After the Storm

Naturally, under this state of things, Mr. Emerson, who was social

in disposition, sought companionship elsewhere, and with his own

sex. Brought into contact with men of different tastes, feelings and

habits of thinking, he gradually selected a few as intimate friends,

and, in association with these, formed, as his wife was doing, a

social point of interest outside of his home; thus widening still

further the space between them.

The home duties involved in housekeeping, indifferently as they had

always been discharged by Irene, were now becoming more and more

distasteful to her. This daily care about mere eating and drinking

seemed unworthy of a woman who had noble aspirations, such as burned

in her breast. That was work for women-drudges who had no higher

ambition; "and Heaven knows," she would often say to herself, "there

are enough and to spare of these."

"What's the use of keeping up an establishment like this just for

two people?" she would often remark to her husband; and he would

usually reply, "For the sake of having a home into which one may retire and shut

out the world."

Irene would sometimes suggest the lighter expense of boarding.

"If it cost twice as much I would prefer to live in my own house,"

was the invariable answer.

"But see what a burden of care it lays on my shoulders."

Now Hartley could only with difficulty repress a word of impatient

rebuke when this argument was used. He thought of his own daily

devotion to business, prolonged often into the night, when an

important case was on hand, and mentally charged his wife with a

selfish love of ease. On the other hand, it seemed to Irene that her

husband was selfish in wishing her to bear the burdens of

housekeeping just for his pleasure or convenience, when they might

live as comfortably in a hotel or boarding-house.

On this subject Hartley would not enter into a discussion. "It's no

use talking, Irene," he would say, when she grew in earnest. "You

cannot tempt me to give up my home. It includes many things that

with me are essential to comfort. I detest boarding-houses; they are

only places for sojourning, not living."

As agreement on this subject was out of the question, Irene did not

usually urge considerations in favor of abandoning their pleasant

home.