om? Invariably he rears his
head when the love fever has subsided. Woman's impulse is more artistic
than man's, but it seldom touches art; her artistic impulse is not yet
one of high grade; she is the flower arranger rather than the flower
painter, the flower painter rather than just the painter. But this
instinct that is in all women and in so few men avails just enough to
make them discontented, while the great instinct that is in a few men is
always enough to make them wretched.

It would not be so bad if they had not to live together, but social
custom has decided that couples must forsake their separate ways and
evermore follow the same. Most follow the common path easily enough,
because most follow the first path that offers, but many grumble and
cast longing eyes at side tracks or would return to the place whence
they came. They cannot do so because it is not done, because other feet
have not broken paths so wide that they shall seem legitimate. When
husband and wife care no longer for their common life, the only remedy
is to part: then the contradictory strain that is in all of us will
reassert itself and make them rebound towards each other. If the law
were to edict that man and wife should never be together for more than
six months in the year, it would be broken every day, and men and women
would stand hunger and stripes to come together for twelve months in
twelve. If love of home were made a crime, a family life would arise
more touching than anything Queen Victoria ever dreamed. But from the
point of view of a barbarous present, this would never do, for the very
worst that can happen to two people is to reach the fullness of their
desire. The young man who raves at the young woman's feet: "Oh! that I
were by your side day and night! Oh! that ever I could watch you move!
I grudge the night the eight hours in which you sleep!"-- Well, that
young man is generally successful in his wooing and gets what he wants;
a little later he gets a little more. For proximity is a dangerous
thing; it enables one to know another rather well: full knowledge of
mankind is seldom edifying. One sees too much, one sees too close; a
professional Don Juan who honors me with his friendship told me that he
has an infallible remedy against falling in love more often than three
times a day: "Stand as close to your charmer as you can, look at her
well, very well, at every feature; watch her attitudes, listen to every
tone of her voice;