tship?" I
laughingly inquired.

"O, time was the least of their requirements. You know, perhaps, that
there was an Oregon law, or, rather, a United States law, giving a mile
square of land to a man and his wife: to each, half. Now some of the
Oregonians made this "Donation Act" an excuse for going from door to
door to beg a wife, as they pretended, in order to be able to take up a
whole section, though when not one of them ever cultivated a quarter
section, or ever meant to."

"And they come to _you_ in this way? What did they say? how did they
act?"

"Why, they rode a spotted cayuse up to the door with a great show of
hurry, jangling their Mexican spurs, and making as much noise as
possible. As there were no sidewalks in Portland, then, they could sit
on their horses and open a door, or knock at one, if they had so much
politeness. In either case, as soon as they saw a woman they asked if
she were married; and if not, would she marry? there was no more
ceremony about it."

"Did they ever really get wives in that way, or was it done in
recklessness and sport? It seems incredible that any woman could accept
such an offer as that."

"There were some matches made in that way; though, as you might
conjecture, they were not of the kind made in heaven, and most of them
were afterwards dissolved by legislative action or decree of the
courts."

"Truly you were right, when you said women are not idealized in
primitive conditions of society," I said, after the first mirthful
impulse created by so comical a recital had passed. "But how was it,
that with so much to disgust you with the very name of marriage, you
finally did consent to take a husband? He, certainly, was not one of the
kind that came riding up to doors, proposing on the instant?"

"No, he was not: but he might as well have been for any difference it
made to me," said Mrs. Greyfield, with that bitterness in her tone that
always came into it when she spoke of Seabrook. "You ask 'how was it
that I at last consented to take a husband?' Do you not know that such
influences as constantly surrounded me, are demoralizing as I said? You
hear a thing talked of until you become accustomed to it. It is as Pope
says: You 'first endure, then pity, then embrace.' I endured, felt
contempt, and finally yielded to the pressure.

"Why, you have no idea, from what I have told you, of the reality. My
house as I have already mentioned, was one room in a tenement. It opened
dir