lternative might consent
to live in a hotel.'

'No such luck,' said Isolda, mournfully, 'when a man marries it's mostly
for a home--why else should he marry unless it's for the children? Good
gracious! I'd forgotten all about the children. Of course that
settles it.'

'The _cul-de-sac_ of all reforms!' said Amoret, tragically. 'It's
impossible to suggest any revision in the marriage system that isn't
instantly quashed by the children complication.'

We all sat silent, busy with our thoughts, and then Isolda shuddered.

'Duogamy's no good,' she said emphatically, 'and I _am_ so
disappointed!'

VII

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE PRELIMINARY CANTER

'Marriage is terrifying, but so is a cold and forlorn old age.'
--R. L. STEVENSON.

Of all the revolutionary suggestions for improving the present marriage
system, the most sensible and feasible seems to me marriage 'on
approval'--in other words, a 'preliminary canter.' The procedure would
be somewhat as follows: a couple on deciding to marry would go through a
legal form of contract, agreeing to take each other as husband and wife
for a limited term of years--say three. This period would allow two
years for a fair trial, after the abnormal and exceptionally trying
first year was over. Any shorter time would be insufficient. At the
conclusion of the three years, the contracting parties would have the
option of dissolving the marriage--the dissolution not to become
absolute for another six months, so as to allow every opportunity of
testing the genuineness of the desire to part. If no dissolution were
desired, the marriage would then be ratified by a religious or final
legal ceremony, and become permanently binding.

In the case of a marriage dissolved, each party would be free to wed
again; but the second essay must be final and permanent from the start.
This restriction would be absolutely necessary if the preliminary canter
plan is not to degenerate into a species of legalised free love, as
there are many men, and some women, who would 'always go on cantering,'
as Amoret expressed it once--and the upshot would be nothing less than
leasehold marriage for the short term of three years.

It might be urged against this plan that many couples who come to grief
in the danger zone of married life--_i.e._ nearing the tenth year--are
perfectly happy in the early years. But human love being as mutable as
it is, and people and conditions being so liable to change,