ave, a bond
servant, a travesty on manhood. For every dollar he receives he gives a
full equivalent in self-respect and independence, and all the things
dearest to a real man."

"A real man," remarked the bachelor, taking out his pipe and lighting
it, "wouldn't marry a woman for her money. It's woman to whom marriage
presents the alluring financial prospect."

"Oh, I don't know," responded the widow, crossing her arms behind her
head and leaning thoughtfully against the tree at her back. "In these
days of typewriting and stenography and manicuring and trained nursing,
matrimony offers about the poorest returns, from a business standpoint,
of any feminine occupation--the longest hours, the hardest work, the
greatest drain on your patience, the most exacting master and the
smallest pay, to say nothing of no holidays and not even an evening
off."

"Nor a chance to 'give notice' if you don't like your job," added the
bachelor sympathetically.

"If the average business man," went on the widow, ignoring the
interruption, "demanded half of his stenographer that he demands of his
wife he couldn't keep her three hours."

"And yet," remarked the bachelor, pulling on his pipe meditatively, "the
average stenographer is only too glad to exchange her position for that
of wife whenever she gets----"

The jangle of gold bangles, as the widow brought her arms down from
behind her head and sat up straight, interrupted his speech.

"Whenever she gets----"

The widow picked up her ruffles and started to rise.

"Whenever she gets--ready," finished the bachelor quickly.

The widow sat down again and leaned back against the tree.

"How perfectly you illustrate my point," she remarked sweetly.

"Oh," said the bachelor, taking his pipe out of his mouth, "did you have
a point?"

"That marriage is something higher and finer than a business
proposition, Mr. Travers, and that there are lots of reasons for
marrying besides financial ones."

"Oh, yes," agreed the bachelor, "there is folly and feminine coercion
and because you can't get out of it, and----"

"As for marriage as a money affair," pursued the widow without waiting,
"it's just the money side of it that causes all the squabbles and
unhappiness. If they've got it, they are always quarreling over it and
if they haven't got it they are always quarreling for it. The
Castellanes and Marlboroughs who fight over their bills and their debts
aren't any happier than the Murphys an