National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1872-04-12

nervous dread the return Of her husband,
her tooth and head meantime aching, with
q duh, boring, iretting pain.
Punctually at two she heard the street
door open, and Mr.. Lundy's decided step
along the passage.
"ls il possible! too bad too badr'
she heard him say he paused at the door
of the dining-ronm, and saw that even the
table was not set. "l wonder what good
il is for man to have Il house Of his own,
ifhe can't have things as he pleasesn 81
delcarc, Agnes I'm all out Of patience, .
he said, entering his chamber n few mo-
ments aiterwards. 81 told you when |
went away this morning, that wished
dinner at the hour, and there isn't even
tho sight OF itS being ready II really
looks As II it were done on purpose"
"if | had the cooking to do, you should
never wait minute, but | cant always
make servants do as please" replied Mrs.
Lundy.
"That's all nonsense, don't believe q
word Of il, | wonder how I'd get along in
my business IL was TO let my clerks do
as they liked. | have a certain order in
my business, and every subordinate has
his duties, and knows that they must be
done. Reduce all youi household matters
to alike orders, and keep every one strictly
to her duty, and you'll have things right,
but not without"
Mis-. Lundy feared her husband; or,
rather, dreaded and sbrank under his
displeasure. II she had been more inde-
pendent and spirited, she would have
aienced instead Of borne his selfish com
] 10, -,
suffering woman, who rarely spoke OF
what she felt, or resented an ndienity.
She did not reply to her husbands dog
matte and dictstorial words, any further
than to say IN a subducd manner.
"If You had ignorant, careless, self
wllled servant girls to deal with. instead
Of intelligent clerks yen might find it as
difficult as | doto have all things in order"
Send them away if they don't do as
You wish. I'd never keep a girl in the
house an hour, if she didn't do everything
as | desired
You don't know anything about it,
Mr.. Luniy. II IS easy to say, send oil
your cook II she is ten or twenty minutes
/ late with meal, or serves it up badly,
or does anything that is dsorderly, but il
is worse TO have no cook than bad one
and As to good ones, they arc hard 10 be
| found.o
Mr.. Lundy met this with one OF his
sweeping specimens ri argumentations,
and completely silenced his wife.
But" he said, impatcntly, II can't
wait you cooks movements. My business
has to be attended to-" and away he
ilounccd from the house in ten minutes
the bell rme.
"Tel Sarah that Mr.. Luldy couldn't
wait, and that don't want any dinner"
SAID Mrs. Lundy to the waiter.
As for the very punctinal and amiahle
husband, he went T. his store, and sat
through the entire afternoon, without
putting hand or thought to business A
/ little patience would have lost him moth
ing, and made both business and his wife
happier
After Mr.. Lundy left the house, bis wife
tried to do some plain sewing for her chill
dren that was very much needed, but,
with the maddening pain in her head and
face. and the binding tears in her eyes,
she found il impossible to make stitch
cor ~actly so she laid aside her work, and
took the baby, thinking TO nurse her ii
she could DO nothing else, but baby, wide
awake and full Of lite, was not content to
sit quietly in her lap; but must be dane
ing and Jumping every moment. Patient
ly for nearly an hour did the mother bear
the jar aud shock of the child's quick
motions, until sensation Of faintness came
over her, and she was very near falling
from her chair. After resignng the baby
Mrs Lundy went into her chamber and
laid herself upon the bed, she had taken
little or no food that day; had been suffer
ing from severe pains, had been worried
and excited with the children, and worse
than all, her husbands msympathizing
and unfecling conduct had made her leel
wretched. Is it any wonder that she felt
i'll; or that, when Mr.. LunlY returned in
fac evening, he should find her in a con
dition requiring medical treatment The
doctor was calledIn, lie did not unders tand
her case. How could he The medicine
he gave created strong rcvulsion in her
system, and did her actually more harm
than good.
She.was confined two weeks to her cham
Der, and then went forth again into her
household, weaker and more neryously SEN
sitive than before, TO direct, control and
ever-active children, and to wait upon her
husband consult his tastes and lear bis
complaints whenever anything that went
wrong in the household abridged his com
fort in the smallest degree.
Not less than three or four times q wear
was Mrs. Lundy made sick in the way de-
scrihed. When she was bending under the
burden that was too heavy for her. her
husband, instead of tightening, as he might
easily have done, the load, or given her
strength to bear il, laid on the additional
weight that crushed her to the earth But
no one suspected this-not even Mr.. Lundv
himself. The idea that he was numbering
bis wife by slow and cruel death would
have shocked him; and lie would have
thought such an intimaton an unpardona-
bic Outrage. And yet such was really the
fact. He was numbering her. Year after
yenr her duties and her toll increased The
history of day that we have given was
an epitomized history Of her life. Mr.
Lundy, SO wrapped up in his schemes OF
gain, and so rigid in his notions Of order
punctuality and formal propriety, had no
real sympathy for his wife, and was ever
complaining OF the little irregularities Incl
dent to his household, and ever adding to,
instead of relieving, the oppressive, weary
ing and eyer-recurring duties that were
bearing her down. 1t was common thing
for him, robust and in high health, to sit in
his easy chair, with dressing gown and slip
pers, aud ask his tired wife, who could
scarcely move without feeling pain, TO hand
him this, that, or the other thing; to ring
the bell for the servant, or even to 90 up
to their chamber and bring him something
oh b.,