AN UNNATURAL HUSBAND.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 93, 6 November 1878, Page 3

AN UNNATURAL HUSBAND.

He never found fault with the length of time that his wife required in order to dress herself for church or an afternoon's drive, and never once remarked that he wished that she would not be all day in getting herself ready. During the eight month of their married life, Mrs Valentine was never told by her husband that the breakfast was not fit to cat, or that she might have sense enough to get him somethingdecent for dinner! On the contrary, whenever she asked him if his breakfast or dinner was satisfactory to him, he always replied it was very nice indeed. ]S T o matter how hard and faithfully she tried, she could not make him dissatisfied with his home. He submitted to the weekly recurrance of washing day as though lie regarded it as a necessary evil, instead of a deliberate and unprovoked outrage upon the male sex. When a bttton was missing from one of his shirts, he would calmly say, "My dear, there seems to be a button wanting here. Shall you or I sew it on ?" Many a time did that neglected and heartbroken wife, whose soul yearned for a marital oath, and who waited —oh ! so wearily—to see her husband crumple up a clean shirt and dance on it, sadly get her needle and thread and sew on a button, while Mr Valentine smiled in a peaceful and loving way upon her. As the days and weeks went on the feeling that he was not like other men grew j upon her and she passed the greater time in tears. Of course Mr Valentine never smoked. He said that it was an objectionable practise, and that it spoilt the curtains. Likewise, he never drank anything,, and belonged to neither lodge nor club. He always spent his evenings at home, and Mrs Valentine is prepared to swear that she never saw him read a newspaper at the breakfast-table, and that in fact, on the only occasion on which she ever kiu-.w him to look at any newspaper, he was looking at the list of deaths and marriages. Poor, poor lady ! Husbands, take warning! Mrs Valentine is now a raving lunatic.