at any rate, it is a condition which is far past the
theoretical stage.

It is hard for a spinster to understand why any woman should wish to
hold a man against his will. A dog who has to be kept chained, in order
to be retained as a pet, is never a very satisfactory possession. It
seems natural to apply the same reasoning to human affairs, for surely
no love is worth having which is not a free gift.

No girl would feel particularly flattered by a proposal, if it were put
in this form: "Will you marry me? No one else will." Yet the same girl,
married, would gladly take her husband to a desert island, that she
might be sure of him forever.

[Sidenote: Behind Prison Bars]

Love which needs to be put behind prison bars, that it may not escape,
is not love, but attraction, fascination, or whatever the psychologists
may please. A man chooses his wife, not because there are no other
women, but in spite of them. It is a pathetic acknowledgment of his poor
judgment, if he lets the world suspect that his choice was wrong.

There are some souls that hie them faraway from civilisation, to
convents, monasteries, and western plains, that they may keep away from
temptation. In the same fashion, woman tries to isolate her lord and
master. If he meets women at all, they are those invisibly labeled "not
dangerous."

The world makes as many saints as sinners, and the man who needs to be
kept away from any sort of temptation is weak indeed. There are many of
his kind, but he is the better man in the end who meets it face to face,
fights with it like a soldier, and wins like a king.

[Sidenote: The Thousand Foes]

The mother of Sparta bade her son return with his shield or on it, and
the thought has potential might to-day. If a man honestly loves a woman,
she need have no fear of the thousand foes that wait to take him from
her. If he does not, the sooner she understands the truth, the better it
is for both. There are many people who consider love a dream, but they
usually grow to think of marriage as the cold breakfast.

Men are but children of a larger growth. A small boy forgets his promise
to stay at home and tears madly down the street in the discordant wake
of a band. The same boy, in later years, will follow his impulses with
equal readiness, for he is taught conformity to outward laws, but very
seldom self-control.

The fear of "the other woman" may be largely assuaged by a spinster's
confidence in her ability to cope