KATE HARBELL, a high-spirited girl, who had a pretty strong will ofher own, was about being married. Like a great many others of herage and sex who approach the matrimonial altar, Kate's notions ofthe marriage relation were not the clearest in the world.
Ferdinand Lee, the betrothed of Kate, a quiet, sensitive young man,had, perhaps, as strong a will as the young lady herself, though itwas more under the control of reason. He was naturally impatient ofdictation or force, and a strong love of approbation made him feelkeenly any thing like satire, ridicule or censure. To point him to afault was to wound if not offend him. Here lay the weakness of hischaracter. All this, on the other side, was counterbalanced by kindfeelings, good sense, and manly principles. He was above allmeanness or dishonour.
Of course, Kate did not fully understand his character. Such a thingas a young girl's accurate knowledge of the character of the man sheis about to marry, is of very rare occurrence. She saw enough ofgood qualities to make her love him with tenderness and devotion;but she also saw personal defects that were disagreeable in theobject of her affections. But she did not in the least doubt thatall these she could easily correct in him after she became his wife.
From a defect of education, or from a natural want of neatness andorder, Ferdinand Lee was inclined to (sic) carelessnes in hisattire; and also exhibited a certain want of polish in his mannersand address that was, at times, particularly annoying to Kate.
"I'll break him of that when I get him," said the young lady to amarried friend, alluding to some little peculiarity both hadnoticed.
"Don't be too certain," returned the lady, smiling.
"You'll see."
Kate tossed her head in a resolute way.
"I'll see you disappointed."
"Wait a little while. Before I'm his wife six months, you'll hardlyknow the man, there'll be such a change."
"The change is far more likely to take place in you."
"Why do you say that, Mrs. Morton?" inquired Kate, looking grave.
"Because I think so. Men are not so easily brought into order, andthe attempt at reformation and correction by a young wife generallyends in painful disappointment. If you begin this work you will, inall probability, find yourself tasked beyond your ability. I speakfrom some experience, having been married for about ten years, andhaving seen a good many young girls come up into our ranks from thewalks of single blessedness. Take my advice, and look away fromFrederick's faults and disagreeable peculiarities as much aspossible, and think more of his manly traits of character--his finesentiments, and honourable principles."
"I do look at them and love them," replied Kate, with animation."These won my heart at first, and now unite me to him in bonds thatcannot be broken. But if on a precious gem there be a slight blemishthat mars its beauty, shall we not seek to remove the defect, andthus give the jewel a higher lustre? Will you say, no?"
"I will, if in the act there be danger of injuring the gem."
"I don't understand you, Mrs. Morton?"
"Reflect for a moment, and see if my meaning is not apparent."
"You think I will offend him if I point out a fault, or seek tocorrect it?"
"A result most likely to follow."
"I will not think so poorly of his good sense," answered Kate, withsome gravity of manner. The suggestion half offended her.
"None are perfect, my young friend; don't forget that," said Mrs.Morton, with equal seriousness. "To think differently is a commonmistake of persons circumstanced as you are."
"It's no mistake of mine, let me assure you," replied Kate. "I cansee faults as quickly as any one. Love can't blind me. It is becauseI see defects in Frederick that I wish to correct them."
"And you trust to his good sense to take the work of correctionkindly?"
"Certainly I do."
"Then you most probably think him more perfect than he really is.Very few people can bear to be told of their faults, and fewer stillto be told of them by those they love. Love is expected to be blindto defects; therefore, when it is seen looking at and pointing themout, the feeling produced is, in the very nature of things, adisagreeable one. Take my advice, and let Frederick's faults alone,at least for a year after you are married; and even then put yourhand on them very lightly, and as if by accident."
"Do you think I could see him lounge, or, rather, slide down in hischair in that ungraceful way, and not speak to him about it? Not I.It makes me nervous now; and, if I wasn't afraid he might take itunkindly, would call his attention to it."
"Do you think he will be less likely to take it unkindly aftermarriage?"
