egotistical to the point
of disease. I would much like to see him happily wedded, as he then
would doubtless quickly lose that intense self-centredness, but I
question if any attractive woman exists who would be unselfish enough to
cope with him in his present state of egomania. His mind is always
inflamed with some woman or other, and he hovers about on the edge of
desperate _amours_, anxious to fall head over ears into the sea of love
and cast out an anchor of matrimony to hold him fast where he can swerve
no more. Unfortunately he cannot forget himself enough to take the fatal
plunge. With all his faults there is something very lovable about
Florizel, and I should like to see him knocked into shape, though it
would be a brave and patient woman who would take the task in hand.

When all the fifteen bachelors had ceased to talk about themselves and
settled down to bridge with the rest of the company, an old lady who,
like myself, preferred to be a looker-on, came and sat beside me. 'How
they _do_ talk,' she said! 'But I can tell you why they don't marry, in
six words, my dear: because they don't fall in love! And why don't they
fall in love? Because the girls are too eager; because the girls meet
them all the way--that's why! I've seven sons, all unmarried, and _I_
know!'

* * *

NOTE.--It is interesting to note that Westermarck in his _History of
Human Marriage_ quotes a number of authorities to prove that among many
ancient nations marriage was a religious duty incumbent upon all. Among
Mohammedan people generally it is still considered a duty. Hebrew
celibacy was unheard of, and they have a proverb, 'He who has no wife is
no man.' In Egypt it is improper and even disreputable for a man to
abstain from marriage when there is no just impediment. For an adult to
die unmarried is regarded as a deplorable misfortune by the Chinese,
and among the Hindus of the present day a man who remains single is
considered to be almost a useless member of society, and is looked upon
as beyond the pale of nature.

III

WHY WOMEN DON'T MARRY

'It's a woman's business to get married as soon as possible and a
man's to remain unmarried as long as he can.' --G. BERNARD SHAW.

'Marriage is of so much use to a woman, opens out to her so much
of life, and puts her in the way of so much more freedom and
usefulness, that whether she marry ill or well, she can hardly
miss some benefit.' --R. L. STEVENSON.