Married Life | Page 6

slave of a
domestic tyrant was dreadful. I felt that I could not live in such a state.
When Mr. Smith came home at dinner-time I was in my chamber,
ready prepared for a gush of tears. As he opened the door I looked up
with streaming eyes, and then hid my face in a pillow.
"Mary," said he, with much kindness in his voice, "what ails you? Are
you sick?" He laid his hand upon mine as he spoke.
But I did not reply. I meant to punish him well for what he had done as
a lesson for the future. I next expected him to draw his arm around me,
and be very tender and sympathizing in his words and tones. But no
such thing! He quietly withdrew the hand he had placed upon mine;
and stood by me, I could feel, though not see, in a cold, erect attitude.
"Are you not well, Mary?" he asked again.
I was still silent. A little while after I heard him moving across the floor,
and then the chamber door shut. I was once more alone.
When the bell rang for dinner, I felt half sorry that I had commenced
this new mode of managing my husband; but, as I had begun, I was
determined to go through with it. "He'll at least take care how he acts in
the future," I said. I did not leave my chamber to join my husband at
the dinner table. He sat his usual time, as I could tell by the ringing of
the bell for the servant to change the plates and bring in the dessert. I
was exceedingly fretted; and more so by his returning to his business

without calling up to see me, and making another effort to dispel my
grief.
For three days I tried this experiment upon my husband, who bore it
with the unflinching heroism of a martyr. I was forced, at last, to come
to; but I was by no means satisfied that my new mode was a failure. For
all Mr. Smith's assumed indifference, I knew that he had been troubled
at heart, and I was pretty well satisfied that he would think twice before
provoking me to another essay of tears. Upon the whole, I felt pretty
sure that I had discovered the means of doing with him as I pleased.
A few weeks of sunshine passed--I must own that the sun did not look
so bright, nor feel so warm as it had done in former times--and then our
wills came once more into collision. But my tears fell upon a rock. I
could not see that they made the least perceptible impression. Mr.
Smith had his own way, and I cried about it until I got tired of that
sport, and in very weariness gave over. For the space of a whole year I
stood upon tears as my last defensible position. Sometimes I didn't
smile for weeks. But my husband maintained his ground like a hero.
At last I gave up in despair. Pride, self-will, anger--all were conquered.
I was a weak woman in the hands of a strong-minded man. If I could
not love him as I wished to love him, I could at least obey. In nothing
did I now oppose him, either by resolute words or tears. If he expressed
a wish, whether to me agreeable or not, I acquiesced.
One day, not long after this change in my conduct towards my husband,
he said to me, "I rather think, Mary, we will spend a couple of weeks at
Brandywine Springs, instead of going to Cape May this season."
I replied, "Very well, dear;" although I had set my heart on going to the
Capes. My sister and her husband and a number of my friends were
going down, and I had anticipated a good deal of pleasure. I did not
know of a single person who was going to the Brandywine Springs. But
what was the use of entering into a contest with my husband? He would
come off the conqueror, spite of angry words or ineffectual tears.
"The Springs are so much more quiet than the Capes," said my
husband.
"Yes," I remarked, "there is less gay company there."
"Don't you think you will enjoy yourself as well there as at the Capes?"
Now this was a good deal for my husband to say. I hardly knew what to
make of it.

"If you prefer going there, dear, let us go by all means," I answered. I
was not affecting any thing, but was in earnest in what I said.
Mr. Smith looked into my face for some moments, and with unusual
affection I thought.
"Mary," said he, "if you think the time will pass more pleasantly to