One morning about the first of September, John Jr. received a note, informing him that several of his young associates were going on a three days’ hunting excursion, in which they wished him to join.  In the large easy-chair, just before him, sat Mabel, her head supported by pillows and saturated with camphor, while around her eyes were the dark rings which usually accompanied her headaches.  Involuntarily John Jr. glanced toward her.  Had it been Nellie, all the pleasures of the world could not have induced him to leave her, but Mabel was altogether another person, and more for the sake of seeing what she would say, than from any real intention of going, he read the note aloud; then carelessly throwing it aside, he said, “Ah, yes, I’ll go.  It’ll be rare fun camping out these moonlight nights.”

Much as she feared him, Mabel could not bear to have him out of her sight, and now, at the first intimation of his leaving her, her lip began to tremble, while tears filled her eyes and dropped upon her cheeks.  This was enough, and mentally styling her “a perfect cry baby,” he resolved to go at all hazards.

“I don’t think you ought to leave Mabel, she feels so badly,” said Anna, who was present.

“I want to know if little Anna’s got so she can dictate me, too,” answered John, imitating her voice, and adding, that “he reckoned Mabel would get over her bad feelings quite as well without him as with him.”

More for the sake of opposition than because she really cared, Carrie, too, chimed in, saying that “he was a pretty specimen of a three months’ husband,” and asking “how he ever expected to answer for all of Mabel’s tears and headaches.”

“Hang her tears and headaches,” said he, beginning to grow angry.  “She can get one up to order any time, and for my part, I am getting heartily tired of the sound of aches and pains.”

“Please don’t talk so,” said Mabel, pressing her hands upon her aching head, while ’Lena sternly exclaimed, “Shame on you, John Livingstone.  I am surprised at you, for I did suppose you had some little feeling left.”

“Miss Rivers can be very eloquent when she chooses, but I am happy to say it is entirely lost on me,” said John, leaving the room and shutting the door with a bang, which made every one of Mabel’s nerves quiver anew.

“What a perfect brute,” said Carrie, while ’Lena and Anna drew nearer to Mabel, the one telling her “she would not care,” and the other silently pressing the little hand which instinctively sought hers, as if sure of finding sympathy.

At this moment Mrs. Livingstone came in, and immediately Carrie gave a detailed account of her brother’s conduct, at the same time referring her mother for proof to Mabel’s red eyes and swollen face.

“I never interfere between husband and wife,” said Mrs. Livingstone coolly, “but as a friend, I will give Mabel a bit of advice.  Without being at all personal, I would say that few women have beauty enough to afford to impair it by eternally crying, while fewer men have patience enough to bear with a woman who is forever whining and complaining, first of this and then of that.  I don’t suppose that John is so much worse than other people, and I think he bears up wonderfully, considering his disappointment.”