In the instance we have cited, the pretty face soon became forgotten.  But as the young man had merely bargained for the “face”—­as it was that to which he had paid his attentions—­that which he had vowed to love, honour, and protect.—­when it ceased to be pretty, he began to find out that he had made a mistake.  And if the home be not made attractive,—­if the newly married man finds that it is only an indifferent boarding-house,—­he will gradually absent himself from it.  He will stay out in the evenings, and console himself with cigars, cards, politics, the theatre, the drinking club; and the poor pretty face will then become more and more disconsolate, hopeless, and miserable.

Perhaps children grow up; but neither husband nor wife know much about training them, or keeping them healthy.  They are regarded as toys when babies, dolls when boys and girls, drudges when young men and women.  There is scarcely a quiet, happy, hearty hour spent during the life of such a luckless couple.  Where there is no comfort at home, there is only a succession of petty miseries to endure.  Where there is no cheerfulness,—­no disposition to accommodate, to oblige, to sympathize with one another,—­affection gradually subsides on both sides.

It is said, that “When poverty comes in at the door, loves flies out at the window.”  But it is not from poor men’s houses only that love flies.  It flies quite as often from the homes of the rich, where there is a want of loving and cheerful hearts.  This little home might have been snug enough; with no appearance of want about it; rooms well furnished; cleanliness pervading it; the table well supplied; the fire burning bright; and yet without cheerfulness.  There wanted the happy faces, radiant with contentment and good humour.  Physical comfort, after all, forms but a small part of the blessings of a happy home.  As in all other concerns of life, it is the moral state which determines the weal or woe of the human condition.

Most young men think very little of what has to follow courtship and marriage.  They think little of the seriousness of the step.  They forget that when the pledge has once been given, there is no turning back, The knot cannot be untied.  If a thoughtless mistake has been made, the inevitable results will nevertheless follow.  The maxim is current, that “marriage is a lottery.”  It may be so if we abjure the teachings of prudence—­if we refuse to examine, inquire, and think—­if we are content to choose a husband or a wife, with less reflection than we bestow upon the hiring of a servant, whom we can discharge any day—­if we merely regard attractions of face, of form, or of purse, and give way to temporary impulse or to greedy avarice—­then, in such cases, marriage does resemble a lottery, in which you may draw a prize, though there are a hundred chances to one that you will only draw a blank.