ands, and whose talk was all about music, and the like,
was now the cheerful sustainer of her husband, and the most affectionate
of mothers. All the _music_ and all the _drawing_, and all the plays and
romances were gone to the winds! The husband and baby had fairly
supplanted them; and even this prison-scene was a blessing, as it gave
her, at this early stage, an opportunity of proving her devotion to her
husband, who, though I have not seen him for about fifteen years, he
being in a part of America which I could not reach when last there, has,
I am sure, amply repaid her for that devotion. They have now a numerous
family (not less than twelve children, I believe), and she is, I am
told, a most excellent and able mistress of a respectable house.

122. But, this is a rare instance: the husband, like his countrymen in
general, was at once brave, humane, gentle, and considerate, and the
love was so sincere and ardent, on both sides, that it made losses and
sufferings appear as nothing. When I, in a sort of half-whisper, asked
Mrs. DICKENS where her _piano_ was, she smiled, and turned her face
towards her baby, that was sitting on her knee; as much as to say, 'This
little fellow has beaten the piano;' and, if what I am now writing
should ever have the honour to be read by her, let it be the bearer of a
renewed expression of my admiration of her conduct, and of that regard
for her kind and sensible husband, which time and distance have not in
the least diminished, and which will be an inmate of my heart until it
shall cease to beat.

123. The like of this is, however, not to be expected: no man ought to
think that he has even a chance of it: besides, the husband was, in this
case, a man of learning and of great natural ability: he has not had to
get his bread by farming or trade; and, in all probability, his wife has
had the leisure to practise those acquirements which she possessed at
the time of her marriage. But, can this be the case with the farmer or
the tradesman's wife? She has to _help to earn_ a provision for her
children; or, at the least, to help to earn a store for sickness or old
age. She, therefore, ought to be qualified to begin, at once, to assist
her husband in his earnings: the way in which she can most efficiently
assist, is by taking care of his property; by expending his money to the
greatest advantage; by wasting nothing; by making the table sufficiently
abundant with the least expense. And how is she