wedding trip to Wisconsin to visit some of his family friends.

With them all the "wonder grew" why it was that, among the many smiles
hitherto lavished upon him from beautiful eyes, he should have chosen the
blind girl. His reiterated assertion of faith in the purity and
unselfishness of the life, and the inner light of the soul, found in them
a ready acceptance of his choice, and they warmly extended to her all the
confidence and affection of kindred hearts.




CHAPTER XVI.

"To know, to esteem, to love, and then to _part_,
Makes up life's tale to many a feeling heart."


A short time after our marriage Mr. Arms was offered a contract to
superintend the construction of a mill at Woodbine, Iowa, which it seemed
best for him to accept; and finding there were no comfortable
accommodations for a lady in that place, he left me in a boarding house in
Chicago, with Hattie for a companion. It was indeed hard for us to part so
soon, and the pang was rendered more bitter by the fact of his impaired
health, for he had never entirely recovered from the effects of the
malarial fever contracted in a miasmatic district in Indiana.

After his departure time hung so heavily upon my hands, my present
aimless, carefree life being in such striking contrast to the activity and
excitement of travel, that I secretly resolved, as separation was