No.l. 
 
 ISSO 
 
 HUDS0N-R1YER-SERIE5 
 
 BY 
 
 Chas.J.BellaTrp^ 
 
 ALBANY BOOK COMPANY 
 
 36 STATE STREET 
 
 ALBANY, N.Y. 
 
 ■'f JF^^red as Second Class Matter at the Post Officr , Albany. N. Y. I 
 
DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 treasure %oo7n 
 
r^-' 
 
AN 
 
 EXPERIMENT IN MARRIAGE. 
 
 A ROMAIS'CE, 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES J. BELLAMY, 
 
 'a moment op 
 
 ALBANY BOOK COMPANY, 
 
 36 State Street, 
 
 albany, n. y. 
 
 1889. 
 
Copyrighted, 1889, 
 Br THE ALBANY BOOK COMPANY. 
 
 ALBANY, N.Y., 
 WEED, PARSOXS AND CO., PRINTERS, 
 1889. 
 
:sy35c 
 
 CHAPTER I; 
 
 In the dining-room of one of the fashionable clubs 
 of New York two men were just finishing a late sup- 
 per. Thej had tal<:en their favorite table in the corner 
 near the window, so that when conversation flagged 
 there were always the busy streets to glance down upon, 
 streets ahnost as light in the glare of the fierce electric 
 light by night as by day in sunlight. Harry Yinton, the 
 younger of the two, was intensely imaginative, or per- 
 haps it was remarkably observing. To his mind eveiy 
 individual, every group in the crowded street, was a fit 
 subject for a poem or a romance. Their stories they 
 carried in their faces, he thought, revealed them in 
 their gait, even in the fit of their garments. JS'ot one 
 story of them all was commonplace. All had their 
 elements of tragedy, of heroic self-sacrifice, or of dev- 
 ilish malignity, of grand philosophy perhaps, or of de- 
 spair utter and black as everlasting night. 
 
 His companion, John Ward, a professional idler, 
 regarded Yinton as well nigh a necessity to make life 
 endurable. Yinton was always entertaining to him, 
 always suggestive, endowing the most ordinary scene 
 w^ith interest of its owm, and drawing from the most 
 prosaic surroundings hints for conversation always full 
 of life, or varied with endless discussion and disagree- 
 ment. :- 
 
 But on this occasion there was no need to glance 
 down into the street for suggestions to conversation. 
 So engaging was their topic that they left unnoticed 
 the ices ordered to finish their meal, and those dainty 
 
4 An Expe7'iment in Marriage. 
 
 •devices of modern epicureanism were slowly resolving 
 themselves into their most unappetizing elements un- 
 regarded and unregretted. 
 
 "I tell you, Ward," exclaimed the younger man, 
 with an emphasis all his own, '' You are not looking 
 the situation fairly in the face. The woman question 
 has not been solved, and until it is solved, society will 
 have to stay in a bad way. Until the relations of the 
 sexes are properly adjusted, we can have no real re- 
 form, nor progress." 
 
 Ward laughed, glanced at the door through which 
 two tall gentlemen were entering, and interrupted the 
 reply on his lips by saying: " There is Bevan ; I wish I 
 could catch his eye and get him over here. He's al- 
 ways good company. He has a stranger with him I 
 see, probably a business acquaintance. Bevan is al- 
 ways thinking of money getting." 
 
 " Never mind Bevan ; if you have any thing to say 
 on this woman question worth listening to, say it." 
 
 '' Don't be impatient, Harry, my boy. The ques- 
 tion will wait for us. It has been waiting for a good 
 many hundred years. The truth is it is a hard thing 
 to ask of human nature, that it will behave itself. For 
 my part I don't expect any such consummation, so I 
 don't expect the woman question ever to be settled." 
 
 " There you go again with your attempts to be epi- 
 grammatic,'' retorted Yintou, inipatientl3\ '' Drop that 
 sort of thing, you really should, if you pretend to be a 
 seeker after truth. An epigram is always a lie. These 
 smooth sentences that round off so delightfully are 
 snares of the evil one, set for the unwary, I don't doubt, 
 by the great father of lies himself." 
 
 "You know you like them, Yinton," replied his 
 friend, satirically. " It istl-e grief of your life that you 
 cannot make them yourself as well as I. But, really, 
 what is the perversion of the sexual relation, which we 
 are deploring, but one of the manifestations of original 
 sin, or whatever you heretics may choose to call the in- 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 6 
 
 born disposition of humanity to do wrong whenever it 
 has a chance. We steal, we cheat, we defraud, we kill, 
 because we are bad. We are a bad lot, mj boy, and I 
 regret to say I see no promise of our improving. The 
 faults of society are the faults of the souls and con- 
 sciences belonging to the men and women who make 
 up society. The relations of husbands to their wives, 
 or of wives to their husbands, are so unsatisfying, so 
 disappointing, because men and women do not cease to 
 be men and women and become angels when they 
 marry. Marriage is no more, as it is no less a failure 
 than the other relations of mankind. Marriage is a 
 failure because human nature is a failure." 
 
 " But compare lovers before marriage with the mar- 
 ried men and women. Indeed, the very word 'lovers' 
 is almost exclusively appropriated for the ante-nuptial 
 period. The lover is what a man and woman might 
 always be in relation to each other. The average mar- 
 riage illustrates what they should not be." 
 
 '' Carry your comparison a little farther, my dear 
 Harry. Examine your lover at the beginning and at 
 the end of a long engagement. He soon ceases his 
 unselfish devotion, and exchanges his adoring attitude 
 for one of famihar, and half-contemptuous criticism." 
 
 " Of course what is true of the married state is true 
 of long engagements. The latter unite all the restraints 
 with none of the consolations of marriage. But I think 
 that there are just enough exceptions to the rnle of 
 cooling lovers, and estranged husbands and wives, to 
 prove that it may be because the relations of the sexes 
 are distorted that they yield so little harmony, that 
 men and women might be to each other after marriage 
 what lovers now dream, if if " 
 
 '^ If we were all angels or .saints," interrupted Ward. 
 
 Then he turned half around in his chair so that he 
 could see the table where the two gentlemen who had 
 lately entered were sitting. "They are just finishing 
 a Welsh rare-bit. Suppose we ask Bevan to bring his 
 
6 An Ex])erimeiit in Marriage. 
 
 friend over here. Four heads are better than two, and 
 this is a hard task we are essaying to-night." 
 
 Yin ton nodded his head in assent, and Ward crossed 
 over to the table where Mr. Be van and the stranger 
 were sitting. Yinton saw Ward bow to the stranger, 
 who rose from his chair with great cordiahtj in re- 
 sponse to the introduction. Then the three gentlemen, 
 followed by the w^aiter with pencil and wine-card, ap- 
 proached the table in the corner where three vacant 
 chairs and one ready tongue awaited them. 
 
 For a few minutes after the addition to the party 
 in the corner the conversation was strictly conven- 
 tional. It was of course first necessary to make Yinton 
 acquainted with Mr. Bevan's companion, a man of 
 about thirty, tall, and distinguished in bearing, and 
 graceful in manner. He was introduced as a dealer in 
 California grapes and wines, a frequent visitor to New 
 York, where he came to dispose of enormous quanti- 
 ties of those toothsome articles of merchandise. 
 
 "My friend Gillette," began Mr. Bevan, as the 
 waiter filled the four glasses with California Moselle, 
 ordered out of special compliment to the visitor — 
 " My friend Gillette's grapes might have been grown in 
 one vineyard, and his wines have come from one cellar, 
 they run so remarkably alike. Bat of course there is 
 no single producer who could have such an enormous 
 output to offer for sale. He is a very mysterious fel- 
 low, is my friend Gillette, and I understand no more 
 about him now than I did three years ago, when I 
 bought my first lot of him. It was only a tenth as 
 large as the invoice I took to-day, eh Gillette % " 
 
 " Next year I Jiope to have twice as much to sell 
 you. But why talk business longer?" And Gillette 
 cast an apologetic glance at the two gentlemen to 
 whom he had just been introduced. " You and I 
 have made our bargain, and, what is very rare in this 
 selfish city, are both satisfied. Why annoy these 
 gentlemen with our mercenary dealings % " 
 
An Exjperiraent in Marriage, 7 
 
 " I assure you,' ' interposed Yinton with liis pecu- 
 liarly magnetic smile, " if there is any mystery likely 
 to be solved there is nothing could |)lease my friend 
 Ward and myself more." 
 
 " Xow, Gillette, is a golden opportunity for you," 
 said Mr. Bevan. " Reveal your mystery. Do you 
 know I always suspected you of being the dictator of 
 some little realm in an unknown corner of our wild 
 West, where grapes grow for the asking, and whose 
 people work for love of you." 
 
 " If you had said for love of each other," remarked 
 Gillette, with a peculiar inflection, " you would have 
 better described it — that is, have better described a 
 model state of society." Then in a sudden change of 
 voice, " but I positively decline to constitute myself 
 the hero of this conversation. Didn't Mr. Ward say, 
 as he invited us to join you, that help was wanted to 
 settle some very abstruse question ? " 
 
 " We were discussing the relations of the sexes," 
 remarked Yinton, after a short pause. Then he lifted 
 his sparkling glass. His companions imitated him, 
 and then waited before tasting the wine until the 
 young man should offer the expected toast. '^ Here is 
 to woman, who might be the greatest force for good 
 and happiness." The four glasses were drained and 
 set down as Yinton added : ' ' But is not." 
 
 " How far have you progressed ?" asked Gillette, lean- 
 ing across the table with very noticeable interest. Then 
 with a keen glance from Yinton to Ward, he added : 
 " I am under the impression you did not come very 
 near agreeing." 
 
 Bevan laughed. ^' You will have to look out for my 
 friend Gillette. He's a great guesser, an intuitist." 
 
 Ward waited an instant for Yinton to state their re- 
 spective positions, but as tiie latter seemed in no haste 
 to speak, volunteered the fohowing : 
 
 " Yinton thinks married men and women should al- 
 ways be to each other as the same individuals when 
 
8 A7i .Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 first lovers. I say tliat could only be expected if we 
 were all angels, or at least saints." 
 
 "Yery good, Ward," assented the younger man, 
 with an appreciative look at his friend. "If you can 
 analyze and state our several positions as well when 
 the evening is over, you will deserve to be crowned 
 with the laurel." 
 
 " Yes," said Gillette, "Mr. Ward has set Bevanand 
 myself on the scratch with yourself. Now, how ehall 
 we get to work ? Shall we all talk at once ? " 
 
 " First, let James, here, fill our glasses," interposed 
 Yinton. "James, where are you ? That's right. Kow 
 please watch these glasses, James, and see that they 
 are kept filled. We shall, all of us, be too much ab- 
 sorbed in thinking what we shall say next to notice our 
 glasses. When this bottle is empty bring another, and 
 so on." 
 
