bliss
which is unsurpassed. Devotion is perhaps the most refined and lofty
form of selfishness; it raises you so much in your own estimation! It
enslaves so surely the hearts of those whom you love! Devotion is not a
sacrifice; it is a halo.

* * * * *

If I were a woman, I would give all the pleasures of life to witness the
smile of my husband on a sick-bed as I entered the room to come and sit
by his side with his hand in mine. In health, the man loves to feel that
he is the protector of his wife; in sickness, there is no such arbour
for him as the arms of the woman he loves.

CHAPTER II

THE MATRIMONIAL PROBLEM

From inquiries which I have made right and left I have arrived at this
conclusion--that, out of a hundred couples who have got married, fifty
would like to regain their freedom after six months of matrimonial life,
twenty have come to the same opinion after a couple of years, ten more
after a longer period, and about twenty are satisfied, though, in the
last case, it often amounts to making the best of it. Not ten of them
spend their leisure time in returning thanks that they got
married--perhaps ten, but certainly not more.

And I will add this--that, among my friends and acquaintances, the
couples who live most happily together are, without exception, those who
made up their minds to be married most quickly, and did not attempt,
during years and years of engagement, to try and learn how to know
something of each other. I do not give this as a piece of advice to
those about to marry. I simply state a fact, although I am prepared to
admit that long engagements have never been the proper way of preparing
for matrimony.

In my opinion, the majority of marriages will have a chance of turning
out happily when the following will have become customs and laws:

1. Before a man makes love to a woman with the intention of asking her
to become his wife, and before a woman allows a man to speak love to
her, certainly before she accepts his offer of matrimony, both will have
ascertained that there is no disease, moral or physical, of an
hereditary nature in either family; that the man has been a good and
devoted son, a cheerful brother, and an honest man in all his dealings,
well spoken of by his employers or his acquaintances; that the girl is
not an extravagant woman, and has, among her friends, the reputation of
being amiable, cheerful, and a favourite at home; that bot