GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK
Philadelphia, November 1850

THE ESTRANGEMENT.
BY DANIEL STROCK, JR.

ONE eve, while yet the twilight hour delayed The approach of darkness, and some fleecy clouds, With golden edges tipped, seemed laughingly To gaze on brighter worlds, where still the sun Effulgent shone, a gentle maiden sat Beside her parent. Oft, in other hours, Her eye had beamed with hope to view the day Thus peaceful sink, or hail the star of eve, As, shaking from its disk the sun's hot beams, It hung a sparkling gem in the soft sky, The harbinger of love. Now o'er her brow Sorrow had cast, a shade, and from the eye So purely beautiful that Heaven's blue vault Seemed there reflected, stole at times a tear, That down her cheek rolled silent. Neither spake, Save in the language which each feature makes An organ of its meaning, till the night Had gathered darkly round, and from the hearth The chrip of cricket broke the weary pause, Rendering the silence fearful. The, with voice Faltering, and choked by sobs, the daughter said:-

"Oh, could I cast away

His name, his form, the music of his voice,

The memory that he was my early choice,

Then I would thee obey!

"But, with a changeless spell,

My fate is wove with his for joy or woe,

And I must follow where his footsteps go,

And where he lives must dwell.

"Oh, do not to my eye

The gloomy page of coming woe unfold!

Tell not of broken vows, of language cold,

Of the seared heart's long sigh!

"All these, and more, I'll brave-

Ay, love him when he hath for me no smile

Of answering love, no glad song to beguile

The pathway to the grave.

"E'en now I seem to hear

A whisper strange within, a warning given-

It may be by some pitying spirit in heaven,

Who knows the grief I bear.

"Ah, could such beings feel

The misery I endure, they would forgive

The heart that slights their warning, and relieve

The pangs they cannot heal!

"Then, mother, if my heart,

So young and frail, twine closer round the form

That's pledged to shield it from life's bitter storm,

When I from home depart,

"Ah, cast me not away

Without thy blessing! That would be to throw

Around each coming ill a darker woe,

And cloud e'en hope's glad way."

Here ceased that timid girl. The mother seemed Awhile repentant. In her faded eye Grief's dew-drop glittered, and her aged frame Trembled with strong emotion. Memory then Was conjuring, with a magic power, the Past, And pleading with the heart, where, treasured, lay That daughter's infant smiles, and sunny sports Of innocent childhood, ere the days drew on When contact with a cold and selfish world Rendered life bitter. Would she comfort speak To her child's throbbing heart? The vision passed Of former happiness, but framed no words Of pardon for the suppliant. Oh, 'twas sad To witness then the gush of agony With which that maiden clasped her mother's neck And sobbed upon her bosom, pleading wild Her blessing! or, were that too much, one word Of kindness, which, through future ills, might be A comfort and a beacon. None was given! They parted. One in solitude to mourn, Widowed and childless; one to linger on, A few short years in living death, with him, For love of whom she wasted to the tomb.

Godey's L