Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-07-23
ONLY A HUSBAND.
BY T. S. ARTHUR.

"THANK you !" What musical
ring was in the voice of Mrs. Archer !;
what pleasant light shone in her eyes
She had dropped a glove which a gen.
tlemaD had lifted from the floor and
placed in her hand.
Mr.. Archer, the lady's husband, saw
the little act of courtesy, and noticed its
reward He would have given almost
anything for such " thank you! !" for
as bright glance as she had thrown
upon a stranger Once, tones and
gIanccs like these had been his reward
for any little attentions he might hap
pen to offer; now all the courtesies of
life were withdrawn, and no matter
what the act or its. quality, his wife re-
ceived it with cold Indifference, singu-
larly in contrast with these toward other
men.
Was it a defect of love? Did really
Mrs. Archer think more highly of other
men, who showed her polite attentions,
than she did of her husband? Some
times a chafed feeling of impaticnce-
sometimes of jealousy-and sometimes
of mournful regret for summer days in
the far away past, would trouble the
hdcUdhO SOiClN 11uG tllCSC nCIC pdSSCu
aside, or suffered to die for the lack of
alimeni, and the dull, cold routine of
every day life permitted to have its
usual course.
On the occasion referred to above,
Mr.. Archer and his wife were spending
an evening at the house of friend,
where company had been invited. For
days previously the countenancc of Mrs
Archer had worn its usual dead calm,
its impcrturbed placidity-its matter Of
course aspect. She had talked to her
husband in kind of dead level tone
and manner on all subjects that hap
pencd to come up, whether of first or
third Importance.
Or, if interest happened to rise to
anything approaching enthusiasm, it
was accompanied by something of sharp
ness that left on the mind of Mr. Ar
cher, an uncomfortable feeling, as if he
were blamed for something. And this
had been his wife's aspect even after
she had donned her company attire,
and up to the moment when she had
made her appearance among the guests
of the friend, to whose house she brought,
tied up as it were in a closely compacted
bundle, her smiles and courtesies for
public dispensation.
As he had noticed on many occa-
sions, so did Mr.. Archer notice on this
tho remarkable difference between his
wife's home and company manners-be-
tween the treatment of her husband,
and the treatment of other gentlemen
who happened to enter into conversa-
tion with her, or offer any polite atten-
ton. The answer to their words always
went forth from her lips wreathed with
smiles and eyes sparkling with pleasure;
to his words, from cold, placid mouth,
and with half Indifferent or averted
glances. And yet Mrs. Archer was a
faithful wife in all her dutiful relations;
and in heart loving wife to her hus-
band. If smiles did not play in sunny
circles over her countenance, as in for
mer times, she made the household
smile with order and comfort, arranged
and secured by her ever busy hands.
Her thoughts were no wandering tru-
ants to other and forbidden fields, but
home guests, nor were they busy for
herself, but for the children in whom
her own life was bound up. 1t was not
that love for her husband had grown
dull-anSRerlng not as a mirror answer
eth the face-that she did not meet his
words and attention with smiling CLAN
ccs. Had she not given her heart when
she gave him her -hand-had she not
promised to be faithful wife? Was
she not true to all her relations? What
more was required of her? It never
entered her thoughts that her husband