 "As to the method of the conversation," suggested 
 Mr. Ward, " I must say I always like decency and good 
 order. How would it be for each one, in turn, to state 
 his views ? This is a subject upon which every one 
 has views. This part of the programme should be free 
 from interruptions, except when James, here, makes 
 us sign our names to the orders for more wine. Then, 
 after each has had his turn, let there be all the cross- 
 questioning desired, if the night is long enough." 
 
 " Good again," said Yinton, " and let Mr. Bevan 
 begin. He is sure to be practical, and will doubtless 
 set a healthy pace for us." 
 
 "And you," continued Ward, looking at Yinton, 
 " for the sake of variety, you should come next. You 
 may safely be trusted not to agree with Bevan. Then 
 I will follow you with all the conservative force I can 
 muster. The place of honoi*, the close, we will leave 
 for our visitor from the land of grapes and wine. Let 
 us drink once to Mr. Gillette and his domain, and then 
 to business." 
 
 As the glasses were set down for the attention of 
 
An Experiment m Marriage. 9 
 
 the faithful James, Mr. Bevan cleared his throat, and 
 began : "As "Ward says, every man can talk on the 
 woman question. From the time we first notice the 
 cropping of a beard on our chins until we return to 
 our second childhood, we devote a good share of our 
 thoughts to women, and sometimes so much of our talk 
 that we are ashamed of it. I think the man shows him- 
 self the most sensible who keeps poetry and romance out 
 of his head as much as possible, where women are con- 
 cerned. The biggest fool in the world is the man who 
 falls heels over head in love. Everybody laughs at 
 him. Everybody ridicules him, and well they may. 
 He is stark staring mad. Even the woman he worships 
 usually joins in the general merrymaking at Ms ex- 
 pense. She cannot but see what an idiot her pretty 
 face, or likely enongh it is a liomely one, has made of 
 the young man. Young man indeed ! Why an old 
 lover is more of a spectacle than a young one. No 
 time of life to be sure is safe from this acute attack 
 of insanity, and repeated attacks come usually with in- 
 creased virulence. The only consoling feature of the 
 peculiar mental derangement called love is that its du- 
 ration is very short. It is cured in various ways, but 
 the best remedy of all is continued exposure to the 
 contagious influence. Marriage will cure the most 
 acute case in a very few weeks. If marriage is not a 
 convenient or practical remedy, try familiarity. Give 
 the patient the utmost possible intimacy with the ob- 
 ject of his insane delusion. This is one of the few 
 diseases, one of the very few mental disturbances, for 
 which the doctors can safely warrant a complete cure 
 or money refunded, always provided dose is taken as 
 ordered." «, 
 
 Everybody laughed, Woird heartily, Yinton grudg- 
 ingly. 
 
 Then Mr. Bevan, looking somewhat pleased at the 
 success of his effort, continued in a somewhat different 
 vein. 
 
10 An Exjperirjnent in Marriage, 
 
 " But if we look in a cool and healthy state of mind, 
 and, shall I add of bod)^ ? at woman, there is no occa- 
 sion for ns to fret ourselves over the problem. For 
 my part I don't see any problem. When a man mar- 
 ries a sensible woman of similar tastes to his own, and 
 of congenial disposition, he has simply provided him- 
 self with a housekeeper and a mother to his children. 
 He must not expect she will want him to sit at her 
 feet and read poetry to her when he should be at his 
 business, and she at her marketing. He mustn't expect 
 she will keep on telling him what a classic profile he 
 has, or that his voice thrills her as she hears him cahing 
 up the stairs that he would like to know what the con- 
 founded women in this house have done with his hat." 
 
 "This is blasphemy," interjected Yinton with an 
 uneasy laugh. 
 
 "No interruptions," insisted Ward, and the speaker 
 continued. 
 
 "I am afraid lam not discussing the woman ques- 
 tion as philosophically as my company would like," 
 suggested Mr. Bevan, moistening his lips with the 
 wine. " If cheap talk like mine is out of place in the 
 presence of this awful theme, just say so, somebody, 
 and I will yield the floor." 
 
 " You're intensely practical," remarked Gillette in a 
 tone that attracted a sharp look from Yinton; " from 
 your standpoint, I mean. At this stage of the discus- 
 sion nothing, I think, could be more helpful." 
 
 " Go ahead, by all means," added AVard, with an 
 amused glance at Yinton's disgusted face. 
 
 " Well," continued Mr. Bevan, " I have not much 
 more to say. Yet there is something so alluring about 
 the subject that I befeeve I could drift on all night. A 
 husband must not^expect that his wife will like all his 
 club friends or his club jokes. She will always prefer 
 to talk gossip, or discuss servant girls, to politics or 
 the money market. She will always enjoy shopping, 
 which we abhor, elaborate dressing, which we hate, 
 
An £/xperiment in Marriage, 11 
 
 and all sorts of pomps and vanities wliicli the well 
 organized of the male sex despise. The more thoroughly 
 a husband recovers from the false ideas and impossible 
 expectations born and cultivated during that brief 
 frenzy called courtship, the better he will enjoy his 
 wife and his home after marriage. It seems to be the 
 proper and the necessary thing for a man to fall in 
 love, and go daft over the imaginary goddess concealed 
 in woman. When a man, be he young or old, married 
 or single, is in this condition, he is to be pitied, not to 
 be maliciously scoffed at or ridiculed, for he is sensi- 
 tive, and on other subjects comparatively sane. Besides, 
 no human being is safe from similar attacks, and the 
 scoffer of to-day is liable to be the scoffed at of to-mor- 
 row. A man in this condition — and doubtless a woman 
 in love is just as foolish — is likel^y enough to sacrifice 
 position, fame, honor, duty, independence, every thing 
 to his frenzy. Let us make allowances for the acts of 
 the madman, throw a cloak over his sins. But cer- 
 tainly, gentlemen, there is no good reason why we 
 should believe him when he claims that it is he Avho is 
 sane, and the rest of us who are beside ourselves. 
 Surely there is no sense in listening to his erotic rav- 
 ings and maudlin rhapsodies as the true revelation as 
 to what men and women can be and should be to each 
 other. Bevan has spoken." 
 
 There was silence for a moment as Mr. Bevan drained 
 his glass, and watched James replenish it. Then Gil- 
 lette remarked quite seriously: "You are actually a 
 worse Philistine even than I suspected. You ought 
 to be preserved in alcohol, a curious specimen of nine- 
 teenth century civilization." 
 
 Yinton watched Gillette with great interest as he 
 made the remark. Ward glanced at the clock which 
 stood over the fireplace just behind Mr. Bevan, and 
 suddenly exclaimed : "It is growing late. We must 
 not waste a minute. It is your turn next, Yinton. 
 Answer the reviler." 
 
12 An Ex;periinent in Marriage, 
 
 Yinton waited for no second prompting, but rushed 
 into the subject in his own impetuous, almost impatient 
 fashion. " I am glad Bevan spoke first. He has saved 
 me the trouble of describing the prevailing scepticism 
 as to the scope and meaning of love. He is a living, 
 breathing example of the shocking degradation which 
 the sexual ideal has reached." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 *'Our friend Bevan," continued Vinton, *' is no 
 worse tlian the average man. Wliat he says about 
 woman, the average man would say if he could ex- 
 press himself as well. The attitude of Bevan toward 
 the sex is that of the average man, responded to in 
 kind by most women. These are the facts which make 
 t.he problem so serious. Society is overwhelmed 
 with despair. Marriage is described as a lottery, love 
 as a delusion. But I do not for a minute believe that 
 harai onions and ennobling relations between the sexes 
 have ceased to be possible. I believe there is such a 
 thing as an ideal marriage. I have seen many instances 
 of it. So must jou all. I have seen husbands, who, 
 after ten years of married life, were as much lovers as 
 the hour they were accepted; wives to whose adoring 
 eyes their husbands continued to be perfection ; hus- 
 bands and wives whose hearts always glowed at tlie ap- 
 proach of each other, whose whole natures seemed ever 
 stimulated into their highest attributes in each other's 
 presence. Such husbands and wives live ideal lives. 
 Suffering and pain but serve to drive them closer to 
 each other's arms, sorrows to teach them the rare sweet- 
 ness of giving and receiving perfect consolation, mis- 
 fortunes to offer complete conviction of the blessedness 
 and all sufficiency of love. These instances are excep- 
 tional, but they prove conclusively how glorifying, how 
 ennobling the relations of' the sexes may be. It is just 
 such a perfect relation each ardent pair of lovers ex- 
 pects. The failures of countless thousands go for noth- 
 ing to them. They have perfect faith that their love 
 
14 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 is purer and more eternal than tliat of others, that the 
 fond dreams of their hearts will be fulfilled, and their 
 married life prove an earthly paradise. Poor fools, we 
 say, and we watch their ardors waning with their honey- 
 moon, we overhear their first cross words, notice the 
 silence that befalls when they are alone, in place of the 
 eager flood of talk of earlier days, the small rudenesses 
 and petty neglects growing more frequent with time, 
 the thousand signs of weariness and lack of mutual 
 sympathy and good will. They too have drawn blanks. 
 They both mean well. They both are miserable over 
 the wreck of their hopes of marital felicity. Nothing 
 would so win their gratitude as to tell them some 
 method to regain the elusive passion which promised to 
 make their two lives a pathway of flowers. A whole 
 school of writers wins its bread by preaching to dis- 
 appointed husbands and wives, by dispensing maxims 
 which, if faithfully followed, will, it is claimed, coax back 
 the erring Cupid to gild their lives with poetry and 
 romance once more. But they might as well attempt to 
 warm into new life the body of a drowned man, to make 
 the cold charcoal left from yesterday's fire glow and 
 crackle of itself. These disappointed husbands and wives 
 have made dreadful mistakes, and must suffer for them 
 the rest of their lives. They will doubtless patch up some 
 new and commonplace relation of comj^anionship, of 
 friendship, of partnership, but they can no more fall in 
 love with each other again, than they could keep so by 
 main force. Yet they will commonly keej) up the man- 
 nerisms of lovers, call each other pet names, but alas, in 
 very matter-of-fact tones of voice, kiss each other at 
 meeting and parting, but what a travesty on the kiss 
 of love which once they exchanged." 
 
 Yinton paused for a moment, and swallowed half a 
 glass of wine. A peculiar solemnity had taken the 
 place of the merriment evoked by Mr. Bevan's little 
 statement of creed. Ward seemed loath to have his 
 friend leave the them e where it was, and incpiired : 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 15 
 
 " Which do you blame, the man or the woman ? " 
 Vinton finished his glass before replying. 
 
