moods and tenses; when to speak and when
to be silent, and how to avoid useless discussion of subjects on which
there is a pronounced difference of opinion. Leaving out the personal
equation, the older and more experienced woman is better fitted to get
along peaceably with a man than the young girl who has her wisdom yet
to acquire.

Moreover, it is to the daughter's interest to cement a friendship
between her mother and her husband, and so she stands as a shield
between the two she holds dearest, to exercise whatever tact she may
possess toward an harmonious end.

"A son's a son till he gets him a wife,
But a daughter's a daughter all the days of her life."

Thus the old saying runs, and there is a measure of truth in it,
more's the pity. Marriage and a home of her own interfere but little
with a daughter's devotion to her mother, even though the daily
companionship be materially lessened. The feeling is there and remains
unchanged, unless it grows stronger through the new interests on both
sides.

If a man has won his wife in spite of her mother's opposition, he can
well afford to be gracious and forget the ancient grudge. It is his
part, too, to prove to the mother how far she was mistaken, by making
the girl who trusted him the happiest wife in the world. The woman who
sees her daughter happy will have little against her son-in-law,
except that primitive, tribal instinct which survives in most of us,
and jealously guards those of our own blood from the aggression of
another family or individual.

One may as well admit that a good husband is a very scarce article,
and that the mother's anxiety for her daughter is well-founded. No man
can escape the sensation of being forever on trial in the eyes of his
wife's mother, and woe to him if he makes a mistake or falters in his
duty! Things which a woman would gladly condone in her husband are
unpardonable sins in the man who has married her daughter, and taken
her from a mother's loving care.

A good husband and a good man are not necessarily the same thing. Many
a scapegrace has been dearly loved by his wife, and many a highly
respected man has been secretly despised by his wife and children.
When the prison doors open to discharge the sinners who have served
long sentences, the wives of those who have been good husbands are
waiting for them with open arms. The others have long since taken
advantage of the divorce laws.

Since women know women so well,