122.  But, this is a rare instance:  the husband, like his countrymen in general, was at once brave, humane, gentle, and considerate, and the love was so sincere and ardent, on both sides, that it made losses and sufferings appear as nothing.  When I, in a sort of half-whisper, asked Mrs. DICKENS where her piano was, she smiled, and turned her face towards her baby, that was sitting on her knee; as much as to say, ’This little fellow has beaten the piano;’ and, if what I am now writing should ever have the honour to be read by her, let it be the bearer of a renewed expression of my admiration of her conduct, and of that regard for her kind and sensible husband, which time and distance have not in the least diminished, and which will be an inmate of my heart until it shall cease to beat.

123.  The like of this is, however, not to be expected:  no man ought to think that he has even a chance of it:  besides, the husband was, in this case, a man of learning and of great natural ability:  he has not had to get his bread by farming or trade; and, in all probability, his wife has had the leisure to practise those acquirements which she possessed at the time of her marriage.  But, can this be the case with the farmer or the tradesman’s wife?  She has to help to earn a provision for her children; or, at the least, to help to earn a store for sickness or old age.  She, therefore, ought to be qualified to begin, at once, to assist her husband in his earnings:  the way in which she can most efficiently assist, is by taking care of his property; by expending his money to the greatest advantage; by wasting nothing; by making the table sufficiently abundant with the least expense.  And how is she to do these things, unless she have been brought up to understand domestic affairs?  How is she to do these things, if she have been taught to think these matters beneath her study?  How is any man to expect her to do these things, if she have been so bred up as to make her habitually look upon them as worthy the attention of none but low and ignorant women?

124. Ignorant, indeed!  Ignorance consists in a want of knowledge of those things which your calling or state of life naturally supposes you to understand.  A ploughman is not an ignorant man because he does not know how to read:  if he knows how to plough, he is not to be called an ignorant man; but, a wife may be justly called an ignorant woman, if she does not know how to provide a dinner for her husband.  It is cold comfort for a hungry man, to tell him how delightfully his wife plays and sings:  lovers may live on very aerial diet; but husbands stand in need of the solids; and young women may take my word for it, that a constantly clean board, well cooked victuals, a house in order, and a cheerful fire, will do more in preserving a husband’s heart, than all the ‘accomplishments,’ taught in all the ‘establishments’ in the world.