My parents. Christmas 1962. Dad bought the midnight blue velvet dress, and crystal earrings and necklace for mother. He said he wanted her to have nice things. He was a husband who complimented when she got her hair done. I never heard dad criticize mother in her appearance.

“A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.”

By Victor Hugo [1802-1885]

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations by John Barlett.
Published by Little, Brown and Company. 1955. Page 498.