Page:An address to women (Goodwin).djvu/16

much more difficult thing to avoid little troubles and vexations in such places than in a large house. If there is a large house, with twelve or fourteen rooms in it, and the man and wife have a tiff, one can go into room No. 1 and the other into room No. 12; and they can keep away from each other until the storm has blown over. But poor people in cottages cannot do this. If two people quarrel in a cottage, it is a very uncomfortable kind of quarrel. You cannot easily one of you get out of the way of the other. I remember reading in one of Charles Dickens' books a little bit of fun about a couple who travelled the country—I forget their business, but it was some itinerant sort of business—and who had to live the greater part of their lives in a cart. A cart is smaller than a cottage, so that there you have to sit side by side. The man, in explaining the difficulties and uncomfortableness arising from the living together in a cart, used this expression—"You see aggravation in a cart is so aggravating." There is a great deal of philosophy in that, and I would say that "aggravation" in a cottage is much more "aggravating" than "aggravation" in a large house, where you can get away from it. And therefore I wish to assure you how much I sympathise in