The Companionable Wife.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue XVI, 17 October 1903, Page 33

The Companionable Wife.

When a man goes away lie wants to leave worry behind him. That is why so many husliands prefer journeying alone. They leave one of their worries at home when they leave their wives t here. Hut those husbands blessed with companionable and adaptable wives who ;.re

not disturbed by any of the small miseries that await the globe-trotter, wish for their society and would feel their holiday ill-spent away from them. The woman who can enjoy a drive on a coacli-top behind skittish horses, and not grab her escorts arm every time the animals begin to go fast; the girl who can go in a boat without keeping an anxious eye on the sails; the woman who can strike out across count rv and

keep up the pace, with head erect, lungs lillittg, and face' teeming with appreciation of outdoor life, will cause the man she loves to want her society on his travels. Should they be caught in a sudden shower she will laugh off the situation and tramp through the wet, regardless of bedraggled skirts ami drooping plumes. There are dry garments at tne end of the journey, and why augment.

her companions obvious embarrassment by fretful regrets? If they start for a certain theatre, only to find it full, she does md. insinuate that a husband with any sense would secure seats in advance. She suggests another theatre, and he leads her to it, folding that he imbed possesses (he ideal wife in the woman who makes the best of everything. If they find every table taken nt the restaurant she does md urge

Idm fretfully to try another establishment, which will probably be just as crowded, but chats so entertainingly while they wait for vacant plaei s that he f irgets his own hungry disappointment and enjoys the lime spent in waiting to the full. The woman who can share a man’s pleasures as well as his disappointments on something like a man’s footing, is a rarity, but all tlie more de-

lightful for this fact. She is persistently coming to the front, too, and is becoming far less scarce than she was. Even women with weak health are finding that the more companionable they endeavour to be, the more earnest the solicitude their husbands display towards them. Weak health so often begets a fretful, miserable disposition. but these tendencies cun be eradicated and life made brighter all round.