Page:The Truth about Marriage.djvu/92

 And why should a wife expect her husband to come home with delight to her if she begins by nagging him and exasperating him, as some wives know how to do?

You have certainly seen in the movies, if not in life, the rough ways in which some husbands treat their wives. And you have also seen in other movies the shallow, vain, insipid things some wives are.

It is so easy to be critical in the home, to criticize the wife, the household, the way things are done or not done. And it is very easy for the wife sometimes to be indifferent to her husband's problems and worries.

It is so easy to say words that irritate and sting and leave a hurt feeling in the soul. It is hard when one has begun to be unkind and cruel to retrace one's steps and show a smiling face. One unkind word leads to another, to replies that hurt a little more than the original thrust. And then to a fight so that separation or divorce is threatened.

Now you will admit that if husbands and wives treated each other with the courtesies that they show to friends and even acquaintances there would be far greater happiness in the home and many more happy marriages.

Suppose you have made a mistake. Why not