AND OTHER RELATIONS-IN-LAW

The other day I chanced to be a listener to the conversation of two
young married women. They were making their plans for the coming week.
One of them remarked, drearily:

"Henry's sister and her husband are to spend next Sunday with me."

"Are they!" exclaimed the other. "And my husband's father and mother
are to honor me by a visit on the same day."

For a moment there was silence, then No. 1 said in an awed voice:

"My dear, you and I need the prayers of the congregation. We are both
objects of pity. Our relations-in-law are upon us!"

Within my secret self I pondered whether or not the visitors dreaded
the expected ordeal as much as the visited did.

The phrases, "my husband's relatives," "my wife's family," are seldom
pronounced without an accompanying bitter thought. John tolerates
Mary's kin, and Mary regards John's father and mother, sisters and
brothers with an ill-concealed distrust and enmity. Sometimes there is
just cause for this antagonistic feeling; more frequently it is the
outcome of custom. It is fashionable to regard connections by marriage
as necessary evils. Some families, resolved to make the best of that
which is inevitable, put a smiling face upon the whole matter, and
hide from the outside world the knowledge of their chagrin. No mother
has ever seen the girl she thought quite good enough for her boy whom
she considers the model of all that is noble and manly, while that
sister is rare who feels that the wife chosen by her favorite brother
is what "the dear boy really needs as a life-long companion." Once in
a great while, when the chosen bride by some remarkable chance happens
to suit the family fancy, the whole world is informed of the fact, and
the bride elect inwardly pronounces John's blood relations to be
"awfully gushing" or "desperately hypocritical." The happy medium is
difficult of attainment.

Of course there are some exceptions to the general rule of
antagonism. And I am glad to believe that sometimes, even when this
feeling exists, husband and wife are too considerate of one another's
comforts to betray any sign of discontent. Said a woman to me:

"My dear, Mrs. S. is John's mother, and it is my duty to conceal from
him the fact that she is disagreeable to me. I could be a much happier
woman for never seeing my mother-in-law again, but my husband must
never suspect it. The dear fellow flatters himself that his wife and
mother 'hit it off s