 "Blame for what? Because their marriage is a 
 failure ? ^ Why, I tell you either of them would have 
 been willing to give an arm if the lover's dream might 
 be reahzed for them in married life. Their vision, 
 however, refuses to materiahze. Blame them, indeed ! 
 They have their punishment whether they deserved 
 one or not. Their feelings are such as an epicure 
 might have, if a basket of the rarest grapes from Mr. 
 Gillette's vineyard were first placed before him so he 
 should take their perfume and his appetite be excited, 
 then just as he reached forth his hand to carry ^ cluster 
 of the luscious beauties to his mouth, basket and all 
 should be caught forever away. The epicure is not to 
 blame. From the perfume and appearance of the 
 grapes he might well count on a perfect feast. But 
 the basket was not for him. Those lovers who find 
 marriage a failure, and, accordingly, life itself pretty 
 nearly one, were not so mistaken in their lofty ideas of 
 what marriage might be. Their mistake is in tlieir 
 choice. The poets tell us there is some one woman 
 fitted to be the perfect mate for eacn man. Very 
 likely there are many women in the world adapted to 
 make any man happy and to be made happy by him. 
 Marriage is so generally a failure, and the sexual rela- 
 tion as a force for progress and education so generally 
 perverted to be merely an excitant of base passions and 
 degrading lusts, because those who could make each 
 other true husbands and wives seldom, according to 
 the inexorable law of chances, meet under circumstances 
 to recognize each other." 
 
 Mr. Ward did not wait to be informed that his turn 
 had come, but began as follows : "Bevan and Yinton 
 agree as to one of their conclusions, and I cannot do 
 better than agree with both disputants that married 
 people generally cease to be lovei's. Bevan thinks 
 this is a proper and natural course of affairs, and that 
 
16 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 love is a sort of emotional insanity. I cannot agree 
 with him in this. Yinton thinks that marriage is so 
 generally a faihire because the right people commonly 
 fail to marry each other. Here I cannot agree with 
 him. I do not say that every married man and woman 
 can be expected to continue lovers. There are numer- 
 ous cases of utter incompatibility which necessarily re- 
 sult in making husband and wife a constant annoyance 
 to each other. But I believe that the man and woman, 
 who, after a reasonable acquaintance and courtship, de- 
 cide to marry, convinced that they can make each other 
 happy, are very able to fulfill those expectations, always 
 provided that they show decent common sense and 
 proper unselfishness. The follies committed by the 
 young husband and wife during the first few months 
 of married life pass common credence. It is not so 
 much a wonder that they often lose their love and sen- 
 timent for each other, as that there are cases where 
 they always continue lovers. If we have a friend whom 
 we are very anxious to keep, we are a thousand times 
 more considerate and careful in our demeanor toward 
 him than the average husband is in his behavior toward 
 a newly-wedded wife. The manner of the young hus- 
 band to his bride is a queer compound of fatuous con- 
 fidence and insulting distrust. He wants her to con- 
 tinue to be as devoted, as reverent as in those first 
 dreamy days after their betrothal. But, himself, he in- 
 dulges in selfish weakaesses to which he never gave 
 way before. He treats the woman he has married as 
 if she were his slave, and her bondage perpetual, so 
 that he need no longer care to show himself at his 
 best. He is more like a spoiled child than a fully- 
 grown and disciplined man, to whom are offered new 
 possibilities of sympathy, appreciation, and inspiration 
 to a higher life. When i. woman shows disappoint- 
 ment at the change in him whom she had thought so 
 god-like as her lover, he forgets his own faults, and 
 convinces himself that she does not love him. His 
 
An Experiment iii Marriage. 17 
 
 heart is filled with bitterness and despair. I used the 
 case when the husband is the thoughtless, inconsiderate 
 one, and the wife is the sufferer. Just as often it is 
 the husband who is the sufferer, and the wife who 
 ceases to be adorable. Usually both are guilty and 
 both are sufferers. Their faults act and re-act until 
 another marriage has become a palpable failure. As 
 lovers they call forth what is best in each other, dis- 
 close hidden virtues, stimulate unguessed powers, un- 
 dreamed of graces. Neither may have seemed es- 
 pecially admirable to the world in general. It is only 
 to the other that each one yields sweetness and light. 
 To each other, as lovers, they are really adorable. The 
 sudden fruition of marriage it is which seems to have 
 changed every thing. For a few days they riot in 
 each other's expanding natures. The whole of their 
 lives might be the same, but on condition that both 
 should continue to give forth only their best, that 
 both should suppress the base, the selfish, the ignoble. 
 They should at once educate and enjoy each other. 
 Sexual love should be the great religious force of our 
 existence. As Yin ton says, we all of us know instan- 
 ces where love is all I describe to the happy married 
 man and woman who have not been blind to its pos- 
 sibihties. The average human nature is not, however, 
 fine and strong enough to endure the strain of continu- 
 ing the lover attitude through life. A few weeks, 
 with occasional lapses at that, mark the capacity of the 
 ordinary man and woman for that ideal relation of the 
 sexes which brings out all that is best and most satisfy- 
 ing in each other. When the tension is released the 
 groveling tendency of mankind shows itself. Mar- 
 riage is a failure because the man and woman nature 
 is as yet incapable of the sustained elevation of char- 
 acter which comes at the beginning of sexual love, and, 
 alas, usually goes with it." 
 
 Bevan rose suddenly to his feet, watch in hand. " It 
 is twelve o'clock and I must positively leave you. I 
 3 
 
18 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 would like to sit here and discuss this subject all night, 
 but I can't do it." 
 
 " I see the steward is eyeing us somewhat uneasily," 
 exclaimed Yinton, pushing back his chair. " He ap- 
 parently wants to sleep, however we may feel. To hear 
 Mr. Gillette's views we must go elsewhere." 
 
 " Don't let me put you to so much trouble, gentle- 
 meu," urged Gillette with a pleasant smile. ^' Let 
 me tell my story at my nex*t visit to !N^ew York." By 
 this time all the gentlemen had risen, and the steward's 
 countenance lost its melancholy expression as they 
 moved slowly toward the door. Bevan and Yinton 
 were in advance, Ward and Gillette behind. 
 
 Ward laid his hand lightly on his companion's arm. 
 " We haven't the least idea of letting you off, Mr. Gil- 
 lette. I speak for Yinton and myself. Bevan there is 
 a man of business, and social delights are mere by-play 
 to him. Yinton, on the other hand, is a literary man, 
 a writer of novels. To him a new idea is treasure- 
 trove. He Avould willingly turn night into day for a 
 week, if he might find one suggestion such as a man 
 like you, with diffei'ent associations from ours, will be 
 sure to give. As for myself I am a professional idler, 
 a searcher into all sorts of unanswerable cpiestious, any 
 thing to make me forget I am not busy. You can't 
 escape us." 
 
 ^' But Bevan says he is going home," laughed Gil- 
 lette, as he put on his tall hat, just recovered from the 
 sleepy check clerk. 
 
 " He takes the ' elevated ' at the second corner from 
 here. Suppose we walk to the station with him, and 
 send him home, in the pleasing but erroneous notion 
 that he has done his whole duty. Then for some quiet 
 ' always open ' beer saloon, and the extraction of your 
 ideas on the woman question." 
 
 Bevan and Yinton were close at hand by the time 
 Ward had made his proposal to the visitor from the 
 West, and so the latter had no opportunity to reply. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 19 
 
 But lie permitted "Ward and Bevan to lead tlie way to 
 the elevated railroad station, although his liotel lay in 
 the opposite direction, and when Bevan had been sent 
 steaming iip-town, with a light conscience and a sense 
 of duty performed, Mr. Gillette turned to Yinton and 
 said * 
 
 " Your friend has betrayed you into a scrape, Mr. 
 Yinton.. He insists that yon, as well as he, would like 
 to hear my ideas on the sexual relation." 
 
 " Delightful," exclaimed Yinton with unmistakable 
 enthusiasm. " I suspected what Bevan would say on 
 the subject, I knew what my friend Ward would say. 
 But you will introduce a new element into the discus- 
 sion. You will say something we have not thought of. 
 Where shall we go. Ward ? " 
 
 '' Excuse me," interposed Gillette before Ward 
 could reply. " ^ew York streets have not lost their 
 interest for me. If you do not very much care to go 
 inside, what do you say to walking as we talk? The 
 streets are * always open ' too, you know." 
 
 ''Let me be the pilot," said Yinton. " I am a great 
 lover of the streets of New York. Instead of weary- 
 ing me it seems as if they excited me more and more. 
 Tlie intensity of the life that throbs in the very air 
 here is positive pain sometimes. But it thrills me. 
 It gives me sensations. It breeds an endless succes- 
 sion of thoughts and of sympathies." 
 
 So Yinton took Gillette's right arm, and Ward his 
 left. They then started on a walk fated to have very 
 momentous consequences to the two gentlemen of 
 Xew York. 
 
 " From, what you two gentlemen have said I see 
 that you believe what I have come to know ! That 
 is, that one of the greatest blessings in life, if not the 
 greatest of all blessings, is sexual love. You are un- 
 happy over the rarity of the lover in married life, caus- 
 ing the so common failure of marriage and the home, 
 in this the most polished age of modern civilization 
 
20 A?i Exjyeriment in Marriage, 
 
 and of human progress. Bevan is an unbeliever in 
 the scope and office of this love. The modern man of 
 the world has grown to believe that woman can only 
 serve a man by gratifying his lusts ; that love is noth- 
 ing but desire for physical pleasure, and once sated dies 
 as a matter of course. But I can see that 3^ou believe 
 as I do, that in this love the soul finds its best ex- 
 pression, its religion ; the mind, its best stimulus ; 
 the spirit, our real inner self, its wings. You believe 
 this from your memory of love's young dream, its 
 glory, its sacredness, its marvelous expanding power. 
 When the lovers have found what should be fruition in 
 marriage, you have seen them for the most part cease 
 to be lovei-s. Yet you have faith ; I believe because I 
 have seen." 
 
 Gillette paused for an instant, and Yinton ex- 
 claimed : " You mean you have seen cases of married 
 lovers whose passion, if you may call it so, increased 
 with increase of years ; who were eternal joys to each 
 other, as well as inspirations. So have I, so has 
 AYard." 
 
 " I mean more than that," answered Gillette, slowly. 
 He seemed hesitating w^iether he should go further. 
 But he continued : '' I know a spot where marriage is 
 all that it ought to be here. It is a lovers' paradise. 
 I am willing to tell you about it if you wish it." 
 
 To say that Ward and Yinton were taken aback by 
 this bold statement from their new acquaintance was a 
 feeble expression. Was the man so much affected by 
 the wine? Ward recovered his presence of mind 
 first. 
 
