Page 366 - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

LITTLE WOMEN frame of mind which the best of mothers occasionally experience when domestic cares oppress them. Want of exercise robs them of cheerfulness, and too much devotion to that idol of American women, the teapot, makes them feel as if they were all nerve and no muscle. "Yes," she would say, looking in the glass, "I'm getting old and ugly. John doesn't find me interesting any longer, so he leaves his faded wife and goes to see his pretty neighbor, who has no in- cumbrances. Well, the babies love me, they don't care if I am thin and pale and haven't time to crimp my hair, they are my comfort, and some day John will see what I've gladly sacrificed for them, won't he, my precious?" To which pathetic appeal Daisy would answer with a coo, or Demi with a crow, and Meg would put by her lamentations for a maternal revel, which soothed her solitude for the time being. But the pain increased as politics absorbed John, who was always running over to discuss interesting points with Scott, quite un- conscious that Meg missed him. Not a word did she say, how- ever, till her mother found her in tears one day, and insisted on knowing what the matter was, for Meg's drooping spirits had not escaped her observation. "I wouldn't tell anyone except you, Mother, but I really do need advice, for if John goes on much longer I might as well be wid- owed," replied Mrs. Brooke, drying her tears on Daisy's bib with an injured air. "Goes on how, my dear?" asked her mother anxiously. "He's away all day, and at night when I want to see him, he is continually going over to the Scotts'. It isn't fair that I should have the hardest work, and never any amusement. Men are very self- ish, even the best of them." "So are women. Don't blame John till you see where you are wrong yourself." "But it can't be right for him to neglect me." "Don't you neglect him?" "Why, Mother, I thought you'd take my part!" "So I do, as far as sympathizing goes, but I think the fault is yours, Meg." "I don't see how." "Let me show you. Did John ever neglect you, as you call it, while you made it a point to give him your society of an evening, his only leisure time?" "No, but I can't do it now, with two babies to tend." "I think you could, dear, and I think you ought. May I speak 364