Jessie by Walter Aimwell

When Henry Hapley left his sister, after making the promise mentioned in / the last chapter, he came to the conclusion, upon a few moments' / reflection, that he had been coaxed into doing a foolish thing. The idea / of loving Mrs. Allen seemed absurd; and as to pleasing her, he did not / believe he could do it, if he should try as hard as possible. However, / as he had made the promise, he finally concluded that he must try to / keep it, at least for the week to which it was limited.

Jessie, in her conversation with her brother, had come very near to the / true origin of Henry's troubles, though she knew but little of the facts / in the case. The truth was, he did _not_ try to please his mistress, and / it was mainly owing to this that he had become so unhappy. Mrs. Allen, / like most other people, had her peculiarities. One of the most prominent / of these was her extreme neatness. She carried this excellent virtue to / excess. A grain of sand in the eye could hardly be more painful to her / than was a grain of dirt on her floors. Everything about the premises / that would bear contact with soap and water, had to undergo its regular / ablution, even to the outside of the house. Her husband, sometimes, / while witnessing the terrible scrubbings which were of almost daily / occurrence, used pleasantly to remind her, by way of warning, of the / good Dutch woman who scoured her floor until she tumbled through into / the cellar. But her motto was, that "nothing is clean that can be made / cleaner; " and so she patiently scrubbed on, in spite of the warning, / wherever there was dirt, or even a "might, could, would or should have / been," upon which to hang a suspicion.