 " A fancy sketch, I suppose. By all means give it 
 to us." 
 
 "No, but a real description of a real society," an- 
 swered Gillette, not without some amusement at the 
 apparent shock he had given his companions. "Mr. 
 Bevan, you will remember, spok'e of me as selling 
 grapes and wine in large and yearly increasing quanti- 
 
A71 Exj>erime7it in Marriage. 21 
 
 ties. I am the eastern selling agent of a settlement 
 which we call Grape Valley. It is on no map, but a 
 thousand men, beside women and children, live there 
 an ideal life, because love has its perfect work. Our 
 numbers are constantly increasing through our projDa- 
 ganda. So it is that we have more grapes and wine 
 to sell each year. With the price of our products we 
 buy in your markets such articles as our minds and 
 bodies may need." 
 
 "A socialistic society, of course?" queried Ward 
 with an assumed calmness. 
 
 " As you say, of course," replied Gillette. " You 
 may well believe that if a social system be set up de 
 novo as this was, the accumulated abuses of civiliza- 
 tion, the burden of the misdeeds of centuries would 
 not be shouldered. One for all and all for one, is our 
 first maxim of political economy. All our children 
 are educated in what are really common schools. Our 
 men and women work a small portion of each day for 
 an equal reward, and all have leisure enough for the 
 pleasures and entertainments to which all have access." 
 
 After a silence of almost a minute. Ward found his 
 voice again : '' If you are not insane, Mr. Gillette, I 
 know you are philosopher enough to excuse, under the 
 circumstances, my brutal fi'ankness. If you are insane, 
 your delusion appears to be a pleasing one. I should 
 like to hear you elaborate it. Yinton here probably 
 would say so too, but he is almost in a state of mental 
 collapse. Some of these literary men have extremely 
 sensitive organizations, you must know. We are nearly 
 at the City Hall now. Let us take the Brooklyn bridge, 
 and, when we reach the highest point, seat ourselves 
 on the benches which we shall find there and hear this 
 matter out if it takes until morning." 
 
 The party was well upon the bridge when Yinton 
 found his voice: "-You must see, Mr. Gillette, that 
 what you say is naturally very startling. I can see 
 that my friend is inclined to doubt your good faith. 
 
22 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 But in me please behold the most credulous man in the 
 world. I solemnly assure jou I shall believe all that 
 you tell me." 
 
 "Shall I describe our economical relations to you 
 in detail ? " asked Gillette, as they began to climb the 
 steps once the scene of so awful a catastrophe ? 
 
 " No there is not time," answered Yinton, beginning 
 to shovv^ symptoms of extreme nervous excitement. 
 " Besides, I am in, a mood to hear of nothing but mira- 
 cles to-night. It is quite a matter of course that a 
 settlement of sensible persons should decide not to live 
 under the economical conditions which curse so-called 
 civilization. But you say you have solved the sexual 
 problem in Grape Valley. " We will try to understand 
 your new economical relations when you use that 
 luminous adjective ' socialistic' Devote all your pow- 
 ers to explaining how your settlement has been made a 
 lovers' paradise." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 There was a bright moon, a clear sky, and the air 
 was free of fog. The view on either side and down 
 the harbor was impressive to the point of grandeur. 
 The glistening water far beneath bore on its bosom 
 ships from the ends of the earth, with thousands sleep- 
 ing in their depths. To their left was Brooklyn, with 
 its hundreds of thousands of sleeping creatures, to the 
 right ]^ew York, Jersey City and Staten Island 
 with their millions of dreamei's. Only these three and 
 nature seemed awake. Mr. Gillette could not have 
 asked for more fitting surroundings while he should re- 
 veal the secrets of Grape Yalley. 
 
 "It is the socialistic nature of our settlement which 
 makes a reform in sexual relations possible. Our women 
 are personally independent, as much so as our men. The 
 woman earns with her ow^n hands her equal share of the 
 necessities and luxuries of Grape Yalley. If she marries, 
 it is, therefore, with no mixed motives, but for what she 
 thinks pure love. If she finds she is mistaken, there 
 are no questions of maintenance to be settled. She is 
 as independent as your married heiress here with 
 $100,000 in her own right. There is nothing but love 
 to keep the husband and wife in Grape Yalley together. 
 The children ? Yes, our women have children. Neither 
 do they regard their advent with fears nor anxieties as 
 to care and expense involved. Children in Grape Yal- 
 ley are the wards of the State. They are cared for at 
 the general nursery and at the schools and colleges 
 where their parents see, visit and enjoy them. There 
 is nothing to prevent the affectionate father and mother 
 
24 An Experiment in Marr'iage, 
 
 from spending all their leisure with their children if 
 they desire, but a burden, a restraint, an inconvenience, 
 a consuming care, the children of Grape Yallej can 
 never be. But the woman does not have all her de- 
 velopment stopped w^hen she becomes a mother ; she 
 is not forced by imperious maternal duties to neglect to 
 be her liusband's sweetheart. Now let us see how our 
 Grape Valley husbands and wives differ from those of 
 your civiHzation ; first, since the wife is pecuniarily in- 
 dependent they are not held together by a necessity for 
 support on her side, nor by pity and consideration on 
 his ; second, the children are no tie to hold the parents 
 together against their will, no common burden entailing 
 common bondage. You tell me then that 1 have only 
 described conditions which weaken the ties between 
 husband and wife ? I admit it. There should be no 
 tie between man and woman which will contine them 
 after they have ceased to love each other. Any thing 
 less than love uniting husband and wife is bondage. 
 Any other relation except that founded on absorbing 
 and controlling passion is mutual slavery. The simple 
 means we hav^e adopted under our socialistic institutions 
 in Grape Valley to make it a lovers' paradise is free 
 divorce. 
 
 *' When a husband or wife is so inclined whichever 
 desires divorce separates from the other by a certain 
 entry in our record office. Some of the States of the 
 Union have very broad divorce laws, as you will re- 
 mind me. According to the United States Constitu- 
 tion each State can make its own provisions on this sub- 
 ject. But you have not noticed that the States with 
 the freest divorce laws are famous for their happy 
 homes '? Nor have I. Free divorce is the key to do- 
 mestic felicity only vrhen practiced under socialistic 
 conditions such as prevail in Grape Valley. With us 
 the assured possession which Mr. Ward speaks of as 
 turning the heads of husbands and wives does not ex- 
 ist. The husband and wife in Grape Valley are always 
 
A71 Expe7'ime7it in Marriage. 25 
 
 on probation. If they love one another they continu- 
 ally seek to endear themselves to each other. When 
 one or the other discovers a mistake in choice has been 
 made, there is a speedy means of correcting it. ^o 
 husband or wife in Grape Valley makes the best of a 
 spouse who cannot confer and inspire the pi'ofoundest 
 love. All are capable of such love; in order to achieve 
 happy lives and insure progressive souls, all should 
 have it. In Grape Yalley every thing is favorable to 
 the enjoyment and cultivation of sexual love. Our 
 day's labor is but half as long as yours, so that there is 
 ample leisure for companionship. There are no anxie- 
 ties in money matters or household cares and burdens 
 more trying still to spoil the temper and mar the fea- 
 tures. There is none of that sense of restraint which- 
 makes the bachelor of your civilization dread marriage 
 so much, and the average Benedict regret his old free- 
 dom, even if hefinds comfort in the domestic relation.'' 
 
 Gillette drew three cigars from his pocket,, and hand- 
 ing one to each of his companions, lighted the third, and 
 puffed at it as vigorously as if he were conscious of a 
 good deal of lost time to make up. His companions 
 evidently expected him to resume his story, and were 
 so much interested as not to be willing to distract even 
 so much of their attention as should be necessary to 
 light a cigar. 
 
 "Aren't you going to smoke?" demanded Gillette 
 after enduring their inquiring gaze as long as he 
 thought possible. 
 
 " Bother the cigars," exclaimed Vinton impatiently. 
 *' Finish your description. Have you really achieved 
 general connubial felicity iu what you call Grape Val- 
 ley?" 
 
 '' Yes." 
 
 "But tell us," insisted Ward, "tell us how the 
 women look and act. Is your whole colony more ele- 
 vated m moral and intellectual tone, owing to your 
 system ? " 
 
 4 
 
26 An Experiment in Mamaye. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 Yinton and Ward looked past their new friend, sud- 
 denly became monosyllabic, into each other's disap- 
 pointed faces, and then both laughed at what they saw. 
 In a minute more there were tliree cigars alight, and 
 it was only after a very significant silence that Ward 
 said calmly : 
 
 " I conclude you have told n? all you mean to." 
 
 *' I wouldn't put it so bald'y as that," answered 
 Gillette. ^' 1 have told you ah you would believe." 
 
 "And if we want to know the rest?" inquired 
 Yinton. 
 
 Gillette thought for a moment. Then he answered 
 in a hearty tone : " In that case you must come and 
 join us. I will take you back with me." 
 
 "I will go," exclaimed A^inton impetuously. But 
 Ward with the conservatism of years kept silent. " It 
 will be an experience worth all the time it takes," 
 added Yinton, for the benefit of his friend. 
 
 " Excuse me," said Gillette, after a little pause. " I 
 have apparently not made myself understood. I did 
 not propose to take 3^ou with me to Grape Yalley 
 merely as curious students. Those who join us are 
 enthusiastic converts, impatient with the farce of love 
 as it is usually rendered under your social conditions, 
 passionately eager to enjoy our new world." 
 
 Then Ward spoke : " Nothing would please me 
 more th?.n a visit to Grape Yalley. But I am not 
 ready to go to that bourne from which no traveler 
 returns. I am not so far surfeited with the luxuries 
 and amenities of this effete civilization, cursed with 
 abuses, reeking with corruption as I acknowledge it 
 is, to be willing to exchange it forever even for your 
 lovers' paradise." 
 
 Yinton suddenly burst out with : "• Can't you let us 
 try your society — say for two years ? Then if one or 
 both of us still sigh for our dear old abuses let him, or 
 us both as may happen, return ? " 
 
A71 Experiment in Marriage. 27 
 
 " Two years is a long time, Yinton," remarked 
 Ward significantly. 
 
 "Two years a long time? Why, what are yoii 
 thinking of, Ward ? If in two years we can learn 
 something really new, we ought to consider ourselves 
 iu rare luck. A new experience ! A chance to study, 
 from the inside, new social conditions! An oppor- 
 tunity to examine an attempt to solve that most 
 fascinating and baffling of earthly problems, the true 
 sexual relations ! Why, bless your heart, Ward, isn't 
 it worth five tunes two years of our idle and desultory 
 lives?" 
 
