CHAPTER XXXV
A THOUGHTLESS HUSBAND
Here is another question: "Is a thoughtless husband really at heart unloving?"
By this question I understand that the "thoughtless husband" mentioned is one who tries to have his own way and gives little thought to the wife in his attitudes and actions. He thinks he ought to rule because husbands have always ruled, and have his way, or have been supposed to rule and have their way, and he does not really take anyone else into consideration in his decisions.
Of course, such a man is in the wrong. He is apt to appear to be a brute. If his actions were viewed in the light of common day and thought of without charity in the heart, he would often be condemned as cruel and cold and hard.
But someone wants to know if, in spite of such an appearance, it may not be that such a man is not necessarily unloving. In other words, he may be actually loving, even though he does not show it.
How often you and I have seen such men portrayed in novels and in plays and in moving pictures! They are usually men of violent character, accustomed to rule with an iron hand, to dominate their households and business in a despotic way. They have a daughter who falls in love with the hero and the bully of a father tries to separate them. Well, does he do it?
Possibly for a time, but after great accidents or unhappiness he relents and we then behold the love in the father's heart. And we then forgive the old curmudgeon because we see he has a heart after all. But I am sorry for the wife and the family who have to endure him.