the man corresponds with it. She may note his pleasant social qualities and admire them; but it would be well for her to find out whether these are equally notable under the home roof. It is good to know what sort of a son and brother a man is. If a mother’s face lights with pleasure at the mention of her son, and the thought of what he is to her brings moisture to her eyes, if the girls of the family make a friend of him and regard him as a great factor in the sum that makes up the happiness of home, there will be good reason for believing that, in the dearest of all relationships, he will not be found wanting. There is an old saying that “A man is known by the company he keeps.” Is it not, then, well for you, who look forward to spending a lifetime in his society, to know something of the associates he chooses for himself now? I think I hear some of you asking, “Is it not the business of parents and guardians to satisfy themselves about the position, means, character, associates, and so on, of the man who seeks a daughter in marriage?” Assuredly it is. But all of you are not blessed with parents, or kind, wise guardians in place of them. Some have not even friends who will interest themselves on behalf of girl acquaintances. Some, again, are ready to blame the young and foolish girls who think so lightly of what is of supreme importance. They laugh, or quote old sayings about “Eating rue pie,” “Marry in haste and repent at leisure,” and so on. One has even noted a look of almost pleasurable anticipation on the face of some acquaintance whose advice has been asked, but not followed, as the remark has been made, “She will find out her mistake soon enough when she gets what she never bargained for.”