2196. Hints for Wives (4)
"It was!" "It was not!" "It
was!
" "It was
not
!" "Ah!" "Ha!"—Now who's the wiser or the better for this contention for the last word? Does obstinacy establish superiority or elicit truth? Decidedly not! Woman has always been described as clamouring for the last word, and men, generally, have agreed in attributing this trait to her, and in censuring her for it. This being so it remains for some one of the sex, by an exhibition of noble example, to aid in sweeping away the unpleasant imputation. The wife who will establish the rule of allowing her husband to have the last word, will achieve for herself and her sex a great moral victory! Is he
right
?—it were a great error to oppose him. Is he
wrong
?—he will soon discover it, and applaud the self-command which bore unvexed his pertinacity. And gradually there will spring up such a happy fusion of feelings and ideas, that there will be no "last word" to contend about, but a steady and unruffled flow of generous sentiment.