I replied, "Very well, dear;" although I had set my heart on going to the Capes. My sister and her husband and a number of my friends were going down, and I had anticipated a good deal of pleasure. I did not know of a single person who was going to the Brandywine Springs. But what was the use of entering into a contest with my husband? He would come off the conqueror, spite of angry words or ineffectual tears. "The Springs are so much more quiet than the Capes," said my husband. "Yes," I remarked, "there is less gay company there." "Don't you think you will enjoy yourself as well there as at the Capes?" Now this was a good deal for my husband to say. I hardly knew what to make of it. "If you prefer going there, dear, let us go by all means," I answered. I was not affecting any thing, but was in earnest in what I said. Mr. Smith looked into my face for some moments, and with unusual affection I thought. "Mary," said he, "if you think the time will pass more pleasantly to you at the Capes, let us go there by all means." "My sister Jane is going to the Capes," I remarked, with some little hesitation; "and so is Mrs. L--and Mrs. D--, and a good many more of our friends. I did think that I would enjoy myself there this season very much. But I have no doubt I shall find pleasant society at the Springs." "We will go to the Capes," said my husband promptly and cheerfully. "No," said I, emulous now for the first time in a new cause. "I am sure the time will pass agreeably enough at the Springs. And as you evidently prefer going there, we will let the Capes pass for this year." "To the Capes, Mary, and nowhere else," replied my husband, in the very best of humours. "I am sure you will enjoy yourself far better there. I did not know your sister was going." And to the Capes we went, and I did enjoy myself excellently well. As for my husband, I never saw him in a better state of mind. To me he was more like a lover than a husband. No, I will not say that either, for I can't admit that a husband may not be as kind and affectionate as a lover; for he can and will be if managed rightly, and a great deal more so. Whenever I expressed a wish, it appeared to give him pleasure to gratify it. Seeing this, instead of suffering myself to be the mere recipient of kind attentions, I began to vie with him in the sacrifice of selfish wishes and feelings. It is wonderful how all was changed after this. There were no more struggles on my part to manage my husband, and yet I generally had things my own way. Before I could not turn him to the right nor the left, though I strove to do so with my utmost strength. Now I held him only with a silken fetter, and guided him, without really intending to do so, in almost any direction.