ment, male and female, come to a
meeting point; where the man's infancy is longest and the woman's
value as housewife is least;--_there_ is, necessarily, altogether
apart from personal preferences, the greatest postponement of
marriage.

The United States, except possibly in certain sections, has not come
to the end of its growth toward postponed marriage.

It is true that in Massachusetts, within the past forty-five years,
the average age of women at marriage has risen from 20.7 to 24.6. That
is a very "modern" and "developed" marriage age. But many of the older
countries surpass it. In Belgium, for instance, which is a most
intensely industrialized country, the average age of women at marriage
is 28.19.

It is hard, indeed, to look at the advancing marriage age and to
compare its varying rate of progress in different continents,
different countries, different localities, and different social
circles without admitting that, whatever whirling, nebulous mists of
personal preferences it may create and carry with it, its nucleus is
purely economic.

Early marriage was made by economic advantages. It was destroyed by
economic changes. It will not be restored except by economic
adjustments.

"Nevertheless," said Mary, "I want John."

John had finished being engineer for the electric railway company.

Out of his two years' experience he had saved a few hundred dollars.
No, he hadn't. That isn't probable. The way he made his start into the
next phase of his career was not by having any ready money. Having
ready money is far from being characteristic of the young man of
to-day.

John opened his office as a consulting electrical engineer not on his
own resources but as an agent for an electrical supply company. Being
agent for that company assured him enough money to pay the office rent
and stenographer. For the rest, for his meals and his bed, he depended
on his clients. Whom he didn't have. But he started out to get them.

He opened his office in the city in which Mary was.

And then a strange but normal thing occurred. They spent enough
money on theaters and boat rides and candy in the next three
months to have paid the rent on a flat. It is true John's net income
was too small and uncertain to have justified the founding of a
family. But it was also true that they spent every cent they had.
The celibate life is an extravagant life. One of the innumerable
sources of modern extravagance is found just there.

Ma