What am I to do with myself ?" "Act like a true woman," said I, firmly.
She lifted her eyes suddenly to my face as if I had presumed.
"Do your duty as a wife and mother," I added, "and there will be no danger of your dying with ennui." "You speak as if I were derelict in this matter." She drew herself up with some dignity of manner.
"I merely prescribed a remedy for a disease from which you are suffering," said I, calmly.

"Thousands of women scattered all over the land are martyrs to this disease; and there is only one remedy--that which I offer to you, Delia." I think she saw, from my manner, that it would be useless to quarrel with me.

I was so much in earnest that truth came to my lips in any attempt at utterance.
"What would you have me do, Doctor ?" There was a petty fretfulness in her voice.

"Turn cook or nursery-maid ?" "Yes, rather than sit idle, and let your restless mind fret itself for want of useful employment into unhappiness." "I cannot take your prescription in that crude form," she replied, with more seriousness than I had expected.
"It is not requisite to a cure," said I."Only let your thought and purpose fall into the sphere of home.

Think of your husband as one to be made happier by your personal control of such household matters as touch his comfort; of your babes as tender, precious things, blessed by your sleepless care, or hurt by your neglect; of your domestics, as requiring orderly supervision, lest they bring discord into your home, or waste your substance.