Sink or Swim? , Volume I

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.