"What therefore God hath joined together let not man put
asunder."--MATTHEW 19:6
That there are hundreds and thousands of infelicitous homes in America
no one will doubt. If there were only one skeleton in the closet, that
might be locked up and abandoned; but in many a home there is a
skeleton in the hallway and a skeleton in all the apartments.
"UNHAPPILY MARRIED"
are two words descriptive of many a homestead. It needs no orthodox
minister to prove to a badly mated pair that there is a hell; they are
there now. Sometimes a grand and gracious woman will be thus
incarcerated, and her life will be a crucifixion, as was the case with
Mrs. Sigourney, the great poetess and the great soul. Sometimes a
consecrated man will be united to a fury, as was John Wesley, or
united to a vixen, as was John Milton. Sometimes, and generally, both
parties are to blame, and Thomas Carlyle is an intolerable scold, and
his wife smokes and swears, and Froude, the historian, is mean enough,
because of the shekels he gets for the manuscript,[3] to pull aside
the curtain from the lifelong squabble at Craigenputtock and Five,
Cheyne Row. Some say that for