ung men. The choice of a
partner for life being one in which often the boy has no voice, it
follows that the girl has none whatever. A father engaging his daughter
was asked, "What does the girl think of it herself?" "She? It is none of
her affair; it is my business whom she marries." Like Browning's
Pompilia:

"Who, all the while, bore from first to last
As brisk a part in the bargain, as yon lamb
Brought forth from basket, and set out for sale
Bears, while they chaffer o'er it; each in turn
Patting the curly, calm, unconscious head,
With the shambles ready round the corner there."

Thus the girl enters a new home, often to be the slave of her
mother-in-law. As a rule, the married couple have had no previous
acquaintance with each other.

Such a state of society is hard on both sexes. A man is bound to a wife
who will in all probability deceive and disobey him, who compasses by
fraud what she cannot obtain by fair means, and who has no affection for
him. She is ignorant; she is no companion for him mentally; it is not
strange that he dreads to place in her keeping his honor, his property,
and the welfare of his house. I have heard a young man say, "We are like
putting out a hand into the dark, to receive we know not what. Of one
thing only we are sure; it will be bad." It is impossible that much
unhappiness should not result, as shown by the number of divorces,
reckoned by one of themselves as at least forty per cent. of the
marriages. The wonder is that happy marriages do occur. Some there
undoubtedly are, but in defiance of the system, and not in consequence
of it. When one such comes to our notice, it appears like a green and
refreshing oasis in a monotonous desert. One lady told us, "I have been
married fifteen years, and my husband and I have never had a
difference." Another said, "He is so kind to me; he has never yet
scolded me for anything I did." She added, "But I am extremely careful
to avoid what I know he does not like and in all matters I try my best
to please him." It must be said, however, that one of these men is
secretly a believer in Christ, and the other a follower of the Bab, in
whose system the equality and rights of woman play a prominent part.

Did space permit we should gladly tell the romantic history of
Qurrat-el-Ayn, the Joan of Arc of the Babi movement; but in this
connection, we may be pardoned for giving the following sonnet, evoked
by her remarkable life and