Page:Pratt portraits - sketched in a New England suburb (IA prattportraitssk00full).pdf/94



EN'S wife was a Hazeldean—a fact which that estimable woman rarely lost sight of. It was, perhaps, not to be expected that her husband and her husband's family should give quite due weight to the circumstance, but they were not allowed to forgetit. At first, to be sure, the Pratts, who were themselves unpretentious sort of people, were not without some pride in the connection; and even Old Lady Pratt herself did not object to letting fall the remark that "Ben's wife was a Hazeldean." An advantage like this, however, is one that should be sparingly used by its possessor; and it must be confessed that Mrs. Ben was inclined to push it more than was quite well-judged, and that, as time went on, the Pratts allowed a suspicion of satire to creep into the statement which had been made at first in perfect good faith.

Yet there was much to be said in defence of Mrs. Ben. Perhaps no one who has not had the experience can justly estimate the sacrifice which the woman makes who relinquishes a name of