ness. If she is not an exceptional woman, she will be
made happier by his affection for the mother to whom she is devoted,
and miserable by a lack of this sentiment. Let us argue the case
according to rule. It makes Mary happy if John is fond of her mother,
and unhappy if he is not. If John loves Mary he wishes to make her
happy. _Ergo_, when he shows his love for her mother he is likewise
giving evidence of his love for Mary.

So, when I hear a so-called devoted wife cast unkind slurs upon her
mother-in-law, I wonder how genuine is the affection for her husband
which allows her to make him unhappy by awaking in his breast
suspicions that his mother is distasteful to his wife. True love would
hardly be so cruel. What if John's mother has disagreeable
peculiarities? She is none the less his mother, and, as such, he is
bound to love and respect her. If the love he bears her blinds him to
her deficiencies, is it not the part of a true wife to keep his eyes
closed to these foibles, since seeing them will make him
uncomfortable? Every man likes to feel that his dear mother and dearer
wife are congenial friends. And it is their duty to be friendly, if
not congenial.

The mother-in-law, too, has her task. It would be folly to state that
she is not often and grossly to blame for the uncomfortable state of
this relationship. She is frequently a trifle jealous, sometimes fails
to remember how she felt when young, resents her child's love for, and
dependence on, another, feels bitterly that she no longer has it in
her power to make her darling's happiness, and has such a high ideal
of what should be the qualities of the partner her girl has chosen
that she puts his faults under a magnifying glass of criticism until
the molehills become mountains, and appreciation of the good is
swallowed up in recognition of every evil trait. Happily, this is not
always the case, and the genuine mother is, as a rule, so grateful to
see her child happy that for his or her sake she loves the one who
causes this contentment, even if he or she be far from congenial to
herself, and "not the man she would have picked out for her daughter
to marry."

I have serious doubts as to whether the existing antagonism would have
been half so prevalent had not such a multitude of coarse jokes been
perpetrated on the subject. The best way to perpetuate an evil is to
take it for granted and to speak of it as a matter of course. I am
glad to be able to name among