At this time they had one child—­a babe less than a year old.  From the first, Lane had encroached upon the mother’s province.  This had been felt more sensibly than any thing else by his wife, for it disturbed the harmonious activity of the natural law which gives to a mother the perception of what is best for her infant.  Still, she had been so in the habit of yielding to the force of his will, that she gave way to his interference here in numberless instances, though she as often felt that he was wrong as right.  Conceit of his own intelligence blinded him to the intelligence of others.  Of this Amanda became more and more satisfied every day.  At first, she had passively admitted that he knew best; but her own common sense and clear perceptions soon repudiated this idea.  While his love of predominance affected only herself, she could bear it with great patience; but when it was exercised, day after day, and week after week, in matters pertaining to her babe, she grew restless under the oppression.

After the decided, position taken in regard to her dress, Amanda’s mind acquired strength in a new direction.  A single gratification of her own will, attained in opposition to the will of her husband, stirred a latent desire for repeated gratifications; and it was not long before Lane discovered this fact, and wondered at the change which had taken place in his wife’s temper.  She no longer acquiesced in every suggestion, nor yielded when he opposed argument to an assumed position.  The pleasure of thinking and acting for herself had been restored, and the delight appertaining to its indulgence was no more to be suppressed.  Her husband’s reaction on this state put her in greater freedom; for it made more distinctly manifest the quality of his ruling affection, and awoke in her mind a more determined spirit of resistance.

Up to this time, even in the most trifling matters of domestic and social life, Lane’s will had been the law.  This was to be so no longer.  A new will had come into activity; and that will a woman’s will.  Passive it had been for a long time under a pressure that partial love and a yielding temper permitted to remain; but its inward life was unimpaired; and when its motions became earnest, it was strong and enduring.  The effort made by Lane to subdue these motions the moment he perceived them, only gave them a stronger impulse.  The hand laid upon her heart to quiet its pulsations only made it beat with a quicker effort, while it communicated its disturbance to his own.

The causes leading to the result we are to describe have been fully enough set forth; they steadily progressed until the husband and wife were in positions of direct antagonism.  Lane could not give up his love of controlling every thing around him, and his wife, fairly roused to opposition, followed the promptings of her own will, in matters where right was clearly on her side, with a quiet perseverance that always succeeded.  Of course, they were often made unhappy; yet enough forbearance existed on both sides to prevent an open rupture—­at least, for a time.  That, however, came at last, and was the more violent from the long accumulation of reactive forces.