Sink or Swim? , Volume I by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun

It was on a Sunday morning, about a fortnight after the return of the / travellers, that Honor had the first serious warning of coming / "difficulty" with her mother-in-law. I have often heard it remarked, and / I fear with some degree of truth, that the Seventh is very apt to be the / one, of all days in the year, when domestic differences do most / frequently arise. Why this should be is not, I think, very difficult of / comprehension. To such women as Mrs. Beacham -- to the habitually / "busy" -- the enforced idleness of Sunday hangs terribly heavy on the / folded hands. When an active-minded and energetic female has nothing to / do, there is a terrible temptation to be cantankerous. With John's / restless, vigorous-bodied parent the Sabbath was anything but a / favourite time. She paid all outward respect to the hours between / sunrise and bedtime on the "Lord's day. " Her best gown was donned, and / her roast beef eaten; the knitting-needles were put away, and Cowper's / Sermons or Law's _Serious Call_ brought forward in their stead. Mrs. / Beacham might even go so far as to _call_ the "Sabbath a delight, the / holy of the Lord, honourable; " but she was, nevertheless, very thankful / (under the rose) when the irksome hours drew to a close; and if there / did happen to be a day when, to use Letty's favourite expression, / "missus got out the wrong side of her bed," that day was pretty certain / to be the Seventh.

It would seem that John was not altogether unaware of this trifling / peculiarity, for during breakfast-time he was seen to _wink_ more than / once with an air of comic warning to Honor, as much as to say, "Take no / notice; this is but a passing shower, the looming of a summer cloud; the / slightest possible crumpling of the tender roses with which our bed is / strewn. " He was quite in the dark -- Honor understood that well -- as to the / real state of things between her and his mother. He had yet to discover / that, during his long daily absences, although no overt act, no _words_ / even of which she could actually complain, had made her life / uncomfortable, still there was an undercurrent of "nagging," a perpetual / though not always a very perceptible "talking at," on the old lady's / part, which was far harder to endure patiently than the open harshness / of language which Honor felt certain that John's mother was often / longing to attack her with.