_ties_, and a _strong_ one
too; but it cannot last to old age; whereas the charm of cleanliness
never ends but with life itself. It has been said that the sweetest
flowers, when they really become putrid, are the most offensive. So the
most beautiful woman, if found with an uncleansed skin, is, in my
estimation, the most disagreeable.

11. A GOOD TEMPER.

This is a very difficult thing to ascertain beforehand. Smiles are
cheap; they are easily put on for the occasion; and, besides, the
frowns are, according to the lover's whim, interpreted into the
contrary. By 'good temper,' I do not mean an easy temper, a serenity
which nothing disturbs; for that is a mark of laziness. Sullenness, if
you be not too blind to perceive it, is a temper to be avoided by all
means. A sullen man is bad enough; what, then, must be a sullen woman,
and that woman a _wife_; a constant inmate, a companion day and night!
Only think of the delight of setting at the same table, and occupying
the same chamber, for a week, without exchanging a word all the while!
Very bad to be scolding for such a length of time; but this is far
better than 'the _sulks_.'

But if you have your eyes, and look sharp, you will discover symptoms
of this, if it unhappily exist. She will, at some time or other, show
it towards some one or other of the family; or, perhaps, towards
yourself; and you may be quite sure that, in this respect, marriage
will not mend her. Sullenness arises from capricious displeasure not
founded in reason. The party takes offence unjustifiably; is unable to
frame a complaint, and therefore expresses displeasure by silence. The
remedy for it is, to suffer it to take its _full swing_, but it is
better not to have the disease in your house; and to be _married to
it_, is little short of madness.

_Querulousness_ is a great fault. No man, and, especially, no _woman_,
likes to hear a continual plaintiveness. That she complain, and roundly
complain, of your want of punctuality, of your coolness, of your
neglect, of your liking the company of others: these are all very well,
more especially as they are frequently but too just. But an everlasting
complaining, without rhyme or reason, is a bad sign. It shows want of
patience, and, indeed, want of sense.

But the contrary of this, a cold _indifference_, is still worse. 'When
will you come again? You can never find time to come here. You like any
company better than mine.' These, when groundless, are ve