"Certainly. Then I will have a right to speak to him about it."
"Then marriage will give you certain rights over your husband?"
"It will give him rights over me, and a very poor rule that is whichdoesn't work both ways. Marriage will make him my husband; and,surely, a wife may tell her husband that he is not perfect, withoutoffending him."
"Kate, Kate; you don't know what you are talking about, child!"
"I think I do."
"And I know you don't."
"Oh, well, Mrs. Morton, we won't quarrel about it," said Kate,laughing. "I mean to make one of the best of wives, and have one ofthe best of husbands to be found. He will require a little fixing upto make him just to my mind, but don't you fear but what I'll do itin the gentlest possible manner. Women have more taste than men, youknow, and a man never looks and acts just right until he gets awoman to take charge of him."
A happy bride Kate became a few months after this littleconversation took place, and Lee thought himself the most fortunateof men in obtaining such a lovely, accomplished, and right-mindedwoman for a wife. Swiftly glided away the sweet honey-moon, withouta jar of discord, though, during the time, Kate saw a good manythings not exactly to her mind, and which she set down as needingcorrection.
One evening, it was just five weeks after the marriage, and whenthey were snugly settled in their own house, Frederick Lee wasseated before the grate, in a handsome rocking-chair, his body in aposition that it would have required a stretch of language topronounce graceful or becoming. He had drawn off one of his boots,that was lying on the floor, and the leg from which it had beentaken was hanging over an arm of his chair. He had slipped forwardin the chair--his ordinary mode of sitting, or, rather, lying--sofar that his head, which, if he had been upright, would have beeneven with the top of the back, was at least twelve inches below it.To add to the effect of his position, he was swinging the bootlessleg that hung across the arm of the chair with a rapid, circlingmotion. He had been reclining in this inelegant attitude for aboutten minutes, when Kate, who had permitted herself to become a gooddeal annoyed by it, said to him, rather earnestly--
"Do, Frederick, sit up straight, and try and be a little moregraceful in your positions."
"What's that?" inquired the young man, as if he had not hearddistinctly.
"Can't you sit up straight?"
Kate smiled; but Lee saw that it was a forced smile.
"Oh, yes," he answered, indifferently. "I can sit up straight as anarrow, but I find this attitude most agreeable."
"If you knew how you looked," said Kate.
"How do I look?" asked the young man, playfully.
"Oh! you look--you look more like a country clod-hopper than anything else."
There was a sharpness in Kate's tones that fell unpleasantly on theears of the young man.
"Do I, indeed!" was his rather cold remark. Yet he did not changehis position.
"Indeed, you do," said the wife, who was, by this time, beginning tofeel a good deal of irritation; for she saw that Frederick was notinclined to respond in the way she had hoped, to her very reasonabledesire that he would assume a more graceful attitude. "The fact is,"she continued, impelled to further utterance by the excited state ofher feelings, although she was conscious of having already said morethan was agreeable to her husband, "you ought to correct yourself ofthese ungraceful and undignified habits. It shows a want of"--
Kate stopped suddenly. She felt that she was about using words thatwould inevitably give offence.
"A want of what?" inquired Lee, in a low, firm voice, while hecontinued to look his young wife steadily in the face.
Kate's eyes fell to the floor and she remained silent.
"Ungraceful and undignified. Humph!"
Lee was evidently hurt at this allegation, as the tone in which herepeated the words clearly showed.
"Do you call your present attitude graceful?" Kate asked, rallyingherself under the reflection that she was right.
"It is comfortable for me; and, therefore, ought to be graceful inyour eyes," was the young man's perverse answer. Not the slightestchange had yet taken place in his position.
This was beyond what the high spirited lady could bear, and sheretorted with more feeling than discretion:
"Love is not blind in my case, I can assure you, Frederick, andnever will be. You are very ungraceful and untidy, and annoy me,sometimes, excessively. I wish you would try to correct thesethings."
"You do?"
There was something cool and provoking in the way Lee said this.
"I do, Frederick, and I'm in earnest."
