Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/85

 rather I could have said ashamed, upon hearing of it again: But it had no Effect upon her as to her Conduct to him, nor could the refrain doubling her Reproaches between themselves, which her Husband, being a Man of Spirit, resented to the highest Degree: This put an end to all conjugal Kindness between them, and ruined their Family-Peace, till she at length made him her Jest, and that in Company too; yet she got nothing by him this Way neither; for he taking the Jest with a smile of Contempt, as indeed it deserved, frequently answered, that he would hire her a Journeyman, since she took such Care to let every Body know she had Occasion for one, that if one was not enough for her, as he thought it would not, he would provide her two or three, that, if it were possible, she might be satisfied, though he very much doubted it. This was very bitter upon her, 'tis true, but she extorted it from him; indeed till he took this Course with her, he could by no Persuasions, by no Arguments, nor by any Ways that he could use, prevail with her to hold her Tongue, nor indeed did those Reproaches, however severe, put an End to it, but they went on continually bantering and making a Jest of one another, and such like undecent and unkind Things as these pass'd so openly, and so often between them, that at length it occasioned a Separation for a time, and the Husband being too hard for her, it ruined her Character and Reputation, and though it did not her Virtue, as those believed who had Charity for the Lady, and I, among the rest, yet she retained the Blot of it almost as much as if she had had the guilt, and that as long as she lived.