at which she has ceased
to possess for him. She whose knowledge of the springs of life is deep
enough to enable her to understand this, knows also that hers is the
better part, that she represents to her husband the centre and
mainspring of his existence, which remains steadfast long after his
temporary amorous madnesses have burned away to ashes.

Nevertheless, after 'Alone'--'_Unfaithful_' is perhaps the saddest and
most awful word in human speech. One can imagine it written innumerable
times, in flaming letters, across the confines of Hell. . . .
_Unfaithful!_

PART III

SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVES

'For me the only remedy to the mortal injustices, to the endless
miseries, to the often incurable passions which disturb the union of
the sexes, is the liberty of breaking up conjugal ties and forming
them again.' --GEORGE SAND.

'Until the marriage tie is made more flexible, marriage will always
be a risk, which men particularly will undertake with misgiving.'
--H. B. MARRIOTT-WATSON.

I

LEASEHOLD MARRIAGE A LA MEREDITH

'Twenty years of Romance make a woman look like a wreck; twenty
years of Marriage make her look like a public building.'
--OSCAR WILDE.

Leasehold marriage was one of the customs of early Roman society.
Nowadays it has a revolutionary savour, and is so apparently
impracticable that it would be hardly necessary to do more than touch
upon it here, but for the fact that its most recent and most
distinguished advocate in modern times is Mr George Meredith. Any
suggestion from such a source must necessarily receive careful
consideration. It was also advanced by the great philosopher Locke,
and was considered by Milton.

It is scarcely three years since our veteran novelist cast this
bombshell into a delighted, albeit disapproving Press; but as memories
are so short nowadays, perhaps a brief recapitulation of the
circumstances might not be amiss.

The beginning of the business was a letter to _The Times_ by Mr
Cloudesly Brereton complaining of the 'growing handicap of marriage'
and, according to invariable custom, attacking women as the cause of it.
He stated that in the middle classes 'the exigences of modern wives are
steadily undermining the attractions of matrimony; in her ever-growing
demands on her husband's time, energy, and money the modern married
woman constitutes a very serious drag, and in the lower classes of
society, marriage even seri