The cheeks of Kate were in a glow, and her eyes lit up, and her lipsquivering.
"How long since you made the discovery that I was only a countryclod-hopper?" said Lee, who was particularly annoyed by Kate'sunexpected charges against his good-breeding.
"I didn't say you were only a country clod-hopper," replied Kate.
"I believe you used the words. My ears rarely deceive me. I must ownto feeling highly complimented."
"Do sit up straight, Frederick! Do take your leg from over the armof that chair! You make me so nervous that I can hardly containmyself."
"Really! I thought a man was privileged to sit in any position hepleased in his own house."
The excitement of Kate's mind had, by this time, reached a crisis.Bursting into tears, she hurried from the room, and went sobbing upto her chamber.
Here was a fine state of affairs, indeed! Was ever a man so perverseand unreasonable?
Did Frederick Lee follow, quickly, his weeping wife? No; his pridewas too deeply wounded for that.
"A country clod-hopper! Undignified and ungraceful! Upon my word!"Such were some of his mental ejaculations. And then, as his feelingsgrew excited, he started up from his chair and began pacing thefloor, muttering, as he did so--
"It is rather late in the day to make this discovery! Why didn't shefind it out before? Humph!"
Meanwhile, Kate had thrown herself across her bed, where she lay,weeping bitterly.
What a storm had suddenly been blown about their ears!
It was fully an hour before Frederick Lee's disturbed feelings beganto run at all clear. He was both surprised and offended. What couldall this mean? What had all at once come over his young wife?
"A country clod-hopper!" he muttered to himself over and over again."Ungraceful--ungenteel, and all that! Very complimentary, indeed!"
When Lee joined his wife in their chamber, two hours after she hadleft him, he found that she had retired to bed and was sleeping.
On the next morning both looked very sober, and both were cold anddistant. A few words only passed between them. It was the same whenthey met at dinner-time, and the same when Lee came home in theevening. During the whole of this day, the thought of each was uponthe other; but it was not a forgiving thought. Kate cherished angryfeelings toward her husband; and Lee continued to be offended at thefreedom of expression which his young wife had ventured to usetoward him. Of course, both were very unhappy.
The formal intercourse of the tea-table having ended, Lee, feelinglittle inclined to pass the evening with his reserved andsober-looking partner, put on his hat, and merely remarking that hewould not return until bed-time, left the house. This act startledKate. With the jar of the closing door came a gush of tears. Theevening was passed alone. How wretched she felt as the hours movedslowly on!
It was nearly eleven o'clock when Lee came home. By that time, themind of Kate was in an agony of suspense. More than once the thoughtthat he had abandoned her intruded itself, and filled her with fearand anguish. What a relief to her feelings it was when she heard therattle of his night-key in the lock! But she could not meet him witha smile. She could not throw her arms around his neck, and press herhot cheek to his. No: for she felt that he was angry with herwithout just cause, and had visited with unjust severity a lightoffence--if, so far as she was concerned, her act were worthy to becalled an offence.
And so they looked coldly upon each other when they met, and thenaverted their eyes.
The morning broke, but with no fairer promise of a sunny day. Cloudsobscured their whole horizon. Coldly they parted after the brief andscarcely tasted meal. How wretched they were!
During the forenoon, Mrs. Morton, the friend of Mrs. Lee, called into see her young friend.
"Why, Kate! What has happened?" she exclaimed, the moment she sawher.
Mrs. Lee tried to smile and look indifferent, as she answered--
"Happened? Why do you say that?"
"You look as if you hadn't a friend left in the world!"
"And I don't know that I have," said Mrs. Lee, losing, all at once,her self-command, and permitting the ready tears to gush forth.
"Why, Kate, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Morton, drawing her arm around theneck of her young friend. "What is the meaning of all this?Something wrong with Frederick?"
Kate was silent.
Mrs. Morton reflected for a moment, and then said--
"Been trying to correct some of his faults, ha?"
No answer. But the sobbing became less violent.
