Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/114

 near it; A Man and his Wife had lived a wretched, continued Life of Contention for almost fifty Years; at length the Woman fell sick and died; while she lay on her Death-bed her Husband came up into the Chamber to see her, as a good Husband ought; the Woman fretful, though sick, found fault with him upon some Occasion of no great moment, and grew angry. Pray, my Dear, says the Man, don't quarrel to your last Moment. The Woman flew into a Passion that he should suggest it was her last Moment, which, she said, he did not know. This put the Man into a Passion too, and he said, rashly enough, that if it was not her last Moment he washed it was, or it would be happy for him if it was, or to that purpose. What! says she, do you Insult me with that, depend upon it you shall be at no Quiet on that Account, for if ever the Dead can come to the Quick, I'll be with thee again.

she kept her Word with him or no, I know not; but 'tis certain she died in two or three Days after, nor did the Man venture to go up to visit her any more. This was indeed carrying on what we may call an eternal Feud; it was a mortal Breach indeed, for nothing ever cur'd it, and yet the Couple were not so exasperated against one another, but that they lived together, were People of good Substance, and some Sense, and even too much Wit; but married, it seems, without the grand constituting Article called mutual Affection, which is indeed, in my Opinion, the essential Part of the Contract; the Woman profess'd she never loved him, and yet she married him; the Man declared he never asked her to love him, or cared one Farthing whether she did or no,