F.B., thirty-five years of age, with three children,
was brought by her husband against her will. He declared that both she
and he were on the verge of nervous prostration; that unless something
was done he would start beating her, this last of course representing a
type of humorous desperation that usually has a wish concealed in it.
She was "worn to a frazzle", always tired, sleepless, of capricious
appetite, irritable, complaining, and yet absolutely refused to see a
physician. She had taken tonics by the gallon, been overhauled by a
dozen specialists, all of whom say, "nothing wrong of any
importance--yet she is a wreck and I am getting to be one."

Her husband was a jolly looking personage from the Middle West, in a
small business which kept his family comfortably. He looked domestic and
admitted he was, which his wife corroborated. Evidently he was
exasperated and worried as he gave the history of the case, with his
wife now and then putting in a word: "Now, John, you are stretching
things there; don't believe him, Doctor; not so bad as all that," etc.

She was a slender person, rather dowdily dressed as compared with her
husband, with garments quite a little behind the prevailing mode. Her
hair was unbecomingly put up, and it was evident that she disdained
cosmetics of any kind, even the innocent rice powder. Her hands were
quite unmanicured, though they were, of course, clean and neat. The hat
was the simplest straw, home trimmed and neat, but a mere "lid" compared
to the creations most women of her class were at the time wearing. That
clothes were meant to be ornamental as well as useful was an attitude
she completely rejected.

It turned out that life to her was an eternal housekeeping,--from the
beginning of the day to the end she was on the job. Though she had a
maid this did not relieve her much, for she constantly fretted and fumed
over the maid's slackness. Everything had to be spotless _all the time_;
she could not bear the disordered moments of bedtime, of the early
morning hours, of wash day, of meal preparation, of the children's room,
etc. She was obsessed by cleanliness and order, and her exasperated
efforts, her reaction to any untidiness kept her husband and children
bound in a fear like her own, though they rebelled and scolded her for
it.

"She's always after the children," said her husband. "She is crazy
about them, but she has got them so they don't dare call their soul
their own. They don