"'There be some sports are painful, but their labour delight in them sets off'—is not that equally true of some work?" said Mr. Linden, making one or two quiet additions to the breakfast on Faith's plate. Which means of assistance Faith inadvertently disregarded and pushed her plate away.
"Do you suppose anybody delights in them?" said Miss Essie. "I can't understand it—but perhaps they do. A minister is very much looked up to. But one thing is certain—of all things the hardest, it is to be a minister's wife!"
"Of all things! He must be a poor sort of a minister who lets his wife have a harder life than his own."
"He can't help it—" said Miss Essie, walking her black eyes about. "Of course he don't wish it—but women always do have a harder time than men, and a minister's wife particularly."
"It's a comfort to think he don't wish it," said Mr. Linden with a sort of resigned gravity.
"Well it would not be much comfort to me," said Miss Essie. "When a woman marries, she naturally expects her husband to belong to her;—but a minister belongs to everybody else!"
"I see I have not studied the subject," said Mr. Linden. "Miss Essie, you are giving me most important information. Is this so inevitable that I ought in conscience to warn the lady beforehand?"
Miss Essie smiled graciously. "It would be no use,—she wouldn't believe you. I might warn her. I have seen it."
"What have you seen?"
"Why that!—that a woman who marries a minister needn't expect to have any more of her husband than his clothes to mend."