 *' Yes," answered Ward in a convinced tone, *'you 
 are right. I will give two years to Grape Yalley if 
 Mr. Gillette will accept such provisional devoteeship 
 as that." 
 
 Gillette made no reply, and Yinton, throwing away 
 liis cigar, laid his hand persuasively on his new friend's 
 arm. 
 
 " Try us, Mr. Gillette. You know our surroundings 
 and education have made us sceptics. A sceptic is a 
 variety of dead sea fruit of which our civihzation 
 is proudest you know. It is left for the ignorant, 
 the unlettered, the inexperienced to believe. The 
 flower of our culture doubts all things. So you must 
 make allowances for us." he conchided, scoffing at 
 himself. 
 
 Still Gillette made no answer, and Ward took up 
 the argument. 
 
 " Naturally you do not care to reveal to the world 
 at large the location of your settlement. I can under- 
 stand that. A new crusade would be at once organized 
 against you. The admirers of the system of society 
 where marriage is usually a failure, where vice and 
 shame are triumphant, would not rest satisfied or sleep 
 o'nights, while one of your grape vines clung to its 
 nourishing soil. But believe me, we would not betray 
 the approaches to your Eden." 
 
28 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 " Make your own terms," urged Yinton, with char- 
 acteristic eagerness, " put all your vows upon us. We 
 submit in advance to all your conditions." 
 
 " Yes," added Ward, '' first put in all the possible 
 appeals to our last remnant of honor. Then surround 
 us with all the restrictions you can invent to make 
 assurance doubly sure. Blindfold us if you choose." 
 
 Gillette slowly rose from his seat, and stood looking 
 thoughtfully out upon the water. In the distance the 
 giant arm of Bartholdi's statue held up her dim torch 
 in vain hope of enlightening the world. The symbol 
 perhaps touched him, and turned the scale of his de- 
 termination. 
 
 "My conditions would have to be hard ones," he 
 said at last. " You are, clearly enough, neither of you 
 disciples. But still I believe I will run the risk of 
 taking you with me, if, indeed, there is any risk, such 
 conditions as I must impose being accepted." 
 
 " We accept them in advance," exclaimed Yinton. 
 " x\s for discipleship, please count me in. I feel as- 
 sured 1 shall not want to return to this poor world." 
 And the young man actually snapped his fingers at the 
 untold wealth and luxury of the magnificent cities 
 that slept at his feet. 
 
 Gillette smiled at the enthusiasm of his new friend, 
 and then began to state his conditions. " First, when 
 we reach Topeka, Kansas, some excuse must be in- 
 vented for blindfolding you both, and sealing your 
 ears. Y^ou must consent to do without two of your 
 senses for something more than a week." 
 
 " Agreed," exclaimed Yinton; and Gillette continued: 
 
 " Then when the time of your novitiate has expired, 
 if either of you decide to leave us, he must be similarly 
 blindfolded and deafened until his return to Topeka is 
 accomplished." 
 
 " Agreed." And this time Ward joined Yinton in 
 the exclamation. 
 
 "Now for the moral restraints," continued Gillette. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 29 
 
 ^^ I need not explain how disastrous notoriety would be 
 to our settlement. We should die a double death. 
 The hiflux, too rapid for humanizing and elevating in- 
 fluences, of the vulgar crowd, would overwhelm our 
 institutions and debase them. The bigots would arouse 
 governments against us, and statutes would either be 
 discovered, or quickly enacted for our extinction. You 
 must each of you promise on your honor not to seek to 
 know the geographical location of Grape Yalley, either 
 while there or after leaving." 
 
 '^ I promise," said Ward. 
 
 " I promise," echoed Vinton. 
 
 " When can we start % " asked Gillette in a more 
 matter of fact tone. " My business is completed here. 
 I would like to set out to return day after to-morrow, 
 but this will probably be too short notice for you." 
 
 '' Not for me," answered Ward, rising to his feet. 
 " No one has any claims on me. I have only a few 
 money matters to settle, and I am ready. That re- 
 minds me ; it will, of course, be necessary for us to 
 take a considerable amount of money with us." 
 
 Gillette laughed. "Apparently, my dear Mr. Ward, 
 you are not erudite in matters socialistic. Your money 
 w^ould not be current in Grape Yalley. But your labor 
 and brains will doubtless be of value to the State, suf- 
 licient for your board, lodging and clothes. Take 
 enough money with you for traveling expenses — say 
 $200 each. That will be more than enough." Then 
 turning to Yinton, " Can you, too, be ready to start 
 day after to-morrow ? " 
 
 Yinton laughed with some bitterness. " I don't 
 know what preparations I have to make," he said, 
 '' unless it were a last farewell visit to the woman who 
 jilted me for another man's millions. Yery likely she 
 would enjoy the sensation of another parting. She is 
 quite an epicure in the way of sensations." Then he 
 rose suddenly to his feet and said in a more genial 
 tone : " Certainly, I will be ready." And the three 
 
30 An Exjyerivient in Marriage. 
 
 men once more joined arms and retraced their steps 
 across the silent bridge. 
 
 In another hour, after making an appointment to 
 meet at Gillette's hotel, the Fifth Avenue, at nine 
 o'clock the next morning but one, the}' had parted. 
 They were all in bed, if not asleep, by the time the 
 first carts with country produce began to rumble over 
 the drowsy streets. 
 
 Editorial Note. 
 
 It was not much after the middle of the next day 
 that Ward and Vinton made their appearance, as they 
 had often done before, in the editorial room of the 
 daily paper wMth which I have been for many years 
 connected. I was just putting the finishing touches to 
 a leader entitled '' The Growing Frequency of Di- 
 vorce." I was not a little proud of my effort, and pro- 
 posed to take advantage of my intimate relations with 
 my visitors to read them the article. " It is not long," 
 I said, clearing my throat. 
 
 " Don't do it," exclaimed Yinton. " We have n't a 
 moment to spare, and have enough to say to you to 
 fill a book." 
 
 '^ Forgive us this time," pleaded Ward, satirically, 
 as he saw a disgusted look come over my face. " Put 
 ou your hat and lunch with us at Delmonico's. Don't 
 be sulky uow. There isn't any time to waste. Yinton 
 is right." 
 
 In half an hour we were seated in a private room 
 in Delmonico's, ordered by Mr. Ward with perfect 
 disregard of expense, and were enjoying w^hat he was 
 pleased to call a lunch, but a more royal dinner I had 
 never sat down to. My friends did not at first tell me 
 what they had for me to do. They were conscientious 
 enough not to be guilty of distracting my attention 
 from the rare viands, of which, indeed, they too par- 
 took as if in apprehension that it might be long before 
 
All Experiment in Marriage. 31 
 
 tliey had sucli aiiotlier opportunity. It was only after 
 tlie*^ remnants of the feast had been removed and our 
 cigars had been hghted that the waiter was told to 
 leave the room, and I saw that the mystery of the 
 banquet in the pris^ate room, which had been given in 
 my honor, was about to be solved. Of course not 
 even for a moment had I suffered myself to entertain 
 the idea that the dinner was intended merely as a 
 tribute to my long unappreciated virtues or talents, so 
 I very calmly prepared to listen to what my friends 
 had to impart. Then first one and then the other at- 
 tempted to tell me of the strange conversation of the 
 night before and its stranger outcome. What Vinton 
 forgot, Ward supplied. So with numberless interrup- 
 tions and frequent changes of point of view I was 
 finally placed in possession of every thing said and done 
 by Mr. Gillette, Mr. Be van and my two friends, from 
 ten o'clock last evening until they went to bed very 
 early this morning. It made no difference what argu- 
 ments, drawn from a broad and practical experience, I 
 offered to dissuade them from what I called a crazy 
 adventure. They simply laughed at my labored 
 worldly wisdom, as they called it. Just before they 
 shook my hand at parting, Yin ton said : 
 
 "What we particularly want of you is to write up 
 all we have told you, using imaginary names of course, 
 and to do it at once, before you forget the details. You 
 may never hear from either of us again. In that case 
 we want to have what we have already told you put 
 before the public in some shape. Give whatever title 
 you choose to your report. Call it ' A Mysterious Dis- 
 appearance' if you can think of no better title. But 
 have it published without, fail. It might do for a 
 magazine article. Use your own judgment about that. 
 Of course you can add as a foot-note whatever expla- 
 nation you choose to offer of your part in the literary 
 work. Yet I hope within the two years that I may be 
 able to get into your hands some sort of a description 
 
32 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 of our actual experiences and observations in Grape 
 Valley itself. 1 mean to keep a full record of all- that 
 is interesting to me, with a view to sending it to jou 
 some time. If that sketch, or whatever you niay 
 please to call it, comes ^by any means into your hands, 
 you can use what we have just given you as an intro- 
 duction, you know, and publish the whole together. 
 We want the world to get the benefit of our experi- 
 ence." 
 
 Of course I agreed, and the foregoing pages were 
 written and laid away among my private papers. 
 Shortly before the expiration of two years a thick 
 package, addressed to me in Yinton's handwriting, was 
 placed in my hands by a district messenger boy. Per- 
 haps I can do no better than to let the contents of that 
 envelope occupy the rest of the volume now ready for 
 the printers. — [Editor. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 It was only after leaving Topeka that Gillette in- 
 sisted on tlie use of the precautions to which Ward and 
 I had agreed in advance. The explanation given for 
 the benefit of the curions was that my friend Ward 
 and I had undergone serious surgical operations upon 
 our eyes, and were now on our way, in the charge of 
 attendants, to our southwestern home. Inquirers were 
 informed that the eminent Chicago specialist who per- 
 formed the delicate operation had positively enjoined 
 upon our guides that under no circumstances must we 
 be excited by conversation. Hence it was, Gillette ex- 
 plained, that he had put cotton in our ears. Doubtless 
 the expressions of sympathy for our luckless condition 
 were numberless. Poor Gillette must have been tor- 
 mented nearly to the point of insanity by pitiful woman, 
 whose heart, careless of latitude and longitude, ever 
 melts for the unfortunate. But we, of course, were 
 unconscious of every thing that the two most important 
 of our senses could have told us, and only knew that 
 we traveled night and day, whether north, south, east 
 or west, we could not guess ; we could not even ex- 
 change impressions. 
 
 For a day and a night more we went by rail. Then 
 there were several days' journey in wagons, and several 
 more on horseback. It was a strange experience to 
 me, at first extremely trying to bear, but I do not 
 know as I regret having passed through it. At first 
 my self- consciousness seemed intensified almost to the 
 point of pain. All the faculties of observation, de- 
 prived of their ordinary employment, seemed turned 
 5 
 
34 An Exjyeriment in Marriage. 
 
 inward. I could almost see mj mental operations. It 
 was as if I discerned the dual man, myself and my 
 self- consciousness, the spirit as something apart from 
 the body. Then my body became of infinitely small 
 importance to me. I became conscious of a better, a 
 fuller, a less sordid life apart from the physical. 
 
