Year: 1878

| oIdItlSu anu dldTneu Ine DrlUe. one


found that Mr.. Valentine never left his


carefully folded them, and while he in


variably hung his coat on the gas fixture,


he as invariably hung his stockings on


the back of a chair. Mrs. Valentine had


friends who were married, she knew per-
| Perfectly well that married man always
| throws his coat on the seat of q chair


and tosses his stockings carelessly on the
floor. 1t is not strange that she began to


doubt her husbands sanity, and to ask


herself whether it was safe for her to live


with a man of such ominously neat hab


its. To see him brushing his hair before


putting out the gas sent cold chill thro'


her. AS she afterward remarked, no


woman could have seen Mr.. Valentine


holding the comb in his mouth, and


holding the hair on the back of his head


with one hand while he brushed it with


the other, without having her blood run


cold.


During the eight months of her married


life, Mrs. Valentine was never once told


by her husband that the breakfast was


not fit to eat, or that she might have


sense enough to get him something de-


cent for dinner. On the contrary when


ever she asked him if his breakfa fast or


dinner was satisfactory to him, he always


replied that he was sure it was very nice


indeed, thank you. No matter how hard
and faithfully she tried, she could not
make him dissatisfied with his home
He submitted to the weekly recurrence
of washing day as though he regarded it
as necessary evil instead of deliberate
and unprovoked outrage upon the male
sex. He never accused her of hiding his
clothing and other things, and always
To a. e
closets and to comprehend that when
several garments were hung on the same
hook each and every one cannot be hung
on the outside of the others. When
button was missing from one of his shirts,
he would calmly say, MY DEAR there
seems to be button wanting here. Shall
you or l sew it on p Many time did
that neglected and heart-broken wife,
whose soul yearned for substantial
marital oath, and who waited--Oh so
wearily-to see her husband crumple up
a clean shirt and dance on it, sadly get
her needle and thread and sew on but
ton, while Mr.. Valentine smiled in a
peaceful and loving way upon her. AS
the days and weeks went on, the feeling
that he was not like other men grew up
on her, and she passed the greater part
of her time in tears.


vi COuIoGt NIL. dl6AIlu0 u6NST SLuOh-
ed. He said that it was an Objectionable
practice and that it spoiled the curtains
Likewise, he never drank anything, and
belonged to neither lodge nor club. He
always spent his evenings at home, and
Mrs Valentine is prepared to swear that
she never saw him read newspaper at
the breakfast table, and that in fact on
the only occasion on which she ever
knew him to look at any newspaper he
was looking at the list of deaths and
marriages. Who can tell what anguish
this wretch's unmanly conduct inflicted
upon his innocent wife? One day she
went, in desperation, to her Pastor and
begged him to call her - fool" ex-
planning that as he was a minister he
could, of course, use the expression in a
purely theological and innocent way
When the Mortified Pastor asked her why
she made such request, she confessed,
with the tears streaming from her eyes
that she was a neglected wife, and that |
her husband never spoke to her as men
ought to speak to their wives, and that
she should die unless she could hear
some one use toward her the language to
which good and true wife is entitled
This incident tells more plainly than a
dozen large octave volumes bond in half |
calf, with gilt edges, could tell, the depth |
of misery into which the miserable wo-
man had fallen.


The day, however, came when she
learned from Mr.. Valentines own lips |
that he was an impostor He told her
all He said that he was a woman, and
though his disguise had so far protected
him, the hounds of justice were now on
his track, and he must flee. The out
ragged wife, stunned by learning the un-
but horrible nature OF the mys-
terry which had surrounded her husband,
scratched his face with sublime fury and
went home to her father, where, like an
early Christian martyr, she now bears her
sorrows with patience and resignation,
waiting for a judicial decree asserting the
nullity of her marriage. and the arrival of
a new husband of an unmistakably gen
uine character.