there
comes peace, for there is a magic in the strings which changes sadness
into something sweet. Memory's eyes are deep and tender and her heart is
full of compassion. So the old love letters bring happiness after
all--like the smile which sometimes rests upon the faces of the dead.

An Inquiry into Marriage

[Illustration]

An Inquiry into Marriage

[Sidenote: Like a Grape]

Marriage appears to be somewhat like a grape. People swallow a great
deal of indifferent good for the sake of the lurking bit of sweetness
and never know until it is too late whether the venture was wise.

Chaucer compared it to a crowded church. Those left on the outside are
eager to get in, and those caught inside are straining every nerve to
get out. There are many, in this year of grace, who have safely made
their escape, but, unfortunately, the happy ones inside say little about
it, and do not seem anxious to get out.

Fate takes great pleasure in confusing the inquiring spinster. Some of
the disappointed ones will advise her never to attempt it, and in the
voluble justification which follows, she sees clearly that the discord
was not entirely caused by the other. Her friends, who have been married
a year or so, regard her with evident pity, and occasionally suggest,
delicately enough, to be sure, that she could never have had a proposal.

[Sidenote: The Consistent Lady]

Among her married friends who are more mature, there is usually one who
chooses her for a confidant. This consistent lady will sob out her
unhappiness on the girl's shoulder, and the next week ask her why she
doesn't get married. Sometimes she invites the girl to her house to meet
some new and attractive man--with the memory of those bitter tears still
in her heart.

A girl often loses a friend by heartily endorsing the things the weeper
says of her husband. The fact that he is an inconsiderate brute is
frequently confided to the kindly surface of a clean shirt-waist,
regardless of laundry bills. The girl remarks dispassionately that she
has noticed it; that he never considers the happiness of his wife, and
she doesn't see how the tearful one stands it. Behold the instant and
painful transformation! It is very hard to be a popular spinster when
one has many married friends.

That interesting pessimist, Herr Arthur Schopenhauer, advocates
universal polygamy upon the theory that all women would thus be
supported. To the unprejudiced observer who r