ships, would be not to set love free,
but to give love its death blow by divorcing it from that higher human
element which is the note of marriage, rightly understood, and which
places regard for order, regard for the common weal above personal
interest and the mere self-gratification of the moment.'

IV

POLYGAMY AT THE POLITE DINNER-TABLE

'Last and hardest of all to eradicate in our midst, comes the
monopoly of the human heart which is known as marriage . . . this
ugly and barbaric form of serfdom has come in our own time by some
strange caprice to be regarded as of positively divine origin.'
--GRANT ALLEN.

We call it the polite dinner-table, because we never hesitate to be
extremely rude to each other, when necessary for the purposes of
argument. On this particular occasion, the inevitable marriage
discussion, which is always to be found in one or other of the
newspapers, was the subject of conversation, and the Good Stockbroker
(unmarried) was vigorously defending the Holy Estate. His moral attitude
is certainly somewhat boring, but nevertheless the Good Stockbroker is
one of those people to whom one really is polite. Although obvious
irritation was visible on the face of the Family Egotist we listened
respectfully, with the exception of the Wicked Stockbroker, whose dinner
was far too important in his scheme of life to be trifled with by moral
conversations.

Whatever the Good Stockbroker says the Weary Roue is of course bound to
contradict as a matter of honour. I may mention that the Weary Roue is a
man of the highest virtue and a model husband and father. His pose of
evil experience has gained him his sarcastic nickname, but in no way has
he earned it by his conduct. 'You forget,' he interposed languidly, when
the Good Stockbroker paused, 'that no less a philosopher than
Schopenhauer said that the natural tendency of man is towards polygamy,
and of woman towards monogamy.'

'I deny the first statement,' said the Good Stockbroker heatedly. He was
always heated where questions of morality were concerned, and was
proceeding to give chapter and verse for what promised to become a
somewhat dull discussion when the Bluestocking firmly interposed in her
small staccato pipe:

'To hear you, one would suppose monogamic marriage was a divine
institution.'

'Absurd, isn't it?' grinned the Weary Roue. The Good Stockbroker looked
pained and cleared his throat. At this formidable signal, th