"Ah, Kate! Kate! I warned you of this."
"Warned me of what?"
Mrs. Lee lifted her head, and tried to assume an air of dignity asshe spoke.
"I warned you that Frederick would not bear it, if you attempted tolay your hand upon his faults."
Kate raised her head higher, and compressed her lips. Still she didnot answer.
"A young husband, naturally enough, thinks himself faultless--atleast in the eyes of his wife."
"Very far from faultless is Frederick in my eyes," said Kate. "Mylove is not blind, and so I told him."
"You did!"
"Yes, I did, and in so many words," replied Kate, with spirit.
"Ah, silly child!" returned her friend. "Already you have the rewardof your folly. I forewarned you how it would be."
"Are my wishes, feelings, and taste to be of no account whatever?"said Kate, warmly. "Frederick is to be and do just what he pleases,and I must say nothing, do nothing, and bear every thing. Was thisthe contract between us? No, Mrs. Morton!"
The bright eyes of Mrs. Lee flashed with indignant fire.
"Come, come, Katy, dear! Don't let that impulsive heart of thinelead thee too far aside from the path of prudence and safety. I amsure that Frederick Lee is no self-willed, exacting, domestictyrant. I could not have been so deceived in him. But tell me theparticular cause of your trouble. What has been said and done? Youhave given offence, and he has become offended. Tell me the wholestory, Kate, and then I'll know what to say and do for therestoration of your peace."
"You are aware," said Kate, after a brief pause, and with adeepening flush on her cheeks, "how awkward and untidy Frederick isat times,--how he lounges in his chair, and throws his body into allmanner of ungraceful attitudes."
"Well?"
"This, as you know, has always annoyed me sadly. Night before last,I felt so worried with him, that I could not help speaking rightout."
"Ah! when you were worried?"
"Of course. If I hadn't felt worried, I wouldn't have said anything."
"Indeed! Well, what did you say? Was your tone of voice low and fullof love, and your words as gentle as the falling dew?"
"Mrs. Morton!"
There was a half-angry, indignant expression in the voice of Kate.
"Did you lay your hand lightly, like the touch of a feather, uponthe fault you designed to correct, or did you grasp it rudely andangrily?"
Kate's eyes drooped beneath those of her friend.
"You were annoyed and excited," continued Mrs. Morton. "This by yourown acknowledgment, and, in such a frame of mind, you charged withfaults the one who had vainly thought himself, at least in youreyes, perfect. And he, as a natural consequence, was hurt andoffended. But what did you say to him?"
"I hardly know what I said, now," returned Kate. "But I know I usedthe words ungraceful, undignified, and country clod-hopper."
"Why, Kate! I am surprised at you! And this to so excellent a man asFrederick, who, from all the fair and gentle ones around him, choseyou to be his bosom friend and life companion. Kate, Kate! That wasunworthy of you. That was unkind to him. I do not wonder that he washurt and offended."
"Perhaps I was wrong, Mrs. Morton," said Kate, as tears began toflow again. "But Frederick's want of order, grace, and neatness, isdreadful. I cannot tell you how much it annoys me."
"You saw all this before you were married."
"Not all of it."
"You saw enough to enable you to judge of the rest."
"True; but then I always meant to correct these things in him. Theywere but blemishes on a jewel of surpassing value."
"Ah, Kate, you have proved the truth of what I told you before yourmarriage. It is not so easy a thing to correct the faults of ahusband--faults confirmed by long habit. Whenever a wife attemptsthis, she puts in jeopardy, for the time being at least, herhappiness, as you have done. A man is but little pleased to make thediscovery that his wife thinks him no better than a countryclod-hopper; and it is no wonder that he should be offended, if she,with strange indiscreetness and want of tact, tells him in plainterms what she thinks. Your husband is sensitive, Kate."
"I know he is."
"And keenly alive to ridicule."
"I am not aware of that."
"Then your reading of his character is less accurate than mine.Moreover, he has a pretty good opinion of himself."
"We all have that."
