accepted his love and his name, and
vowed to cleave to him, and to him only, till death parts them. The
wooing has been mainly done in full dress, at balls and operas, or in
hours tingling with the expectancy of such conditions. The aroma of
roses, the rustle of silks and laces, the notes of music, the taste of
bon-bons and sparkling wines, were the atmosphere; and the days and
weeks went by to the sense of flying feet in a ballroom, or to
enchanted loiterings in greenhouses, and behind palms and flowers on
decorated stairways.

The young wife is unwilling to believe that marriage has other and
graver duties. She has been taught to live in the present only, and
she is, therefore, cynical and apathetic concerning all things but
dress and amusements. The husband has to return to business, which
has been somewhat neglected; arrears of duty are to be met. He feels
it necessary to attend to the question of supplies; he is, likely, a
little embarrassed by the long holiday of wooing and honeymooning, and
he would be grateful for some retrenchment and retirement, for the
purpose of home-making.

The young wife has no such intentions; she resents and contradicts
them on every occasion; and after the first pang of disappointment is
over, he finds it the most prudent and comfortable plan to be
indifferent to her continued frivolity. He is perhaps even flattered
to find her so much admired; perhaps, in his heart, rather thankful to
be relieved from the trouble of admiring her. As for any graver
thoughts, he concludes that his wife is no worse than A's and B's and
C's wives; that she is quite able to take care of herself, and that in
a multitude of adorers there is safety.

Thus, in a majority of cases, begins the career of the married flirt.
But the character is not a corollary of marriage, if the proper
conditions were present when the wife was a young woman. There is no
salvation in the Order of Matrimony; no miracles are wrought at the
altar of Grace Church, or at St. Thomas's. She that is frivolous,
giddy, and selfish is likely to continue frivolous, giddy, and
selfish; and marriage merely supplies her with a wider field and
greater opportunities for the indulgence of her vanity and greed.

She re-enters society with every advantage of youth, beauty, wealth,
and liberty; released from the disabilities under which unmarried
girls lie; armed with new powers to dazzle and to conquer. No longer a
competitor for a matrimonial