hildren
nowadays, as our unfortunate grandmothers were. Have you got all eight
with you?'

_K._ 'No, that's just the trouble. I didn't want to have so many, but of
course now I've got them I want them with me, and of course their
fathers want them too.'

_M._ 'Oh dear! how tiresome; that's the worst of having children in
these times. I'm sometimes glad I have none.'

_K._ 'Then perhaps you don't know the law about the children of our
present marriage system? A sum of money has to be invested annually for
each child, in the great State Infant Trust; when the marriage is
dissolved the mother has the sole custody of them, unless the father
wishes to share it; in the latter case they spend half the year with
each parent.'

_M._ 'It's fair.'

_K._ 'I suppose so, but oh! so terribly hard on a mother! My two elder
girls are almost grown up, they've been at a boarding school for some
time, and it was easy and natural enough for George and I to share them
in the holidays, but now, I can't keep them at the school any longer,
and they will have to spend half the year with him. Thank heaven, he
hasn't been married for some time, and isn't likely to again, so I
haven't the horror of a strange woman influencing them, but how can I
guide them? how have any real control or influence over them in such
circumstances?'

_M._ 'Yes, that must be very sad for you.'

_K._ 'It's awful, but there's much worse than that. My second husband,
Gordon, the father of Arthur and Maggie, is married again, and his wife
is jealous of his eldest children, and hates the time when they come to
stay. And my little Arthur is so delicate, he requires ceaseless care
and studying--I never have a happy moment when he is with them; he
doesn't get on well with the other children either, and always returns
from the visits looking ill and wretched. I couldn't tell you all I have
suffered on account of Arthur! Oh! when I think of him, I could curse
this infamous marriage system--it is a sin against nature!'

_M._ 'But, my dear, it's no use abusing the laws. Why didn't you stay
with Gordon, or in the first instance with George? It's often done, even
now.'

_K._ 'I know, I know, but George and I were utterly unsuited--we married
as boy and girl. Under the old system prudent parents generally
intervened, and the young couple were obliged to wait until they were
sure of their own minds. But you know how things are now; in one's first
young infatuation, one is