 I was in no haste to have my eyes unbandaged, and 
 my ears unsealed. Indeed, my first emotion as I felt 
 some one trying to untie the handkerchief from about 
 my head was one of impatience. I should have pre- 
 ferred to have been left alone with myself. It was as 
 if profane steps had approached the shrine where I was 
 rapt in devotion. But in a moment I felt my eyes un- 
 covered and the bright light shining on their unwonted 
 lids. I put my hand over them to relieve the pain, and 
 as I did so the cotton was removed from my ears, and 
 the sound of I'unning water was the first that I heard. 
 Then came Gillette's voice saying: 
 
 " Your pilgrimage is nearly over." 
 
 Then my curiosity overcame my fear of the dazzling 
 light, and, shading my eyes with niy hand, I looked 
 around. In front of me, from almost at my very feet 
 rose the lofty walls of a mountain, over whose heights 
 the sun was just passing. I had never conceived, until 
 that instant, how intensely brilliant is mere light, what 
 a force there is in it. It was as if a keen knife pierced 
 to my very brain. 
 
 At my side stood Ward, leaning against the horse 
 from which^he had just dismounted, and shading his 
 dazzled eyes as I was shading mine. In that first Took, 
 too, I noticed that my friend's face had aged percepti- 
 bly since I last looked into it, and a quick sense of regret 
 that I had ever taken him from his comforts flashed 
 through me. On my other side stood Gillette, regard- 
 ing us with an expectant smile, and just behind him a 
 stranger. 
 
 " This is Mr. Barlow," said Gillette. '' He joined 
 us at Topeka." 
 
An Experiment in Marriage^ 35 
 
 *^ And this is Grape Yalley ? " asked "Ward, as his 
 eyes becoming used to the light, he let them slowly 
 skirt the whole horizon. My eyes followed his, and 
 this is what 1 saw: in the distance a treeless prairie 
 changing into a rolling country, then into hills, and at 
 last into the elevated plateau on which, and at the base 
 of the steep inaccessible acclivity of a mountain side, 
 we now stood. At the very edge of the mountain 
 rushed a roariug torrent, foaming in its haste to plunge, 
 as it seemed to do almost at our feet, into the bosom 
 of the solid rock. 
 
 "Is this Grape Yalley ? " I repeated in a tone out 
 of which I could not, with all my will force, keep an 
 inflection of disappointment and reproach. There was 
 no sign of human habitation in view except one small 
 houso and its barn. Where were Gillette's thousand 
 men besides women and cliildren ? But if this were 
 not our destination where could it be ? Not far oil, 
 certainly, since all precautions had been abandoned and 
 we were now permitted the free use of our eyes and 
 ears. Yet what valley could there be to the south 
 where the mountain range reared its bristling peaks 
 until their outlines became dim in the distance? Our 
 course certainly could not be to the north or west, where 
 the prairies stretched out as far as we could see. Could it 
 be possible Gillette had played this profound practi- 
 cal joke on us, that he had rightly seen in us a pair of 
 hare-brained enthusiasts, and perhaps in conspiracy 
 with Bevan, had arranojed for this stupendous farce? 
 Now that he had literally brought us up against a stone 
 wall he would doubtless burst into loud and uncontrol- 
 lable guffaws of laughter. Well it was not a bad joke 
 on us. How New York would ring with it ! It would 
 never do for Ward and me to live in the metropolis 
 again. So mucli was certain. 
 
 Then another and even less agreeable possibility* 
 struck me. Perhaps this was a scheme of Gillette's to 
 plunder us. What a magnificent confidence game it 
 
36 An Exjjerimeiit in Jlcrrriage. 
 
 was, if so; to persuade two wealthy New York men of 
 the world to travel thousands of miles, a part of the 
 distance blindfolded, bj cars, by wagon and horseback, 
 under the guidance of an almost total stranger in search 
 of a will o' the wisp, a socialistic colony. How easy 
 it would be, now that we were disarmed, lost and with- 
 out hope of a possibility of escape or of rescue, for our 
 guide to make his own terms for our ransom. I clap- 
 ped my hands suddenly to my side and found a pair 
 of pistols in my belt. There was of course no chance 
 that they were loaded. Doubtless they had been hung 
 at my belt only as a part of the trick. Lifting my 
 eyes to Gillette I saw he had seen my movement 
 toward the pistols. He suddenly burst into a laugh 
 like a school boy. 
 
 " What awful thoughts are you revolvhig, my dear 
 fellow?" he asked. "You think there is no Grape 
 Valley ? " 
 
 " Where can it be if there is such a place ? " de- 
 manded Ward, a very ugly expression coming over a 
 face 1 had never seen disturbed before. " It surely is 
 not there?" and he pointed to the north. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Nov there ? " and Ward moved his extended arm 
 so that his finger indicated the east. 
 
 " Nor there? " as he pointed to the south. 
 
 "No," answered Gillette, apparently enjoying our 
 ill temper, the full meaning of which, perhaps, he did 
 not grasp. 
 
 "And it surely is not there?" Ward snapped his 
 finger incredulously at the steep mountain side. " So 
 you must have " 
 
 " But it is just there," interrupted Gillette, point- 
 ing at the mountain, " and in two hours we can be in 
 Grape Yalley. That is, Sul of us but our friend Bar- 
 low. His place is without." 
 
 Ward gave Gillette a disgusted look, but said no 
 more. He apparently believed as I did, that our guide 
 
An ExpeHment in Marriage, 37 
 
 was telling us an nntrutli. Indeed, the impossibility of 
 scaling the mountain seemed self-evident. Its sides 
 were almost as perpendicular as a wall. But since Gil- 
 lette's humor had not had its bent, as yet, we seemed 
 to have no recourse but to fall in with it. The time 
 for remedy had passed some days since. Onr plight 
 could be no worse for following Gillette's directions 
 somewhat longer. 
 
 " Come with us, gentlemen," said Gillette, and lead- 
 ing our horses we advanced toward the point where the 
 swollen stream seemed to plunge into the yqyj side of 
 the mountain. It was not until we reached the edge 
 of the stream that I noticed a cleft in the rocky wall 
 wide enough to admit the roaring torrent, but as 
 far as I could see, the mountain closed up again, leav- 
 ing no gorge unless it were a subterranean one. 
 
 " That is onr course," said Gillette, pointing after the 
 foaming stream. "That river leads to Grape Val- 
 ley." ^ 
 
 I confess I was too much astonished to tliink of a ' 
 fitting reply. But my friend Ward was seldom taken 
 at such a disadvantage. 
 
 " It looks inviting," he answered, "but I do not see 
 your boat for the trip to the infernal regions. You 
 surely will not ask us to swim there." 
 
 Before answering us, Gillette directed Barlow to take 
 the horses to his stable for rest and food, and as the 
 man led away our tired beasts, we followed them wnth 
 uneasy glances. It seemed as if our condition now 
 became more helpless than ever. 
 
 ''Your eyes deceive you," said Gillette, "if they 
 lead you to suppose that Eapid river takes a subter^ 
 ranean course, or that there is no roadway through 
 these mountains. The gorge through which that tor- 
 rent flows winds between the mountains with frequent 
 twists and turns, coming out into a very pretty and 
 well-protected valley. Where a stream' can go, we 
 can go." 
 
88 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 "But not at the same time," retorted Ward, keenly. 
 
 " ]N'o," laughed Gillette. " You are right, not at the 
 same time. First, we will put out this very uncom- 
 jranionable stream, and then travel the road by our- 
 selves in peace and safety." 
 
 Ward took a side look at me as if to see how this 
 stranoje talk of our guide affected me. But he made 
 no reply. The climax of the situation could not be 
 long postponed. 
 
 By this time Barlow^ had rejoined n«, and Gillette, 
 warning us to keep close by his side, stepped along to 
 the point where the river turned from its southerly 
 course and took the greater descent to the west. They 
 seemed searching for something, and soon lifted up a 
 temporary bridge made of light wood and leather, 
 which, being thrown over the stream, Barlow crossed. 
 
 Ward and I had by this time recovered our interest 
 in the situation, and were w^atching the mysterious 
 proceediniTS of Gillette and his assistant with the in- 
 tensest cui'iosity. 
 
 " Are they crazy ? " demanded Ward in a low tone. 
 ^*Both of them? 'Or are we?" 
 
 I had no time to make answer, for Gillette beckoned 
 us to come closer still to his side, and forgetting our 
 sullen ness of a moment or two since, we obeyed with 
 alacrity. As we followed the sharp turn of the stream 
 1 noticed that we were stepping over the gravel bottom 
 of a former river bed, which ran to the south, skirting 
 instead of entering the mountain range. Rapid river, 
 or perhaps a branch of it, may in time of spring 
 freshets have once taken that course. If the river were 
 to take that course now instead of running to the w^est 
 and through the mountains, it was plain enough the 
 gorge would be left free for us. Perhaps Gillette was 
 not so crazy after all. But no sooner had the idea 
 formed itself in my mind, than it was realized. Barlow 
 had raised some sort of a gate on the opposite side of 
 the stream, and a solid and water-tight dam, running 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 39 
 
 apparently in grooves at the bottom, was shot across 
 Rapid river. The course of the torrent was suddenly 
 changed from a westerly to a southerly direction ; our 
 retreat was now cut off, but the gorge through the 
 range of mountains was ready for the astonished trav- 
 elers. 
 
 " Our promenade is prepared," said Gillette, enjoy- 
 ing the surprise he had given us. Tlien he turned to 
 Barlow: "H^w^ long a time do you allow for the 
 walk down the canon and into the valley ? " 
 
 "Two hours is more than enough," answered Bar- 
 low. " But let us compare watches to make sure there 
 is no disagreement in time." 
 
 These precautions were certainly suggestive of very- 
 possible dangers, and gave Ward and me some uneasi- 
 ness. I, for one, was much relieved when Gillette said : 
 
 " Well, you say two hours is ample for us to make 
 the trip ; now, if you do not pull up the dam for three 
 hours, we shall certainly have a good deal more than 
 ample time. It is now two o'clock." Ward and I 
 drew out our watches and set the hands to Gillette's 
 time, as he continued : " Let the water on at five. That 
 will be safe enough surely." 
 
 " Safe! " echoed Barlow. " I should think so; if you 
 are not out of the gorge in three hours, you never will 
 be." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 With this somewhat ominous remark of Barlow's 
 echoing in our ears, Grillette, Ward and I set out on 
 our pecuhar journey down the bed of the stream, 
 which had given place to us, as our guide had promised. 
 For a dozen rods the stream had run due west, then 
 suddenly the mountains seemed cleft again, and be- 
 tween two towering walls of frowning rock, Kapid 
 river had rushed north for twice that distance. Then 
 a westerly course was resumed, and the awful walls 
 of rock drew back, so that for a while our surround- 
 ings were less fearful. 
 
