A Woman of the World | Page 6

in any matters which do not conflict with his
self-respect or your pride.
Cultivate the society of the women he admires. There is both wisdom
and tact in such a course.
Wisdom in making an ideal a reality, and tact in avoiding any
semblance of that most unbecoming fault--jealousy.
Let him see that you have absolute faith in your own powers to hold
him, and that you respect him too much to mistake a frank admiration
for an unworthy sentiment. Do not hesitate to speak with equal
frankness of the qualities you admire in other men. Educate him in
liberality and generosity, by example.
Allow no one to criticize him in your presence, and do not discuss his
weaknesses with others. I have known wives to meet in conclaves, and
dissect husbands for an entire afternoon. And each wife seemed
anxious to pose as the most neglected and unappreciated woman of the
lot. With all the faults of the sterner sex, I never heard of such a caucus
of husbands.
Take an interest in your husband's business affairs, and sympathize
with the cares and anxieties which beset him. Distract his mind with
pleasant or amusing conversation, when you find him nervous and
fagged in brain and body.
Yet do not feel that you must never indicate any trouble of your own,

for it is conducive to selfishness when a wife hides all her worries and
indispositions to listen to those of her husband. But since the
work-a-day world, outside the home, is usually filled with irritations for
a busy man, it should be a wife's desire to make his home-coming a
season of anticipation and joy.
Do not expect a husband to be happy and contented with a continuous
diet of love and sentiment and romance. He needs also much that is
practical and commonplace mingled with his mental food.
I have known an adoring young wife to irritate Cupid so he went out
and sat on the door-step, contemplating flight, by continual neglect of
small duties.
There were never any matches in the receivers; when the husband
wanted one he was obliged to search the house. The newspaper he had
folded and left ready to read at leisure was used to light the fire,
although an overfilled waste-basket stood near. The towel-rack was
empty just when he wanted his bath, and his bedroom slippers were
always kicked so far under the bed that he was obliged to crawl on all
fours to reach them.
Then his loving spouse was sure to want to be "cuddled" when he was
smoking his cigar and reading,--a triple occupation only possible to a
human freak, with three arms, four eyes, and two mouths.
Therefore I would urge you, my dear Edna, to mingle the practical with
the ideal, and common sense with sentiment, and tact with affection, in
your domestic life.
These general rules are all I can give to guide your barque into the
smooth, sea of marital happiness.
It is a wide sea, with many harbours and ports, and no two ships start
from exactly the same point or take exactly the same course. You will
encounter rocks and reefs, perhaps, which my boat escaped, and I have
no chart to guide you away from those rocks.

If I knew you better, and knew your husband at all, I might steer you a
little farther out of Honeymoon Bay into calm waters, and tell you how
to reef your sails, and how to tack at certain junctures of the voyage,
and with the wind in certain directions.
But if you keep your heart full of love, your mind clear of distrust, and
your lips free from faultfinding, and if you pray for guidance and light
upon your way, I am sure you cannot miss the course.

To Miss Gladys Weston
Who Faces the Necessity to Earn a Living
It is indeed a problem, my dear Gladys, to face stern-visaged Necessity
after walking with laughing-lipped Pleasure for twenty-two years.
What an unforeseen event that your father should sink his fortune in a
rash venture and die of remorse and discouragement scarcely six
months after you were travelling through Europe with me, and laughing
at my vain attempts to make you economize.
You have acted the noble and womanly part, in using the last dollar of
your father's property to pay his debts, and I could imagine you doing
no other way.
But now comes the need of earning a livelihood for yourself, and your
delicate mother.
I know you have gone over the list of your accomplishments and taken
stock of all your inherited and acquired qualities. You play the piano
well, but in these days of Paderewskies and pianolas, no one wants to
employ a young girl music-teacher. You do not sing,