If there be anything a wife has a right to be fiercely sensitive about
it is absolutely necessary money, according to the standard of living
which may have been adopted. What wonder that she should feel grief and
resentment when this money is doled out to her as if it were a “gift,”
and not infrequently with grudgingness and reluctance and captious
words! It is no “gift.” It is no concession. Except when beyond the
ordinary requirements of living, within the limit of his means, no man
ever “gave” his wife anything. He is simply meeting a wise obligation he
has assumed and the manner in which he meets it may be said to afford a
fair estimate of the standard of the man. This applies equally to the
man of business affairs, to the farmer or to the workman.
To say just how the wife and mother shall assert this right in the
matter of money is difficult to say. She should not have to assert it.
It is a delicate matter and must ever be between the two, but is
referred to here at some length because it is the cause of so much
needless unhappiness—this heedless disregard for one of the mother’s
rights.