ttled income, John could support her in
comfort and they could look back like Browning's middle-aged estranged
lovers to say:

"We have not sighed deep, laughed free,
Starved, feasted, despaired--been happy."

"It used to take two to start a home in colonial days," Mary would
say. "I am really an old-fashioned woman. I helped to make this home.
We had twelve hundred dollars in the bank when I stopped working, and
John was pretty well established.

"I don't regret it," she went on, still speaking as a woman of the
future, "even for the children. Of course I do wish we had started
earlier. But I would have wanted to wait a while for the children in
any case. People risk too much when they start a family before they
become sufficiently used to marriage and to each other to know that
they can keep on loving each other and to know that they have in them
through their mutual, continued happiness the power to make a happy
home, a noble home, for children to live in."

As for the number of children she will have--we reserve that subject
for future discussion. We call attention here only to this:

That the facts which were cited from the Smith College records are
harmonious with many other facts and records tending to show that the
fertility of the modern wife has been considerably underrated, just as
the fertility of the colonial wife has been considerably exaggerated.

And this:

That Mary got to her childbearing period sooner than she would have if
she hadn't insisted on marrying John before he was ready to support
her. Those two years would have been childless years in any case. But
they would probably, if it hadn't been for Mary's money, have been
lengthened into four or five.

Of course, later marriages in themselves tend to reduce the number of
children. As to quality, however, the evidence is not clear. There is
even some reason to think that a moderate postponement is conducive to
an improvement in quality.

Did you ever read Havelock Ellis's book called "A Study of British
Genius"?

He made a list of the most distinguished of eminent British persons
and studied everything about them, from their religious opinions to
the color of their hair.

In the matter of the age of their parents, he finds that the
average age of the father at the birth of the person of genius was
thirty-seven years, while the average of the mother was thirty-one.
His conclusion is: "On the whole it would appear, so far as the
ev