“He could hardly persuade rich fathers, and vigilant guardians, who have the interests of heiresses to look after, to subscribe to all his notions. They say that it is better to make a provision against imprudence and misfortune, by settling a woman’s fortune on herself, in a country where speculation tempts so many to their ruin.” “I do not object to anything that may have an eye to an evil day, provided it be done openly and honestly. But the income should be common property, and like all that belongs to a family, should pass under the control of its head.” “It is very liberal in you to say and think this, Anna!” “It is what every woman, who has a true woman’s heart, could wish, and would do. For myself, I would marry no man whom I did not respect and look up to in most things; and surely, if I gave him my heart and my hand, I could wish to give him as much control over my means as circumstances would at all allow. It might be prudent to provide against misfortune by means of settlements; but this much done, I feel certain it would afford me the greatest delight to commit all that I could to a husband’s keeping.” “Suppose that husband were a spendthrift, and wasted your estate?” “He could waste but the income, were there a settlement; and I would rather share the consequences of his imprudence with him, than sit aloof in selfish enjoyment of that in which he did not partake.” All this sounded very well in John’s ears; and he knew Anna Updyke too well to suppose she did not fully mean all that she said. He wondered what might be Mary Monson’s views on this subject. “It is possible for the husband to partake of the wife’s wealth, even when he does not command it,” the young man resumed, anxious to hear what more Anna might have to say. “What! as a dependant on her bounty? No woman who respects herself could wish to see her husband so degraded; nay, no female, who has a true woman’s heart, would ever consent to place the man to whom she has given her hand, in so false a position. It is for the woman to be dependent on the man, and not the man on the woman. I agree fully with Mr. Dunscomb, when he says that ‘silken knots are too delicate to be rudely undone by dollars.’ The family in which the head has to ask the wife for the money that is to support it, must soon go wrong; as it is placing the weaker vessel uppermost.” “You would make a capital wife, Anna, if these are really your opinions!” Anna blushed, and almost repented of her generous warmth, but, being perfectly sincere, she would not deny her sentiments. “They ought to be the opinion of every wife,” she answered. “I could not endure to see the man to whom I could wish on all occasions to look up, soliciting the means on which we both subsisted. It would be my delight, if I had money and he had none, to pour all into his lap, and then come and ask of him as much as was necessary to my comfort.”