"You haven't shaved this morning, dear," said Cora, to whose eyes the dirty-looking face of her husband was particularly unpleasant. "No," he replied, carelessly. "It's a serious trouble to shave every day." "But you look so much better with a cleanly-shaved face." "Looks are nothing--ease and comfort every thing," said Douglass. "But common decency, Edward." "I see nothing indecent in a long beard," replied the husband. Still Cora argued, but in vain. Her husband went off to his business with his unshaven face. "I don't know whether to shave or not," said Douglass next morning, running his hand over his rough face, upon which was a beard of forty-eight hours' growth. His wife had hastily thrown on a wrapper, and, with slip-shod feet and head like a mop, was lounging in a large rocking-chair, awaiting the breakfast-bell. "For mercy's sake, Edward, don't go any longer with that shockingly dirty face," spoke up Cora. "If you knew how dreadfully you look!" "Looks are nothing," replied Edward, stroking his beard. "Why, what's come over you all at once?" "Nothing; only it's such a trouble to shave every day." "But you didn't shave yesterday." "I know; I am just as well off to-day as if I had. So much saved, at any rate." But Cora urged the matter, and her husband finally yielded, and mowed down the luxuriant growth of beard. "How much better you do look!" said the young wife. "Now don't go another day without shaving." "But why should I take so much trouble about mere looks? I'm just as good with a long beard as with a short one. It's a great deal of trouble to shave every day. You can love me just as well; and why need I care about what others say or think?" On the following morning, Douglass appeared not only with a long beard, but with a bosom and collar that were both soiled and rumpled. "Why, Edward! How you do look!" said Cora. "You've neither shaved nor put on a clean shirt." Edward stroked his face and run his fingers along the edge of his collar, remarking, indifferently, as he did so-- "It's no matter. I look well enough. This being so very particular in dress is waste of time, and I'm getting tired of it." And in this trim Douglass went off to his business, much to the annoyance of his wife, who could not bear to see her husband looking so slovenly. Gradually the declension from neatness went on, until Edward was quite a match for his wife; and yet, strange to say, Cora had not taken the hint, broad as it was. In her own person she was as untidy as ever.