art. It is the natural depth of a
poet's emotions to fall in love with every lovely woman. The higher we
rise in the intellectual scale, says a modern writer, the more varied,
complex, and deep are the emotional groups which delight and torment
the soul. Mental work does not extinguish passions; it feeds the
flames, on the contrary, and unfits the brain-owner for matrimony. Only
people who have uneventful, almost humdrum, lives are good subjects for
matrimony and perfectly happy in marriage.'

'Then you do not admit the existence of the man who needs the quiet
sympathy of a good domestic wife before his art becomes fully
articulate?'

'No, because the artist constantly wants stimulants, and a domestic
life is not stimulating. Now, do not misunderstand me. Marriage can
make a man very happy, including the man with the strong artistic
temperament, but I don't think that it helps him. I have come across
hundreds of cases where artistic and literary efforts have been
checked, and sometimes killed outright, by the petty cares and worries
of domestic life. The brain-worker is very easily irked and tormented
by the most trivial things. He is irritable and most sensitive. I have
known literary men put right off their work for days simply because
devoted wives came into their studies, and, after giving them an
encouraging kiss, carried off their pens to make out their washing
list. I have known painters whose faculties were positively benumbed by
the presence of their wives. I have known dramatists who could never
set to work in earnest before they had sent their families into the
country or had themselves left home far behind them; and, mind you,
these men were all fond of their wives.'

'You are not encouraging.'

'Will you have a cup of tea?'

'Thank you, with pleasure; but does marriage----'

'Do you take sugar?'

'If you please; but are there not cases----'

'And cream?'

'Please. Now, tell me----'

'What I think of the Paris Exposition?'

'Before I go, can't you say something nice about matrimony?'

'Yes, madame: Matrimony is highly respectable.'

CHAPTER XVII

THE GOOSE AND THE GANDER

The case for man, the defendant--Freemasonry between women--Which
is right?--Influence of plumage--The female bird--Man is not
invariably wrong--'What is good for the goose is good for the
gander'--But there is a difference between the goose and the
gander.

Women, who seldom miss an opport