"And a strong will, quiet as he is in exterior."
"Not stronger, perhaps, than I have."
"Take my advice, Kate," said Mrs. Morton, seriously, "and don'tbring your will in direct opposition to his."
"And why not? Am I not his equal? He is no master of mine. I did notsell myself as his slave, that his will should be my law!"
"Silly child! How madly you talk!" said Mrs. Morton. "Not for theworld would I have Frederick hear such utterance from your lips.Does he not love you tenderly? Has he not, in every way, sought yourhappiness thus far in your brief married life? Is he not a man ofhigh moral virtue? Does not your alliance with him rather elevatethan depress you in the social rank? And yet, forsooth, because helounges in his chair, and permits his body, at times, to assumeungraceful attitudes, you must throw the apple of discord into yourpleasant home to mar its beautiful harmonies."
"Surely, a wife may be permitted to speak to her husband, and evenseek to correct his faults," said Kate.
"Better shut her eyes to his faults, if seeing them is to make themboth unhappy. You are in a very strange mood, Kate."
"Am I?" returned Mrs. Lee, querulously.
"You are; and the quicker it passes away, the better for bothyourself and husband."
"I don't know how soon it will pass away," sighed Kate, moodily.
"Good-morning," said Mrs. Morton, rising and making a motion todepart.
"You are not going?"
Kate glanced up with a look of surprise.
"Yes; I am afraid to stay here any longer," was the affected seriousreply. "I might catch something of your spirit, and then my husbandwould find a change in his pleasant home. Good-morning. May I seeyou in a better state of mind when we meet again."
And saying this, Mrs. Morton passed from the room so quickly thatKate could not arrest the movement; so she remained seated, though alittle disturbed by her friend and monitor's sudden departure.
What Mrs. Morton had said, although it seemed not to impress themind of her young friend, yet lingered there, and now begangradually to do its work.
As for Frederick Lee, he was unhappy enough. The words of Kate hadstung him severely.
"And so, in her eyes, I am no better than a country clod-hopper!"
Almost every hour was this repeated--sometimes mentally andsometimes aloud; and at each repetition it disturbed his feelingsand awakened an unforgiving spirit.
"A clod-hopper, indeed! Wonder she never made this discoverybefore!"
This was the thought of Lee as he left his place of business toreturn home, on the evening of the day on which Mrs. Morton calledupon Kate. Why would he not look away from this? Why would he ponderover and magnify the offence of Kate? Why would he keep this everbefore his eyes? His self-love had been wounded. His pride had beentouched. The weapon of ridicule had been used against him, and toridicule he was morbidly sensitive. Kate should have read hischaracter more closely, and should have understood it better. Butshe was ignorant of his weaknesses, and bore heavily upon them ereaware of their existence.
It was in this brooding, clouded, and unforgiving state of mind thatFrederick Lee took his way homeward. On entering his dwelling, whichhe did almost noiselessly, he went into the parlour and seatedhimself in the very place where he was sitting when Kate began, sounexpectedly to him, her unsuccessful work of reformation. Everything around reminded him of that unfortunate evening--even thelounging position he so naturally assumed, sliding down, as he did,in the chair, and throwing one of his legs over the arm.
"It is comfortable for me," said he, moodily to himself; "and it'smy own house. If she don't like it, let her--"
He did not finish the sentence, for he felt that his state of mindwas not what it should be, and that to speak thus of his wife wasneither just nor kind.
Unhappy young man! Is it thus you visit the light offence--for itwas light, in reality--of the loving and gentle young creature whohas given her happiness, her very life into your keeping? Could younot bear a word from her? Are you so perfect, that her eyes must seeno defect? Is she never to dare, on penalty of your sterndispleasure, to correct a fault--to seek to lift you, by her purerand better taste, above the ungraceful and unmanly habits consequentupon a neglected boyhood? What if her hand was laid rather heavilyupon you? What if her feelings did prompt her to use words that hadbetter been left unsaid? It was the young wife's pride in herhusband that warmed her into undue excitement, and this you shouldhave at once comprehended.
