The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-01-14
DREAM AND REALITY.
The Fate and Feelings OF the nsemi-
Detached Wife,"
lFrom the London Saturday Review. ),

The first yawn Of her spouse is, no doubt, a
severe trial to the vanity of q BRIDE There are
Spain of felicity uninterrupted by boredom
or butchers bills, and there are, without ques-
tion, some quiet people who fancy they attain
tolt. 70 It. Inc country parsonage, for instance,
on each other for long tracts Of years, whose
mornings and moons and nights are passed in
one anothers society, and who reach three
score-and-ten without the slightest suspicion
ele Of sympathy. In other words, there are
vegetables to whom it is natural to vegetate.
as there are women to whom it is natural to
live. And life, if it means any thing, means
variety and change. It is cdd to think how ON
that one yawn hangs the freedom Of years
to come: 1t is the bugle that sings truce. 1t
is tacit convention which leaves the husband
his club and the wife her independence. No
people can be more touchingly attentive to
each others wants. The spouse finds his
breakfast on the table, his Times cut for him,
his letters arranged, his overcoat brushed
IN the hall, the timetable open at the
proper. page. The one, return asked for is
husband agrees with the pretty reasoner
before him that ssa man should have something
to 40" that lettering at home is hardly man.
~ thing, that constant association blunts the
edge Of affection, that he ''has wife to think
OF now," and world to win for her, that if ne
entirely. gives up his old friends she will never
forgive herself. The sensible man, we repeat,
takes his umbrella. and leaves the pretty little
reasoner his name ind her freedom. Not that
she has tho least passion for h1erty. To che
world she sighs gently over tn , downfall Of her
hopes. Her one Joy would be to have her hus-
band with her.. She would be delighted if he
found more pleasure in her drawing-room,
more charms in her society. She regrets
That while other people seem to find her at
tractive, her attraction loses its power over
the one heart in the world for which she cares.
And sometimes in an evil hour the one heart
listens and believes. He leaves his umbrella
in the hall. The club sees him no more; naen
chat in the billiard room over his luxurious
ness and the pretty little face that prisons him
at home. Only the little face itself is not quite
so pretty as it was in the tenderness Of it's re-
gret. The resigned little martyr has no notion
OF being robbed Of the halo Of martyrdon. In
sensibly the spouse finds it harder and harder
TO remain at her feet. He hates music, and he is
whirled from opera to opera. The piano is
hard at work throughout the day, and
conversation will run on nothing but Schumann
2! and Weber. He likes politics, and a blank
little face listens as well as it may to his sto-
ries OF the last division, or his theories as to
the possible Premier. He is used to his quiet
evening at his club, to his cigar and his piquet;
and he finds mob in the drawing-room, and
the smel! Of the divine weed absolutely insuffer-
able to his wife. In the long run he takes to
his old life Of isolation, and the neglected be-
ing wins the sympathy Of her sex as she reas-
sumes sumo her position Of semi-detached wife.
wins the sympathy OF the other sex, too.
Men wonder how Brown can treat his
wife so badly; can leave her to neglect
and to o Thousand temptations. He has
but one defender, and that is the wife whom
he abandons. She could have wished it had
been otherwise; that the dreams OF her girl
hood had been realized; that sympathy Of
soul had bound them together. As it is, she
will only accept just very little perfectly in
nocent sympathy elsewhere. Friendship of
the purest and highest kind may be suffered to
administer it's inadequate consultations. But
the litany of the Church Of Plato must be
chanted without note Of pity for herself or
blame TOR her spouse. Bettwten suGil CRASHING
rocks the friend must steer his boat into that
sweet mysterious sea. It is with o touching
reserve that the victim OF his caprice accepts
her liberty, for she is after all q wife, and
her ring gives her a liberty denied to
maidens. She is musical, and can practice
for whole afternoons with that gallant young
tenor in the Guards. She is artistic and what
can be more charming than tete-a-tete with
that blushing Carrnne over his sketch book ?
She has taste for poetry, and poets couch at
her feet to read sonnets in the tender light OF
the parting day. The wide circle of friendship
opens before her. She listens to the confidence
OF happy and unhappy lovers. Life becomes
varied, busy, interesting. Her good temper,
her vivaoity; her sunny happiness redress the
wrongs OF her home, and society borrows q
gentle light and sweetness from the semi de-
tachea wife. The picture is pretty; but it has
it's terrible dangers.