Well, as I was saying, that beauty of a husband of mine is such a fidget, and must always be meddling with what he knows nothing at all about, that I declare all the time I was nursing he wouldn’t let me taste even a little pickle. And of course in a family you can’t be having a hot joint every day of the week, and I wouldn’t give a pin for my dinner when it’s cold meat, and you can’t touch even so much as a gherkin, or a walnut, or a simple mouthful of red cabbage, to give it a relish. When the rhubarb was coming in, too, really it was quite heart-rending. I declare, he wouldn’t let me eat a spoonful of it, though I had gone to the expense of two shillings, like a silly, to buy as beautiful a bundle as I think I ever set eyes on in all my life, and which positively quite made my mouth water when I saw it at the greengrocer’s, it looked such a picture. And the worst of it all was, I had fixed my mind on it so, (for, to tell the truth, it’s a favourite dish of mine,) that I only eat half a dinner, so as to be able to do justice to the lovely large tart I had made. But Mr. Edward _must_ know such a deal about what was good and what was bad for me, that _of course_ he would have it that I should go making the child ill, even if I took as much of the fruit as would lie upon a sixpence, only just as a taste, though I told him that I had bought it principally in the light of medicine, as I had heard mother say over and over again that it was a fine thing to sweeten the blood at the change of the year. But, oh dear me, no! of course my Mr. Wiseacre knew a great deal better than people who had lived twice as long and seen twice as much of the world as he had, and wouldn’t let me have even a thimble full, just to see if it had turned out as well as I had expected (drat him!) saying, “I ought to be as well aware as he was, that such things were not fit for me while I was nursing.” Ought I, indeed!--though, if it comes to that, what on earth can _he_ know about nursing--a molly-coddle! (Augh! I do detest molly-coddles, and all I can say is, you wont catch me marrying one again in a hurry.)