Sylvias Marriage | Page 9

tactfully as I could, I
suggested that conditions in England were peculiar. There was, for
example, the quaint old law which permitted a husband to beat his wife
subject to certain restrictions. Would an American woman submit to
such a law? There was the law which made it impossible for a woman
to divorce her husband for infidelity, unless accompanied by desertion
or cruelty. Surely not even her father would consider that a decent
arrangement! I mentioned a recent decision of the highest court in the
land, that a man who brought his mistress to live in his home, and

compelled his wife to wait upon her, was not committing cruelty within
the meaning of the English law. I heard Sylvia's exclamation of horror,
and met her stare of incredulity; and then suddenly I thought of Claire,
and a little chill ran over me. It was a difficult hour, in more ways than
one, that of my first talk with Mrs. Douglas van Tuiver!
I soon made the discovery that, childish as her ignorance was, there
was no prejudice in it. If you brought her a fact, she did not say that it
was too terrible to be true, or that the Bible said otherwise, or that it
was indecent to know about it. Nor, when you met her next, did you
discover that she had forgotten it. On the contrary, you discovered that
she had followed it to its remote consequences, and was ready with a
score of questions as to these. I remember saying to myself, that first
automobile ride: "If this girl goes on thinking, she will get into trouble!
She will have to stop, for the sake of others!"
"You must meet my husband some time," she said; and added, "I'll
have to see my engagement-book. I have so much to do, I never know
when I have a moment free."
"You must find it interesting," I ventured.
"I did, for a while; but I've begun to get tired of so much going about.
For the most part I meet the same people, and I've found out what they
have to say."
I laughed. "You have caught the society complaint already--_ennui_!"
"I had it years ago, at home. It's true I never would have gone out at all
if it hadn't been for the sake of my family. That's why I envy a woman
like you--"
I could not help laughing. It was too funny, Mrs. Douglas van Tuiver
envying me!
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Just the irony of life. Do you know, I cut you out of the newspaper,
and put you in a little frame on my bureau. I thought, here is the
loveliest face I've ever seen, and here is the most-to-be-envied of
women."
She smiled, but quickly became serious. "I learned very early in life
that I was beautiful; and I suppose if I were suddenly to cease being
beautiful, I'd miss it; yet I often think it's a nuisance. It makes one
dependent on externals. Most of the beautiful women I've known make
a sort of profession of it--they live to shine and be looked at.

"And you don't enjoy that?" I asked.
"It restricts one's life. Men expect it of you, they resent your having any
other interest."
"So," I responded, gravely, "with all your beauty and wealth, you aren't
perfectly happy?"
"Oh, yes!" she cried--not having meant to confess so much. "I told
myself I would be happy, because I would be able to do so much good
in the world. There must be some way to do good with money! But
now I'm not sure; there seem to be so many things in the way. Just
when you have your mind made up that you have a way to help,
someone comes and points out to you that you may be really doing
harm."
She hesitated again, and I said, "That means you have been looking into
the matter of charity."
She gave me a bright glance. "How you understand things!" she
exclaimed.
"It is possible," I replied, "to know modern society so well that when
you meet certain causes you know what results to look for."
"I wish you'd explain to me why charity doesn't do any good!"
"It would mean a lecture on the competitive wage-system," I laughed--"
too serious a matter for a drive!"
This may have seemed shirking on my part. But here I was, wrapped in
luxurious furs, rolling gloriously through the park at twilight on a
brilliant autumn evening; and the confiscation of property seems so
much more startling a proposition when you are in immediate contact
with it! This principle, which explains the "opportunism" of Socialist
cabinet-ministers and Labour M.P.s may be used to account for the
sudden resolve which I had