SHE KNEW HER DUTY
with high gifts and great strength of purpose, but a little rift had spoiled the harmony of their lives. Her love for him was whole-hearted, her devotion and endurance during years of hardship were heroic, her help and guidance were wise. But that gifted woman, known in all the country-side for her strong good sense and deep religious faith, had not learned the useful lesson to sometimes forgive and forget. Wrongs and slights cut a deep wound in her proud nature, disappointments stamped themselves on her memory. Marriage is not for such, and the tragedy of life is complete when an impassable gulf is concealed from public view, and the world looks with envy on the happiness of those who live in the loneliness of the desert.
Earthly happier is the woman who can punish and forgive, who can command and please, who maintains her silent control without embittering her home. She who is ever forgiving and devoted makes a loveless man heartless; she who never forgives creates a wider desolation in her home. It is to the woman of tact and command that the imagination of the East has given the name of Griha Lakshmi, the tutelary goddess of domestic peace and prosperity. She will rebuke and punish but will forget a hundred transgressions; she will control and command but will make the path of life pleasant; she will throw on all around her a silken chain of affection which is stronger than bands of steel. It is under such influence that sons grow up in obedience and daughters in love, for in the virtues of woman—says the Indian proverb—abides the prosperity of the house.
What recollections came to the helpless patient and to the loving wife, as their eyes met in that silent
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