of her name
has begun his change of treatment of her. Cast aside are the many
courtesies and expressions of endearment that marked his conduct to her
prior to marriage, and which were the thousand golden threads that day
by day throughout their courtship wove their hearts closely into one.
No bouquets and no costly gifts any more. The anniversary of her birth
and of their wedding day passes by unnoticed by him. His former
efforts to entertain her, to make himself agreeable to her, have
altogether ceased. Rarer, and ever rarer, become his parting and his
coming kiss, his "good-bye, dear," and his "good evening, darling."
Fewer and fewer become his words of praise. Irksome becomes the task
of staying at home. He, who once upon a time found life dreary where
she was not, who vowed that in her company alone he found happiness,
who could not await the evening that would bring him to her, who
declared that his affection would never cool, and their whole wedded
life would be one continuous honeymoon, now finds her company tedious,
her home unattractive. He looks upon his home as his boarding and
lodging-house, upon his wife as the kitchen scullion, or as the nurse
of his children, for which services he generally allows her so many
dollars a week. At the breakfast table his face is buried in the
morning paper. He rises without interchanging a word with wife and
child. Absent from home all day long, he is absent still, even when
home in the evening. No sooner has he swallowed his meal, when he
buries himself in the newspaper for the rest of the evening, or dozes
on the sofa till bedtime, or he has an important business engagement
down town, or some meeting to attend, or an important engagement brings
other husbands to his house, where they transact any amount of business
in the exchange of diamonds for hearts, and clubs for spades.

All day long she has been toiling hard in her home, toiling with hand
and brain. She has been preacher and teacher, physician and druggist,
provider and manager, cook and laundress. The children had to be
attended to, purchases had to be made, the meals had to be provided,
the servants to be looked after, the house to be gotten in order; there
was mending and sewing and baking and cleaning and scrubbing and
scouring, which had to be done; there were the children's lessons, and
practicings that had to be looked after; there were the children's
ailments that had to be cured, and there were