with men than with women on the score of those offences,
which are the death-blow to a woman's good name. You see, then, that
each sex has a right to plead certain extenuations not permissible to
the other sex."

"I see that it is the privilege of the male sex to wound and to injure
the female sex; and the privilege of the latter to bear and to
forgive."

"Well, then, Yanna, to forgive is a noble privilege, a safe and
blessed generosity. And I can tell you, that I have known many pure,
chaste wives who were just as bad wives as you could possibly
find--cruel, selfish, spiritually-proud, intolerant women, filling
their husband's days with the bitterness of their tempers, or else
giving way to an egotism of despair and weeping worse than all the
wrongs they complain of."

"My dear cousin, I do hope that you do not include me in that list."

"I hope not, Yanna. I hope not. There are certain things that can only
be got by renouncing them--your own way, your own desire is usually
one of these things."

"What am I to do then? I cannot bear things as they are."

"If you cannot bear your troubles, you may be able to bear their
remedies. You ought to have for Harry such a love as masters Time, and
the infelicities of Time. Have you this love?"

"Yes, I have."

"You can bear to think of loving Harry and living with him eternally?"

"I should be miserable if I thought death would separate us."

"Good gracious, child! And yet you have suffered the word 'divorce' to
pass your lips. Just remember that men do not marry women because they
are very beautiful, or very clever, or very good, indeed; they
generally marry them because there is 'something nice about them.'
Now, let Harry always find there is 'something nice about you.' You
do not complain of Harry to any one, do you?"

"I have not, until this morning; nor have I listened to any report
about him."

"Quite right. To talk of matrimonial troubles is to burn the dirtiest
chimney ever set on fire. But there are sins of omission as well as of
commission. You have stayed at home too much. You ought to go out with
Harry while his mood is to go out."

"I cannot go with the set that Rose and he prefer."

"You can go with my set. Harry must really be forgetting how you look
in anything but tweed and China silk. Put away every appearance of
being an injured wife. Be a happy wife. Let him always come into an
atmosphere of good humor. No man can resist that."

"Rose and