As the time approached nearer and nearer, Lizzy’s heart sank lower and lower in her bosom; still she cherished all possible justifying reasons for her conduct, and sometimes had bitter thoughts against her husband.  She called him, in her mind, arbitrary and tyrannical, and charged him with wishing to make her the mere slave of his will.  As for Ward he also indulged in mental criminations, and tried his best to believe that Lizzy had no true affection for him, that she was selfish, self-willed, and the dear knows what all.

Thus stood affairs when the day came upon which the Shamrock was to sail, and Ward must leave in the early train of cars for Liverpool, to be on board at the hour of starting.  Lizzy had done little but cry all night, and Thomas had lain awake thinking of the unnatural separation, and listening to his wife’s but half-stifled sobs that ever and anon broke the deep silence of their chamber.  At last daylight came, and Ward left his sleepless pillow to make hurried preparations for his departure.  His wife arose also, and got ready his breakfast.  The hour of separation at length came.

“Lizzy,” said the unhappy but firm-hearted man, “we must now part.  Whether we shall ever meet again, Heaven only knows.  I do not wish to blame you in this trying moment, in this hour of grief to both, but I must say that—­No, no!” suddenly checking himself, “I will say nothing that may seem unkind.  Farewell!  If ever your love for your husband should become strong enough to make you willing to share his lot in a far-off and stranger land, his arms and heart will be open to receive you.”

Ward was holding the hand of his wife and looking into her face, over which tears, in spite of all her efforts to control herself, were falling.  The impulse in Lizzy’s heart was to throw herself into her husband’s arms; but, as that would have been equivalent to giving up, and saying—­“I must go with you, go where you will,” she braved it out up to the last moment, and stood the final separation without trusting her voice in the utterance of a single word.

“God bless you, Lizzy!” were the parting words of the unhappy emigrant, as he wrung the passive hand of his wife, and then forced himself away.

The voyage to New York was performed in five weeks.  On his arrival in that city, Ward sought among his countrymen for such information as would be useful to him in obtaining employment.  By some of these, the propriety of advertising was suggested.  Ward followed the suggestion, and by so doing happily obtained, within a week after his arrival, the offer of a good situation as overseer and gardener upon a large farm fifty miles from the city.  The wages were far better than any he had received in England.

“Are you a single man?” asked the sturdy old farmer, after Ward had been a day or two at his new home.

“No, sir; I have a wife in the old country,” he replied, with a slight appearance of confusion.