. I say that I am on your side. Our civilization in
this point has always been absurdly defective. Men have kept women at a
barbarous stage of development, and then complain that they are
barbarous. In the same way society does its best to create a criminal
class, and then rages against the criminals. But, you see, I am one of
the men, and an impatient one too. The mass of women I see about me are
so contemptible that, in my haste, I use unjust language. Put yourself
in the man's place. Say that there are a million or so of us very
intelligent and highly educated. Well, the women of corresponding mind
number perhaps a few thousands. The vast majority of men must make a
marriage that is doomed to be a dismal failure. We fall in love it is
true; but do we really deceive ourselves about the future? A very young
man may; why, we know of very young men who are so frantic as to marry
girls of the working class--mere lumps of human flesh. But most of us
know that our marriage is a _pis aller_. At first we are sad about it;
then we grow cynical, and snap our fingers at moral obligation.'

'Making a bad case very much worse, instead of bravely bettering it.'

'Yes, but human nature is human nature. I am only urging to you the
case of average intelligent men. As likely as not--so preposterous are
our conventions--you have never heard it put honestly. I tell you the
simple truth when I say that more than half these men regard their
wives with active disgust. They will do anything to be relieved of the
sight of them for as many hours as possible at a time. If circumstances
allowed, wives would be abandoned very often indeed.'

Rhoda laughed.

'You regret that it isn't done?'

'I prefer to say that I approve it when it is done without disregard of
common humanity. There's my friend Orchard. With him it was suicide or
freedom from his hateful wife. Most happily, he was able to make
provision for her and the children, and had strength to break his
bonds. If he had left them to starve, I should have _understood_ it,
but couldn't have approved it. There are men who might follow his
example, but prefer to put up with a life of torture. Well, they _do_
prefer it, you see. I may think that they are foolishly weak, but I can
only recognize that they make a choice between two forms of suffering.
They have tender consciences; the thought of desertion is too painful
to them. And in a great number of cases, mere considerations of money
and