WIVES AND SWEETHEARTS.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1480, 7 November 1874, Page 6 (Supplement)

WIVES AND SWEETHEARTS.

Tf the husband does not altogether fulfil the promise of the lover, is it not equally true that in mnny instances the wife falls short of the possibilities of the sweetheart ? Does not her sweet-

ness of temper too frequently evapoi-ate in the atmosphere of her own home ? Do not all the litle faults which she had laboured to keep in the background during the days of courtship encroach one by one on the matrimonial territory, on finding that the guards are dragged at their posts 1 Does not the spotless toilette become demoi'alized, and curl-papers and slipshod shoes and crushed ruffles come to be admitted at the breakfast-table ?

If the sweetheart of Adolphus found it such, a pleasure to adorn herself for his eye, to design pretty surprises of toilette, and bewitching arrangement of tresses, why should his wife allow herself to forget her cunning, and to obliterate the lovely image from his remembrance, when she can least afford to do so—when her bloom is vanishing and her outlines sharpening 1

Is it not as important to entertain one's husband as one's lover? Whyshould Araminta prefer the admiration of one to that of the other % Tt may be said that the cares of a family exonerate her in a measure from the charge of hiding her talent in a napkin; but is it not true of all of us that we fritter away many moments that might be made mentally profitable, and that the busiest woman can find time for anything in which she takes genuine pleasure ? To be sure, Araminta wishes to please Adolphus, and is not seldom greatly surprised that she fails to do so, laying the blame to soxne radical change in her husband much offcener than it is just, when in truth the real failure results fresh the discontinuance of the means by which she engaged his l'egard in the beginning, which is about the same thing as if one should separate hydrogen from water and yet expect to allay thirst with the residue.