To make them first, is the blindest folly of the blindest." "Ah, if this were but rightly understood"-- said Mrs.Montgomery--"what new lives would people begin to live in the world! How the shadows that dwell among so many households--even those of the fairest external seeming--would begin to lift themselves upward and roll away, letting in the sunlight and filling the chambers of discord with heavenly music! I have sometimes thought, that more than half the misery which curses the world springs from discordant marriages." "The estimate is low," I answered.

"If you had said two-thirds, you would have been, perhaps, nearer the truth." Blanche crossed the room, and came and stood by her mother's chair, looking down into her face with a loving smile.
"I am afraid the journey has been too much for you," she said, with a shadow of concern in her face.
"You look paler than usual." "Paler, because a little fatigued, dear.

But a night's rest will bring me up even again," Mrs.Montgomery replied cheerfully.
"How is the pain in your side, now ?" asked Blanche, still with a look of concern.
"Easier.

I scarcely notice it now." "Blanche is over anxious about my health, dear girl!" said Mrs.
Montgomery, as the bride moved to another part of the room.

"She thinks me failing rapidly.