“I merely prescribed a remedy for a disease from which you are suffering,” said I, calmly. “Thousands of women scattered all over the land are martyrs to this disease; and there is only one remedy—that which I offer to you, Delia.”
I think she saw, from my manner, that it would be useless to quarrel with me. I was so much in earnest that truth came to my lips in any attempt at utterance.
“What would you have me do, Doctor?” There was a petty fretfulness in her voice. “Turn cook or nursery-maid?”
“Yes, rather than sit idle, and let your restless mind fret itself for want of useful employment into unhappiness.”
“I cannot take your prescription in that crude form,” she replied, with more seriousness than I had expected.
“It is not requisite to a cure,” said I. “Only let your thought and purpose fall into the sphere of home. Think of your husband as one to be made happier by your personal control of such household matters as touch his comfort; of your babes as tender, precious things, blessed by your sleepless care, or hurt by your neglect; of your domestics, as requiring orderly supervision, lest they bring discord into your home, or waste your substance. Every household, Delia, is a little government, and the governor must be as watchful over all its concerns as the governor of a state. Take, then, the reins of office firmly into your hands, dispose of everything according to the best of your judgment, and require orderly obedience from every subject. But act wisely and kindly. Do this, my young friend, and you will not be troubled with the fashionable complaint—ennui.”
“That is, sink down into a mere housekeeper,” she remarked; “weigh out the flour, count the eggs, fill the sugar bowls, and grow learned in cookery-books. I think I see myself wandering about from cellar to garret, jingling a great bunch of keys, prying into rubbish-corners, and scolding lazy cooks and idle chambermaids!”
She laughed a short, artificial laugh, and then added—
“Is that the picture of what you mean, Doctor?”
“It is the picture of a happier woman than you are, Delia,” said I, seriously.