Excerpt from The Temperance Mirror
There was a very perturbed, not to say discontented expression on her pretty, youthful face which, beyond doubt, was extremely noticeable, and much to be regretted.
"What is the matter now, May? Why are you quarrelling with Dame Fortune again?" Mr. Nelson Dean enquired, with just a little laugh.
The sound of the laugh was just too much for his wife. "Why, over at Payne's, across the way, I saw a new phaeton brought home just now. They have a brougham - have had for some time; but I suppose Mrs. Duncan Payne did not consider that sufficient, so her husband ordered her a new phaeton. It is always the way, Nelson, one has everything, and another - nothing."
"My dear little May, I do not blame Duncan Payne one bit for getting his wife a new phaeton if she wanted one, and he could afford to gratify her fancy. I should be only too well pleased to purchase one for my wife if I could do so!" Mr. Nelson Dean answered.
"That is just it," the lady said, not one bit mollified. "You cannot afford it, Nelson, and Duncan Payne can: that is what I complain of."
"But, May, I cannot help not being so wealthy as our opposite neighbour." Her husband was grave enough now, and possibly he was a little hurt by his wife's manner and mode of speech.
"Well, there is one thing you can help, Nelson, and you will not."
"What is it. May?"
"You can help being so dreadfully particular about taking a glass of wine, and so make everyone laugh at us. Why, I shall never forget how Mrs. Duncan Payne smiled that one time she called upon me because I apologised, as I was bound to do, for having no wine in the house to offer her; I told her you did not approve of it. She said 'Why, I did not know that your husband is a teetotaller;' so I was obliged to explain that you are only an abstainer on principle, and are not a member of any society. But, really, it was too trying, Nelson. And, besides, if it were not for this foolish fancy of yours we should be friendly with the Paynes, and, consequently, with some of the best families in the town."
Mr. Nelson Dean put his arm about his wife and drew her down beside him on the comfortable lounge.
"May," he said, gently and gravely, though his face was strangely flushed - it was by no means the first time his wife had spoken to him in this way lately - "May, you cannot mean what you have said; you cannot really mean that you wish I would break my vows of abstinence. I don't think I could do it even to please you, May, darling."
But Mrs. Nelson Dean would not easily be coaxed into a good temper again.
"It is very inconsiderate of you, Nelson," she retorted, pouting a little.
"May, shall I tell you what you should never have learned from me, at any rate, but for what you have just said? Shall I tell you what I saw last night as I was coming home? I was late; you know I came in by the last train, it was between eleven and twelve o'clock."
"What, Nelson?"
"I saw Duncan Payne staggering home with two or three more of his associates - staggering home, May! and many yards distant I could hear their boisterous laughter. What of his poor wife then! Would you have me altogether such an one as he?"
"Nonsense, Nelson! But for all that you need not be so dreadfully strict and particular in your notions; so peculiar, I may say," May Dean answered, though her cheeks were a little pale, and her eyes a little widened by her husband's recital. "You would never be so wild as Duncan Payne, you would never be so gay as he, Nelson! Let us be as others around us; let us do as they do, that is all I ask. Just let us have some wine in the house to offer to friends when they call, and take a glass when we are out anywhere, just for the sake of appearing courteous. Don't you understand what I mean, dear Nelson?""