 Perhaps it was to give Ward and me an opportunity 
 for a brief exchange of opinions and reflections that 
 Gillette just now put a few rods between himself and 
 as. At any rate we were not slow to avail ourselves 
 of the precious privilege. 
 
 ^' My faith in the reality of Grape Yalley is re- 
 stored," said Ward. '' As for its being a lovers' para- 
 dise my infidelity is unchanged, however. It is human 
 nature which renders such a thing impossible. Mere 
 difference in latitude and longitude cannot achieve 
 miracles." 
 
 "But," I answered, "human nature develops very 
 diversely, according to conditions and surroundings. 
 Most of our criminals, I suppose every one admits, are 
 made such by circumstances." 
 
 " Still," he continued, " I cannot believe that your 
 friend Gillette and his company can have discovered 
 or created conditions under which lovers cease to grow 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 41 
 
 cold, and passion no longer changes to indifference or 
 revulsion." 
 
 " If I understand Gillette," I said, " he admits the 
 disease but offers a cure for it. His panacea is the 
 removal of restrictions which in our society bind to- 
 gether those who have discovered themselves mis- 
 mated. But since we are within two hours' walk of 
 Grape Yalley I am willing to entirely suspend judg- 
 ment upon its institutions until we behold them in ope- 
 ration." 
 
 At this point in our conversation, the bed of the 
 stream which we were following took another turn, 
 this time to the south, and once more our surroundings 
 were, to say the least, portentous. Beneath our feet 
 was a thin coating of alluvial soil and pebbles, while 
 occasionally the edge of primeval rock jutted out, over 
 which the torrent, which a few minutes before poured 
 where we were now walking, must have foamed and 
 roared magnificently. The bed of the stream was, 
 however, in this place, and wherever the mountains 
 came close together, chiefly rock, shaped into a trough, 
 the sides, polished by the water, inclining inward so 
 that the level space, on which we found our path, was 
 very narrow, sometimes not wide enough for two to 
 walk abreast. On the glistening face of the mountain, 
 at either side, we could see the mark left by the stream 
 turned, but a few moments since, from its ancient 
 course, for our accommodation. In many places this 
 water mark was considerably above our heads. In 
 others where the canon was somewhat wider, the wet 
 line along the rock was not higher than our waists. 
 Gillette, having given us, as he thought, sufficient time 
 to exchange confidences, now waited for us to over- 
 take him. 
 
 " We are doing finely," he said, as he glanced at his 
 watch. " We are one-third of the way into the valley, 
 and have only used up a sixth part of our allotted three 
 hours." 
 6 
 
42 A7i Exjperiment in Marriage, 
 
 Ward and I looked at our watches and found it was 
 half-past two. 
 
 " Mr. Barlow was to raise the gates at five, I believe," 
 remarked Ward. " Have you any idea how long it 
 would take the torrent to overtake us, if we should 
 loiter past the appointed hour and minute?" 
 
 "Don't breathe such a thought," I exclaimed, look- 
 ing fearfully at the steep walls of the caiion which, 
 at this point, rose a thousand feet without a break. 
 *' Why, if the water overtook us here, there would be 
 no possible escape for us. It is as hopeless a death-trap 
 as I ever saw." 
 
 "Never fear," responded Gillette. "We shall have 
 been out of this canon a full hour before Rapid river 
 flows in its bed again. Barlow is absolutely to be de- 
 pended upon. I would stake my life that he would 
 not raise the gates one second before the appointed 
 time. Please remember, too, that I made the time a 
 full hour more than it ever takes to make the trip." 
 
 " How far is it from start to finish ? " I asked. 
 
 " A trifle less than seven miles." 
 
 "]^ow," suggested Ward, sarcastic as ever, "per- 
 haps my sensitive young friend will permit you to 
 answer my question." 
 
 "As to the speed of Rapid river you mean?" asked 
 Gillette. 
 
 " The name of the stream is rather significant," I 
 again interrupted. "Too much so, I don't like it." 
 
 " Well," continued Gillette, "it takes the river just 
 seven minutes to make the run from the gate where 
 Barlow stands to the valley. I estimate we are now a 
 third of the distance through the canon. It would 
 take the water a little less than two minutes and a half 
 to overtake us here." 
 
 " A pleasing thought," commented Ward, quicken- 
 ing his pace, perhaps unconsciously. " In two minuter 
 and a half from the instant the first roar of the torrent 
 breaks upon our ears the w^ater will be over our heads.'^ 
 
A71 Exjperiment in Marriage. 43 
 
 "The roar and the clehige would be far nearer 
 together than two minutes and a half. You could not 
 hear the water very much farther than you could see it," 
 answered Gillette. 
 
 Ward looked mystified. "Certainly a stream dash- 
 ing over a rocky bed and at the rate of an express train 
 must make a loud noise. I hope I may never hear it." 
 
 " So it does ; an awful and never-to-be-forgotten 
 roaring. But you must remember the mountain sepa- 
 rates you from the canon you have just passed 
 through, at its first turn. The mountain, in the same 
 way, acts as an additional barrier every turn the erratic 
 stream makes. 'Sound cannot turn short corners to ad- 
 vantage you know. So if Eapid liver gets on our 
 track you will not have time to say your shortest prayer 
 between the time its first terrible roar falls upon your 
 ears and the ijistant that tJie flying wall of water strikes 
 you like a tidal wave, and and " 
 
 "And what?" demanded Ward rather sternly. "It 
 is surely a small thing to ask that I may know what 
 manner of death I must die." 
 
 Gillette had grown serious in spite of himself. His 
 imagination had been forced to work, and shadows of 
 the pictures it was drawing were upon his face as he 
 replied . 
 
 " If the river overtook us in such a spot as this," he 
 answered slowly, as he glanced up the scarce divided 
 walls of rock to the thin patch of sky above, which 
 looked so wonderfully bright and beautiful, " it would 
 be almost instant death. Our brains would be dashed 
 out against these walls of rock before we had time to 
 begin to be drowned. In some portions of the course, 
 where the river is less confined, and so less angry, we 
 plight have the alternative of a death from "drown- 
 ino^." 
 
 " There would be one satisfaction at least," I sug- 
 gested. "We would have every inducement to die 
 like the philosophers we fancy ourselves." 
 
44 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 " How so ? " demanded Ward, gloomily. 
 
 "Simply because we should not be distracted bv 
 frantic efforts to save ourselves." This closed our con- 
 versation for perhaps an hour. We set our faces in 
 dogged determination, and walked as fast as the un- 
 even nature of the river bed would permit. When 
 the narrow cailon succeeded a more open stretch it was 
 as if the pitiless walls of fate were visibly closing in 
 upon us. rerhaps I felt something as soldiers do when 
 ordered to charge upon an earthwork bristling with 
 hostile artillery about to vomit forth flame and death. 
 As we made our way through these terrible gorges, the 
 rocky walls of what might be our tomb seemed, to my 
 gloom}^ fancy, to be cast into a strange semblance to 
 some pitiless and malignant monster. Yain as the move- 
 ment, we often turned to look behind us to see if the 
 waters were not at our heels, then glancing at each 
 other expected to be mocked. To have been derided 
 would have been a relief, but not one of us was yet 
 free from terror of what seemed each moment more 
 horrible a fate. When such dismal canons were nearly 
 penetrated and we could see before us the walls spread- 
 ing out, and the river bed growing wider, a pressing 
 weight seemed for the moment lifted from our brains. 
 
 Suddenly Gillette glanced at his watch and closed it 
 with a snap. Then lie gave a hearty laugh. Ward 
 and I stopped short in our tracks and looked at him in 
 astonishment. 
 
 *^ Why, cheer up," he exclaimed. " It is only half- 
 past three, and our journey is almost over." 
 
 " You don't say so," said Ward, stupidly. 
 
 "Only half an hour's brisk walking," continued 
 Gillette, " is now between us and Grape Valley." 
 
 Ward's face relaxed. The tense strain left his arms 
 and legs. Then he laughed as I thought in a some- 
 what silly fashion, though I immediately did the same. 
 
 "I'm tired," he said. "As long as we have an hour 
 and a half to make a half hour's triplet us rest a little." 
 
An Exj^eriment in Marriage, 45 
 
 Then he added as he looked from one to the other of 
 us : " I am conscious of having made a very cowardly 
 exhibition of myself." 
 
 Gillette and I very considerately permitted Ward to 
 be the common scapegoat, and also to lead the way to 
 a suitable spot for rest. It so happened that at this 
 point the river did not occupy the whole of the gorge. 
 We saw another cleft in the mountains, and another 
 gorge on a slightly different level, but running in the 
 same general direction. 
 
 " Perhaps the ancient course of a river," suggested 
 Ward. '' Why here is a spring now. It is a^ctually 
 gushing out of the solid rock." 
 
 " j^onsense," exclaimed Gillette, " that is only a 
 pool left by Kapid river. The river come^ up to this 
 level; you can see the water marks on the rock." 
 
 So we had our laugh at Ward, and then climbing 
 higher still to the opening of the second gorge, threw 
 ourselves on the ground for sadly-needed rest. 
 
 " While we are resting, why not answer a few ques- 
 tions?" suggested Ward, looking at Gillette. "It can- 
 not be you bring your grapes and wine for export up 
 this narrow and uneven river bed ? " 
 
 "No, we do not," answered Gillette. "This river 
 bed and canon serve us merely as an entrance from the 
 west. For exit, and for the transportation of produce 
 and merchandise, both ways, we use a dilferent route. 
 Grape Yalley furnishes a very varied topography, by 
 the way. Between the northerly parts of our httle 
 country and the extreme southerly districts there is al- 
 most as much difference in climate and landscape as 
 between Northern and Southern California, although 
 of course our valley is numbered by only a few square 
 miles. ^ This difference in climate is made partly by 
 the variation in elevation and in rain-fall, and partly by 
 the fact that south of us is a sand desert, which seems 
 to absorb every particle of the sun's heat only to give 
 it forth in double intensity. In the upper portion o^ 
 
46 An Experiment in Man^iage. 
 
 our valley there is good pasture for cattle and suitable 
 soil for ordinary agriculture, while in the lower districts 
 grapes only can be grown to an advantage. It is 
 through the desert that our main avenue of entrance 
 and exit lies. The desert is, too, a better guard and 
 outpost than ten thousand armed men. The outside 
 world does not dream that a fertile valley lies at one 
 edge of it, much less that a happy colony of thousands 
 of souls have there found practical solution for some 
 of the hardest problems that ever vexed the human 
 mind." 
 
