s love and confidence, and in the vast majority of
marriages these qualities can be regarded as tangible, and may be used
as any other business equity is used, for a certain time. The length of
time depends upon the use to which this asset is put during the early
months of marriage. It is the utilization of this time, how best to
employ it, that concerns us here.

A word as to a wife's true position in the household may be opportune.
There is no question but that her status has changed in the last
generation. Whether this change is for the better is a matter of
opinion. It is too large and too intricate a problem to be fully
discussed in a book of this character. Any opinion on such a subject
must of necessity, in our judgment, be a warped one. There are few, very
few, absolutely happy and congenial homes. It has been estimated that
only five per cent. of all marriages are successful. If five per cent.
make a success of marriage why could not the other ninety-five? The
reasons are not fundamental or serious--they are trivial as a rule. It
is making the right beginning that counts. If this is the secret, and
every married person of experience will testify to this truth, the young
wife should give the matter her serious consideration. In the life
history of every couple there is a period of adaptation, which is sooner
or later passed through at the expense of one or the other, or both,
resigning themselves to an acceptance of the stronger, or positive,
elements in the other's disposition.

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION.--If a woman discovers, for example, that her
husband has very decided views upon certain matters, and these views do
not in any way conflict with the law, moral or otherwise, and the
adoption of them does not necessitate the denial of a principle, it
would be far better for her to acquiesce in these views, rather than to
obstinately adhere to her opinions,--especially if she cannot, in a
friendly way, offer an argument strong enough to convince him he is
wrong. One or the other of every married pair will have to be willing to
give in, in all trivial matters that come up from day to day, if a
harmonious degree of existence is to be reached.

It is certainly natural to assume that ordinarily the wife will be the
one to concede most. She is supposed to be endowed with all the gentler
attributes. Therefore our advice,--irrespective of all the arguments
which may be made, and which we need not even hint at, here, bu