xpect Europe to pattern itself upon
her, she will have as good a chance of happiness as comes to any one.
Marriage is a lottery in any event. Of course, _if_ it turns out badly
abroad, it is worse for her than it would have been at home--much worse.
Everything over here is, in that case, against her: custom, language,
law, religion; she is literally thrown upon her husband's indulgence. In
a contest against him she would have no chance at all--there is no
divorce; there is no redress.

"Yet, so far as my personal observation goes, numberless international
marriages have been happy. The American wife of a European finds many
compensations--for although her husband does not allow her freedom to
follow her own whims, and may not even permit her to spend her own
money, he gives her a ceaseless attentiveness that never relaxes into
the careless indifference of the husbands across the sea.

"It is after all a question of choice--do you want the little things of
life very perfectly polished or do you prefer rough edges and heroic
sizes! European men know how to make themselves charming to their wives,
because with them to be charming is an aim in itself. They have
versatility, ease, and grace of intellect, where the American men are
bound up in their one or two absorbing ideas, outside of which they take
no interest. The Europeans are brilliant conversationalists, they make
an effort to be agreeable and to take an interest in whatever occupies
the person they are talking to--even though that person is a member of
their family.

"But, of course, as in everything, there is a price one has to pay. One
can't have rigidity and flexibility both in the same person. For the
pliancy of understanding, the easy sympathy, one has to relinquish a
certain moral steadfastness."

Suddenly the princess looked away and spoke very lightly, as though
merely brushing over the surface of the thoughts in her mind: "What
would you have, dear? Men are men--it is well not to question too far.
Even the best of them have to be forgiven sometimes." Under the light
tone, there was an unwonted vibration, and though the princess's face
was partly averted, Nina caught a shadow of pain in her eyes. But the
next moment she smiled. "I can tell you a story," she said, "about a
young bride whose husband was very fascinating to women. The young
wife, with suspicions of his devotion to another lady, went in tears to
her mother-in-law. But the old lady asked her,