The fifth bad husband had been the merriest and jolliest young man in the neighbourhood where he found his wife. He was twenty-nine years old when he married, and his wife was twenty-two. She was very bright, and considered a leader in her social circle.

The young man was so witty and so full of fun, that he had always been popular with girls and, indeed, with women of all ages. Old ladies liked him; he made them laugh and forget their sorrows. Young matrons liked him; he made them forget they were not girls. And spinsters liked him, for he seemed to be just as happy when with them as with young girls.

Such a fund of good spirits opened the door of every circle to him. No one analysed him mentally, to see whether he was possessed of any profound learning under the surface brightness and mirthfulness; he was such good company that he carried people along with him and made life seem worth while wherever he was.

His wife had found him delightful as a lover; and, while she did not possess a keen sense of humour, she was young and care-free, and enjoyed the same amusements. The two seemed very congenial.

The young man possessed a fair competence and good business abilities. He was popular with his associates, and there was nothing to hinder their marriage from proving a happy one. So it seemed in the beginning.

After a few years had passed, the wife developed intellectual tastes and took up a course of study. The husband was proud of her and encouraged her in her pursuits. He was very much occupied with business, and his wealth was on the increase. Two children had blessed the union, and he was very devoted to them.

He had never been a church-going man, but had helped charities and benevolent institutions, and he believed in God and immortality.

Meanwhile he lived in full enjoyment of all the things of earth. He liked a good meal, well cooked and served. He liked a good cigar. He enjoyed good company, music, cards, dancing, and fun and life. He had never sought unworthy friends, or low associates of either sex. But he wanted people about him who were optimistic, and who liked a good laugh, and he did not care for the very serious side of life.

He never read problem novels, or went to see problem plays, and he delighted in comic opera and humorous literature. For several years his wife had been his comrade in all these things. But as she developed intellectually, and as she studied into the metaphysical thought of the world, she seemed to be bored by the things which had once given her pleasure.

It did not occur to her that she could keep in touch with the human side of life, and with her husband's tastes, and still grow out into larger ideals.

She said one could not serve God and Mammon, or obey two masters. And she felt she must obey the call of her soul. She forgot that the call of love is also the call of the soul.

So her husband began to go to the comic opera and the social dance alone or with a man friend. And he began to find it difficult to converse with his wife on any subject of mutual interest. He felt she was greatly his superior, and he was ofttimes very lonely.

He did not give vent to many spontaneous witticisms as of old, and for the first time he felt he was ageing.

His wife talked of matters, and books, and theories of life which seemed a million miles away from his sphere of thought.

As time passed she grew more and more spiritual, and she tried to make him realise that he was on a very carnal plane, and that his whole understanding of life was wrong.

She indulged in long fasts; she went into her closet for meditation, when he was alone in the house; and she refused him the expressions of love which of old had been spontaneously given. She told him love was a thing of the spirit, that it needed no physical expression. She read from books of ancient lore, and tried to make him see that only by living in the spirit, wholly, could we make a place for ourselves in the great spiritual kingdoms of the universe, or develop our highest powers here.

For two long years the man tried to live on and make the best of his position, but the wife had undertaken an impossible task. She had striven to change a wholesome, happy, good-hearted, loving human being, into an intellectual Æsthetic; to turn a wit into a profound philosopher; to paralyse normal and natural instincts and appetites, and to force the man to live only in the spirit, while yet in the body.

After two years the bad husband developed. He went where he found pleasure, mirth, good food, good company. He allowed his wife to go her way; he went his.

They met at the divorce court.

There was no trouble about her obtaining the divorce. Statutory grounds were given and proved. The children were given to the wife. The woman who had won him away from his wife, according to public comment, was a wholly inferior person.

Then it was remarked that his wife was always quite his superior; and that he had, by the natural law of the world, gone down to his own level. His wife received the sympathy of the whole community; and he was understood to be one of those bad men who are incapable of appreciating a good woman.

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