If Frederick Lee did not think precisely as we have written, histhoughts gradually inclined in that direction. Still he felt moody,and his feelings warmed but little toward Kate.
Thus he sat for some ten or fifteen minutes. At the end of thistime, he heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. He knew themto be those of his wife. He did not move nor make a sound, butrather crouched lower in his chair, the back of which was turnedtoward the door. But his thought was on his wife. He saw her withthe eyes of his mind--saw her with her clouded countenance. Hisheart throbbed heavily against his side, and he partially held hisbreath.
Now her footsteps moved along the passage, and now he was consciousthat she had entered the room where he sat. Not the slightestmovement did he make--not a sign did he give of his presence. Therehe sat, shrinking down in his chair, moody, gloomy, and angry withKate in his heart.
Was she aware of his presence? Had she heard him enter the house?Such were the questioning thoughts that were in his mind.
Footsteps moved across the room. Now Kate was at the mantel-piece, afew feet from the chair he occupied, for he heard her lay a bookthereon. Now she passed to the back window, and throwing it up,pushed open the shutters, giving freer entrance to the waning light.
A deep silence followed. Now the stillness is broken by a gentlesigh that floats faintly through the room. How rebukingly smote thatsigh upon the ears of Lee! How it softened his heart toward Kate,the young and loving wife of his bosom! A slower movement in thecurrent of his angry feelings succeeds to this. Then it becomesstill. There is a pause.
But where is Kate? Has she left the room? He listens for somemovement, but not the slightest sound meets his ear.
"Kate!" No, he did not utter the word aloud, in tender accents,though it was in his heart and on his tongue. Nor did he start up ormove. No, as if spell-bound, he remained crouching down in hischair.
All at once he is conscious that some one is bending above him, and,in the next moment, warm lips touch his forehead, gently,hesitatingly, yet with a lingering pressure.
"Kate! Dear Kate!"
He has sprung to his feet, and his arms are flung around his wife.
"Forgive me, Frederick, if I seemed unkind to you," sobbed Kate, assoon as she could command her voice. "There was no unkindness in myheart--only love."
"It is I who most need to ask forgiveness," replied Lee. "I whohave--"
"Hush! Not a word of that now," quickly returned Kate, placing herhand upon his mouth. "Let the past be forgotten."
"And forgiven, too," said Lee, as he pressed his lips eagerly tothose of his wife.
How happy they were at this moment of reconciliation! How lightseemed the causes which had risen up to mar the beautiful harmony oftheir lives! Haw weak and foolish both had been, as their acts nowappeared in eyes from which had fallen the scales of passion!
Both were wiser than in the aforetime. Kate tried to look away, asmuch as possible, from the little faults which at first so muchannoyed her; while her husband turned his thoughts more narrowlyupon himself, at the same time that he made observation of othermen, and was soon well convinced that sundry changes in his habitsand manners might be made with great advantage. The more his eyeswere opened to these little personal defects, the more fully did heforgive Kate for having in the beginning laid her hand upon them,though not in the gentlest manner.
"Six months have passed since you were married," said Mrs. Mortonone day to Kate.
"Yes, six months have flown on wings of perfume," replied the happywife.
"I saw Frederick yesterday."
"Did you?"
"Yes; and I knew him the moment my eyes rested upon him."
"Knew him! Why shouldn't you know him?"
Kate looked a little surprised.
"I thought he was to be so changed under your hands in six months,that I would hardly recognise him."
There was an arch look in Mrs. Morton's eyes, and a merry flutter inher voice.
"Mrs. Morton! Now that is too bad!"
"Your experiment failed, did it not, dear?"
The door of the room in which the ladies were sitting opened at themoment, and Frederick Lee entered.
"Not entirely," whispered Kate, as she bent to the ear of herfriend. "He is vastly improved--at least, in my eyes."
"And in others' eyes, too," thought Mrs. Morton, as she arose andreturned the young man's smiling salutation.
THE END.
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