Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/121

 gorged with Physick, or a consumptive Person sick of his Cordials.

their very Mirth is dull and insipid, and they are so far from diverting one another, that their Happiness consists very unhappily in being as much absent from one another as they can. Unwarily talking once to a Gentlewoman of my particular Acquaintance, whose Circumstances in Matrimony, tho' very good, have yet a Defect of this kind at the Bottom. Madam, said I, you are very happy in so kind a Husband, so tender, so obliging; pray let us have his Company; the Gentleman was but in the next Room; and I was for calling him in. Let him alone, says she very coldly, let him alone, you han't so much of his Company as I have; I had rather be without him; he would have made any Woman in England a good Husband but me.

Madam, said I, does not he make you a good Husband? We are all of Opinion he is an extraordinary good Husband. I don't know, says she, it may be I an't so good a Wife as I should be. O Madam, said I, don't say so; I believe you are a very good Wife. Indeed, fays she, I an't so good a Wife as I should be; we married young, and the main Ingredient was wanting: We did as we were bid, but we were never troubled much with the Thing called LOVE; and I find, by sad Experience, Wedlock is a miserable Thing without it.

, Madam, says I, your Circumstances are good, and you live very easy on both Sides.

true, said she; but I tell you, the main Ingredient is wanting. I never lov'd him; and I always thought he never could love me; for indeed, I never did go about to