Married Life | Page 9

meant to wear it, and she
did wear it, notwithstanding her husband's repeated condemnation of
her taste.
At this time they had one child--a babe less than a year old. From the
first, Lane had encroached upon the mother's province. This had been
felt more sensibly than any thing else by his wife, for it disturbed the

harmonious activity of the natural law which gives to a mother the
perception of what is best for her infant. Still, she had been so in the
habit of yielding to the force of his will, that she gave way to his
interference here in numberless instances, though she as often felt that
he was wrong as right. Conceit of his own intelligence blinded him to
the intelligence of others. Of this Amanda became more and more
satisfied every day. At first, she had passively admitted that he knew
best; but her own common sense and clear perceptions soon repudiated
this idea. While his love of predominance affected only herself, she
could bear it with great patience; but when it was exercised, day after
day, and week after week, in matters pertaining to her babe, she grew
restless under the oppression.
After the decided, position taken in regard to her dress, Amanda's mind
acquired strength in a new direction. A single gratification of her own
will, attained in opposition to the will of her husband, stirred a latent
desire for repeated gratifications; and it was not long before Lane
discovered this fact, and wondered at the change which had taken place
in his wife's temper. She no longer acquiesced in every suggestion, nor
yielded when he opposed argument to an assumed position. The
pleasure of thinking and acting for herself had been restored, and the
delight appertaining to its indulgence was no more to be suppressed.
Her husband's reaction on this state put her in greater freedom; for it
made more distinctly manifest the quality of his ruling affection, and
awoke in her mind a more determined spirit of resistance.
Up to this time, even in the most trifling matters of domestic and social
life, Lane's will had been the law. This was to be so no longer. A new
will had come into activity; and that will a woman's will. Passive it had
been for a long time under a pressure that partial love and a yielding
temper permitted to remain; but its inward life was unimpaired; and
when its motions became earnest, it was strong and enduring. The
effort made by Lane to subdue these motions the moment he perceived
them, only gave them a stronger impulse. The hand laid upon her heart
to quiet its pulsations only made it beat with a quicker effort, while it
communicated its disturbance to his own.
The causes leading to the result we are to describe have been fully
enough set forth; they steadily progressed until the husband and wife
were in positions of direct antagonism. Lane could not give up his love

of controlling every thing around him, and his wife, fairly roused to
opposition, followed the promptings of her own will, in matters where
right was clearly on her side, with a quiet perseverance that always
succeeded. Of course, they were often made unhappy; yet enough
forbearance existed on both sides to prevent an open rupture--at least,
for a time. That, however, came at last, and was the more violent from
the long accumulation of reactive forces.
The particulars of this rupture we need not give; it arose in a dispute
about the child when she was two years old. As usual, Lane had
attempted to set aside the judgment of his wife in something pertaining
to the child, as inferior to his own, and she had not submitted. Warm
words ensued, in which he said a good deal about a wife's knowing her
place and keeping it.
"I am not your slave!" said Amanda, indignantly; the cutting words of
her husband throwing her off her guard.
"You are my wife," he calmly and half contemptuously replied; "and,
as such, are bound to submit yourself to your husband."
"To my husband's intelligence, not to his mere will," answered Amanda,
less warmly, but more resolutely than at first.
"Yes, to his will!" said Lane, growing blind from anger.
"That I have done long enough," returned the wife. "But the time is past
now. By your intelligence, when I see in it superior light to what exists
in my own, I will be guided, but, by your will--never!"
The onward moving current of years, which, for some time, had been
chafing amid obstructions, now met a sudden barrier, and flowed over
in a raging torrent. A sharp retort met this firm declaration of Amanda,
stinging her into anger, and producing a state of recrimination. While in