Page:Mrs. Siddons (IA mrssiddons00kennrich).pdf/233

Rh In judging the case we think, perhaps, a medium course would be the best to take. We can imagine a decided incompatibility in the husband's and wife's mode of seeing things. She was ever impatient towards want of energy and practical capacity, while he, all his life having to play second to her, was jealous of the disposal of her earnings, and rushed into ill-judged investments and speculations.

The following letter of good-humoured banter, written to him on the 16th December 1804, reveals the manner in which she turned off his weak ebullitions of temper:—

".,

"I am really sorry that my little flash of merriment should have been taken so seriously, for I am sure, however we may differ in trifles, we can never cease to love each other. You wish me to say what I expect to have done. I can expect nothing more than you yourself have designed me in your will. Be (as you ought to be) the master of all while God permits; but, in case of your death, only let me be put out of the power of any person living. This is all that I desire; and I think that you cannot but be convinced that it is reasonable and proper.

"Your ever affectionate and faithful, "S. S."

The wife's was the stronger, more powerful mind, and with her sincerity and openness of disposition which impelled her to show everything she thought or felt, we have no doubt she often offended the irritable vanity of a man who, in small things, had a painful sense of his own dignity. Hers was too big a nature