to any of John's literary or
intellectual tastes, seemed to consider her wifely rights infringed
upon by any other woman who would. She would absolutely refuse to go
up with her husband and spend an evening with Grace, alleging it was
"pokey and stupid," and that they always got talking about things that
she didn't care any thing about. If, then, John went without her to
spend the evening, he was sure to be received, on his return, with
a dead and gloomy silence, more fearful, sometimes, than the most
violent of objurgations. That look of patient, heart-broken woe, those
long-drawn sighs, were a reception that he dreaded, to say the truth,
a great deal more than a direct attack, or any fault-finding to which
he could have replied; and so, on the whole, John made up his mind
that the best thing he could do was to stay at home and rock the
cradle of this fretful baby, whose wisdom-teeth were so hard to cut,
and so long in coming. It was a pretty baby; and when made the sole
and undivided object of attention, when every thing possible was
done for it by everybody in the house, condescended often to be very
graceful and winning and playful, and had numberless charming little
ways and tricks. The difference between Lillie in good humor and
Lillie in bad humor was a thing which John soon learned to appreciate
as one of the most powerful forces in his life. If you knew, my
dear reader, that by pursuing a certain course you could bring upon
yourself a drizzling, dreary, north-east rain-storm, and by
taking heed to your ways you could secure sunshine, flowers, and
bird-singing, you would be very careful, after a while, to keep about
you the right atmospheric temperature; and, if going to see the very
best friend you had on earth was sure to bring on a fit of rheumatism
or tooth-ache, you would soon learn to be very sparing of your visits.
For this reason it was that Grace saw very little of John; that she
never now had a sisterly conversation with him; that she preferred
arranging all those little business matters, in which it would be
convenient to have a masculine appeal, solely and singly by herself.
The thing was never referred to in any conversation between them. It
was perfectly understood without words. There are friends between whom
and us has shut the coffin-lid; and there are others between whom and
us stand sacred duties, considerations never to be enough reverenced,
which forbid us to seek their society, or to ask to