Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/249

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The Young Wife's First Year
237

THE VICE OF CURIOSITY

It is very ignoble, and before you were married you would have been inclined to scorn any one who told you that you would have been curious about the secrets in your husband's family; that you would have been eager to learn of the trouble that came to one, of the wrong deed of another, or of the mortification to which another member of the family had to submit. Now, my dear girl, crush this desire to know unpleasant things. Make up your mind that you are going to know about each one that which is best, and refuse to let outsiders give you any information about the family into which you have just entered. If some low-minded person (for that is what such person would be) should offer to do this, decline to listen, and if, against your will, an effort is made to tell you, leave the room. At such a time rudeness becomes right. If your husband wishes you to know any of these things, be sure he will tell you.

Put yourself in his place. You haven't told him about the young man who first made love to your sister and then left her; about the uncle who did something that was not quite honest, or whatever else it may be that is one of the family horrors, and why should you expect him to tell you? And is it not in-