a half interrogative
note in his voice. She made no response, so he went on, "I've surely
not been a hard master--and I hope I've not been selfish. I know I've
not been unloving."

"And I hope you've not suffered many discomforts on my account. I
think, as women go, I am fairly reasonable--or I have been."

For some reason Shattuck seemed to find the cigar he was smoking most
unsatisfactory. Either it had been broken, or he had unconsciously
chewed the end--a thing which he detested--and there was a pause while
he discarded the weed, and selected a fresh one. He appeared to be
reflecting as he lighted it, and if his mind could have been read, it
would have probably been discovered that he was wondering how it had
happened that the conversation had taken this turn, and mentally
cursing his own stupidity in making any remarks on the Schopenhauer.
He was conscious all the time that his wife was looking rather
steadily at him, and he knew that at least a conventional reply was
expected of him.

"My dear girl," he said, "I look back on ten very satisfactory years
of married life. You have been a model wife, a charming companion--and
if occasionally it has occurred to me--just lately--that my wife has
developed rather singular, to say the least, unflattering ideas of
life, why, you have such a brilliant way of putting it, that I am more
than half proud that you've the brains to hold such ideas, though
they are a bit disconcerting to me as a husband. I suppose the
development is logical enough. You were always, even as a girl,
inclined to making footnotes. I suppose their present daring is simply
the result of our being just a little older than we used to be. I
suppose if we did not outgrow our illusions, the road to death would
be too tragic."

For a moment she made no reply. Then, as if for the first time owning
to the idea which had long been uppermost in her mind, she said
suddenly: "The truth of the matter is, that I really believe marriage
is foolish. I do believe that no man ever approached it without
regretting that civilization had made it necessary, and that many men
would escape, at the very last moment, if women did not so rigidly
hold them to their promises, and if, between two ridiculous positions,
marriage having been pushed nearest, had not become desperately
inevitable."

"How absurd, Naomi, when you see the whole procession of men
walking,--according to their dispositions--calmly or eagerly to their