Family secrets, or hints to those who would make Home happy / By the author of The women of England.

  • Ellis, Sarah Stickney, 1799-1872.
Date:
[1841?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Family secrets, or hints to those who would make Home happy / By the author of The women of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    agreed that no commentary upon married life shall com¬ mence, until after the conclusion of the first experimental tour. With the party left at home, however, it was im¬ possible to refrain from all remark; particularly as the prospect of the bride returning so soon to settle for life beside her own family, left no excuse for grief; and there was a whole drawing-room full of guests still remaining, who had nothing else to do than exclaim about the loveliness of the scene, and the auspicious omens of the day. Nor was it until the evening, when the com¬ pany was dispersed, and the younger members of the family had retired, that Mr. and Mrs. Stanley, the father and mother of the bride, found time to think seriously of the important change which had taken place. Mr. Stanley was a man of much worldly wisdom, prudent and irreproachable in his conduct as a gentle¬ man, a husband, and a father; and, had his responsi¬ bilities terminated with this life alone, he would have been one of the most excellent of men. Mrs. Stanley was a weaker agent in doing good, but she also was esteemed an excellent woman: and as they both judged kindly of the world, submitted to its bondage, flattered it, and lived for it, it would have been as unreasonable as ungenerous, had the world refused to look kindly on their faults and follies in return. “ Well, George,” said Mrs. Stanley, seating herself with great satisfaction in one of her large damask chairs, while her husband leaned, in rather a thoughtful attitude, against the mantel-piece—“ you must allow that we are happy parents, to lose our favourite child, only to welcome her back again to a home more suited to her taste ?” “ We are indeed happy,” replied Mr. Stanley, “but— “ You have always some but in the way, with your