est resentment; so in a
happy one, they are occasions of the most exquisite satisfaction.
For what does not oblige in one we love? What does not offend in
one we dislike? For these reasons I take it for a rule, that in
marriage, the chief business is to acquire a prepossession in
favour of each other. They should consider one another's words and
actions with a secret indulgence: there should be always an inward
fondness pleading for each other, such as may add new beauties to
everything that is excellent, give charms to what is indifferent,
and cover everything that is defective. For want of this kind
propensity and bias of mind, the married pair often take things ill
of each other, which no one else would take notice of in either of
them.

"But the most unhappy circumstance of all is, where each party is
always laying up fuel for dissension, and gathering together a
magazine of provocations to exasperate each other with when they
are out of humour. These people in common discourse make no scruple
to let those who are by know they are quarrelling with one another,
and think they are discreet enough, if they conceal from the
company the matters which they are hinting at. About a week ago, I
was entertained for a whole dinner with a mysterious conversation
of this nature; out of which I could learn no more, than that the
husband and wife were angry at one another. We had no sooner sat
down, but says the gentleman of the house, in order to raise
discourse, 'I thought Margarita[168] sung extremely well last
night.' Upon this, says the lady, looking as pale as ashes, 'I
suppose she had cherry-coloured ribands[169] on.' 'No,' answered
the husband, with a flush in his face, 'but she had laced
shoes.'[170] I look upon it, that a bystander on such occasions has
as much reason to be out of countenance as either of the
combatants. To turn off my confusion, and seem regardless of what
had passed, I desired the servant who attended to give me the
vinegar, which unluckily created a new dialogue of hints; for as
far as I could gather by the subsequent discourse, they had
dissented the day before about the preference of elder to wine
vinegar. In the midst of their discourse, there appeared a dish of
chickens and asparagus, when the husband seemed disposed to