That was when there was still a chance of a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.

She has me fast now, and anything is good enough for a husband." Not one syllable of this chapter is penned for the woman who deserves an iota of censure like the above.

It is a wife's duty to study to look well in her husband's eyes, always and in all circumstances.

Her person should be scrupulously clean, her hair becomingly arranged, her working-gown as neat as she can keep it, and relieved before John comes in by clean collar or ruching and a smooth white apron.

It is altogether possible for the woman who "does her own work" to be as "well set-up"-- to borrow a sporting phrase from John--as her rich neighbor who can drag a train over Oriental rugs from the moment she rises to a late breakfast until she sweeps yards of brocade and velvet up the polished stairs after ball, dinner or theatre-party.
What I have to do with now is John's unreasonable desire that his wife should--as the help-meet of a man who has his own way to make in the world--dress as well as when she was the unmarried daughter of an elderly gentleman whose way was made.