How can that make you better ?' With some coaxing and persuasion, I got him to leave the table.

When the baby was brought I tried to amuse him with that; but poor little Arthur was cutting his teeth, and his father could not bear his complaints: sentence of immediate banishment was passed upon him on the first indication of fretfulness; and because, in the course of the evening, I went to share his exile for a little while, I was reproached, on my return, for preferring my child to my husband.

I found the latter reclining on the sofa just as I had left him.
'Well!' exclaimed the injured man, in a tone of pseudo-resignation.

'I thought I wouldn't send for you; I thought I'd just see how long it would please you to leave me alone.' 'I have not been very long, have I, Arthur?
I have not been an hour, I'm sure.' 'Oh, of course, an hour is nothing to you, so pleasantly employed; but to me--' 'It has not been pleasantly employed,' interrupted I.

'I have been nursing our poor little baby, who is very far from well, and I could not leave him till I got him to sleep.' 'Oh, to be sure, you're overflowing with kindness and pity for everything but me.' 'And why should I pity you?
What is the matter with you ?' 'Well! that passes everything! After all the wear and tear that I've had, when I come home sick and weary, longing for comfort, and expecting to find attention and kindness, at least from my wife, she calmly asks what is the matter with me!' 'There is nothing the matter with you,' returned I, 'except what you have wilfully brought upon yourself, against my earnest exhortation and entreaty.' 'Now, Helen,' said he emphatically, half rising from his recumbent posture, 'if you bother me with another word, I'll ring the bell and order six bottles of wine, and, by heaven, I'll drink them dry before I stir from this place!' I said no more, but sat down before the table and drew a book towards me.
'Do let me have quietness at least!' continued he, 'if you deny me every other comfort;' and sinking back into his former position, with an impatient expiration between a sigh and a groan, he languidly closed his eyes, as if to sleep.
What the book was that lay open on the table before me, I cannot tell, for I never looked at it.