 " But I should not think grape culture would yield 
 profit enough to enable you to supply the colony with 
 the necessities as well as the luxuries of life." 
 
 Gillette^miled. " In the first place, my dear Yinton, 
 we do not require the most expensive of the luxuries 
 of so-called civilization, created in response to finical 
 appetites and forced tastes. We find joy in living. 
 But then, please remember that, in our varied climate, 
 we can produce such plain food as we may want in our 
 valley. The products of our vineyards and the treas- 
 ures of our wine cellars ought certainly to be sold for 
 enough to supply us with clothes, books and whatever 
 other articles are necessary to supply reasonable de- 
 mands. But I may as well tell you now, since there is 
 no occasion to keep further secrets from you, that we 
 have still another source of what, in your political 
 economy, may be called wealth. The gold we find in 
 the Grape Valley placer mines serves excellently well 
 to barter with the silly outside world for really useful 
 articles in abundance. To us the gold is of no value 
 except as we impose on your nineteenth century folly to 
 procure what you produce and we do not," 
 
 "You have placer mines you say?" asked Ward. 
 
 " Yes, mines of the good, old-fashioned sort. We 
 shovel the pay dirt into the sluices, turn on the water, 
 and lo, there is the glistening gold left on the riffles 
 beneath. If all the world were as sensible as we of 
 
A71 Experiment hi Marriage. 47 
 
 Grape Yallej, the shining stuff would be of little more 
 value than so much iron. But since we are the only 
 socialistic settlement on the continent, our gold mines 
 are a decided benefit to ns." 
 
 J^ And when all America has become one grand social- 
 istic community," suggested Ward, satirically, " I sup- 
 pose there will still remain the slow-moving old world 
 to barter its wares for jour gold. It will be a long 
 time before gold and silver cease to have a value far 
 above tlieir uses simply as material for manufacture." 
 As Ward spoke he took up a handful of the soil and 
 held it up : " Supposing this were what you call 'pay 
 dirt.' If it were rich with gold I imagine we would 
 suddenly go out of our senses with greed. We none 
 of us need more wealth than we have, yet we would 
 doubtless go as mad with lust of gold if we made a dis- 
 covery here as any of the half-starved and wholly des- 
 perate ' forty-niners.' " 
 
 ^ Gillette cast an amused glance at Ward's handful of 
 dirt, and seemed on the point of making a bright rep- 
 artee. But what he was about to say, the w^rld can 
 never know. His attention was so completely dis- 
 tracted, that he quite forgot it himself. The sm'ile on 
 his face gave place to unmistakable surprise. He bent 
 forward and catching Ward's wrist he lixed his eyes 
 intently on the handful of yellow earth. 
 
 "' Great heavens, man," he exclaimed after a moment 
 of vivid silence, "that looks like 'pay dirt.' Per- 
 haps you have discovered a placer mine." 
 
 "Is that gold ? " I demanded, leaping up, and for- 
 getting every thing in the world except the boundless 
 fortune that might be at our feet. " You can't mean 
 it." The announcement seemed too glorious to be true. 
 I had left all the comforts of civilization and the easy 
 competence provided for me, to make a pilgrimage to 
 an ideal colony where a higher law than selfishness 
 controlled the division of property, but at the ex- 
 citing thought that before me lay the treasure which, 
 
48 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 perhaps, would make me immensely rich, my devo- 
 tion vanished. My philosophical spirit was supplanted 
 by the insensate hunger for gold as ancient as history, 
 as old as our race. 
 
 But Gillette did not appear to hear me. He had 
 suddenly snatched his hat from his head and begun 
 to take from Ward's hand the last grain of earth. Then 
 he cried in a shrill voice : 
 
 " Where was it you found this dirt ? show me the 
 very spot, the verj^ sj)ot." 
 
 Before Ward, however, could do his bidding, Gil- 
 lette's keen eyes liad sought out the place where the soil 
 had been disturbed, and falling upon his knees he im- 
 mediately caught up two more handfuls resembling 
 the first in appearance, and deposited them in his hat, 
 and then more, until his hat was nearly full. 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " almost gasped Ward, 
 apparently nearly unbalanced by the sudden influx of 
 new ideas. I, however, had already guessed the mean- 
 ing of the actions of my companion, and had my hat 
 half filled with the same precious earth by the time he 
 rose to his feet. 
 
 " Come and see for yourself," answered Gillette, 
 without looking around, as he started to the little pool of 
 water which we had passed as we climbed from the 
 river bed. I followed him hat in hand, and Ward 
 watched us both in amazement. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 In amomeDt more Gillette had dipped Ins hat into 
 
 the pool and filled it brimfull of water I followed 
 
 his example and then imitated Inm as he shook the 
 
 improvised pan so as to thoroughly wet the eaith and 
 
 turned it so as to throw a little of it out at a tnne. 
 
 Then we refilled our hats with water and resumed the 
 
 shaking and tipping process until the few l^^ndf uls of 
 
 earth in each receptacle were reduced to less han a 
 
 tablespoonf ul. Then we threw more of the earth into 
 
 onr hats and returned to the pool. i i? t. 
 
 By this time Ward had recovered enough ot his 
 
 senses to understand what we were about, and he stood 
 
 between us looking first into one extemporized pan 
 
 and then into another with an excited interest not a 
 
 particle less than our own. 
 
 ^ " Be careful," he cried, as first Gillette and then I 
 filled our hats for the last time at the pool. he very 
 careful or you will lose it all." 
 
 No need to warn us. No starving beggar could be 
 more careful with his last crust of bread. ^ No tremb- 
 lino. miser could be more cautious as he hiaes tlie coin 
 he'^worships. Gently we shook our hats until the 
 water became discolored again with the dissolving 
 earth. Slowly and with many a nervous recovery, we 
 poured out the muddy water. -, ,tt j a 
 
 The last drop of water was emptied and Ward peered 
 eagerly into Gillette's hat. I dared not look yet lor 
 the result of my own experiment. I waited for Ward 
 to return the verdict of success or failure. I thought 
 
50 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 to read it on liis face. If lie saw the hoped for grains 
 of gold, I should see a sudden lighting up of his 
 countenance. A smile would relieve the stern lines of 
 his mouth. But his face did not change. I could see 
 his eyelids move as his glance wandered from side to 
 side of the bottom of the hat. My heart sank within 
 me. I did not need to wait for words. It was a fail- 
 ure. Gillette had been deceived in thinking there was 
 gold in the vile earth. A sudden despair of life seized 
 upon me. I dreaded the thought of existence without 
 the boundless fortune of which I had imagined myself 
 already the possessor. Then a hot indignation for Gil- 
 lette burned in my heart. I could have killed him 
 where he stood, white-faced and agonized at the catas- 
 trophe. Now came Ward's dreaded words : 
 
 '^ There is no gold here." Then he added, fiercely, 
 voicing my madness : " Curse you for a fool." In a 
 sudden frenzy I threw my shapeless hat to the ground 
 and stamped upon it. 
 
 " I feel more like a devil than a man," I cried, haK 
 conscious of my degradation, though unable to rise 
 above it. As for Gillette, he gave Ward, and then 
 me, a dazed look, and in a moment more, aimlessly, as 
 it seemed, lifted his hat and peered into it. Suddenly 
 he gave a veritable scream of delight, and reaching out 
 his hand, fairly dragged Ward to him. 
 
 " This is gold, man, real gold," he said. " Were 
 you blind?" 
 
 I looked over Ward's shoulder, as drawing back a 
 fold of the lining of the hat, Gillette showed a little 
 pinch of gold dust. 
 
 " Look at yours now," exclaimed Gillette, his pallor 
 giving place to a vivid flush on either cheek. And as 
 I stood, half stunned at the sudden transition from de- 
 spair to triumph, he took up my hat and looked into it. 
 
 "Better yet," he cried. '''Half a salt spoonful of 
 gold." And he held the shapeless piece of felt for- 
 ward for us to look into it. 
 
A71 Experiment in Marriage. 51 
 
 "If you had only looked closer," he a.dded, ''you 
 would have saved us all an awful moment of suffering.'' 
 But Ward had no sooner seen the second little pmch 
 of o-old than he tore lus hat from his head, and rush- 
 ino-'^to the spot where we had made the beginning of 
 aif excavation, fell upon his knees and dug his nails 
 deep into the earth. Then he too hurried to the pool 
 and beo-an to wash for the remnant of gold, as (jiilette 
 and I had done, who now stood watching liira as he 
 had watched us. 
 
 " I have more than either of you," he cried witii a 
 delio-ht that was almost ferocious, as he examined for 
 results. "Now, where shall we put what we have, 
 while we wash for more ? " ^ ^^ x.- f 
 
 Gillette drew from his pocket a large handkerchiet 
 and spread it on the ground near the pool. ''We 
 mio-ht scrape our savings into this," he said, and suit- 
 in(?the action to the word he turned his hat mside out, 
 and its contents made a pretty little yellow heap on the 
 white linen. Instead of using the common receptacle 
 proposed, Ward, however, made a separate treasure- 
 house for himself, and I, although struggling with a 
 not wholly lost sense of shame, also made a little heap 
 of my own. Then, without even looking each other 
 in the face again, we returned to the place where we 
 had first filfed our hats, and threw in the proper 
 amount of the precious soil. From the new-lound mine 
 we again went to the pool, and, standing on difterent 
 sides, tilled and refilled our strange basins, shook, and 
 dipped and poured without a word, but with ill-con- 
 cealed rivalry, until the pinch of gold was discovered 
 at the bottom. Then each betook himself to the spot 
 where lay his own handkerchief and scraped out the 
 yellow metal, most potent of all created poisons to set 
 friends at variance and make even brothers hate each 
 
 other. . . Il^^ ^ 
 
 Again and again, and many times apiin ^^^e hi led 
 
 our hats with the gold-tainted earth, until, where Ward 
 
52 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 had caught np tliat first Jiandf ul, with most apt philos- 
 ophy, there was a hole deep enough to barj a child. 
 The little piles of gold in the handkerchief, over which 
 each of us gloated as he made a new deposit, grew 
 lustily, Ward's most of all, much to the envy of Gil- 
 lette and myself. So intent were we in gathering 
 treasure, that we did not notice that our pool of water 
 was rapidly disappearing. At last, however, Gillette 
 had just with difficulty dipped enough water into his 
 hat to advance its contents another stage toward reduc- 
 tion, when Ward bent forward, looked into the hollow 
 where the pool had been and exclaimed : 
 
 " The water is all gone." 
 
 His voice sounded strange and harsh, breaking a 
 long silence. 
 
 I had just finished with a washing and was examin- 
 ing, with contemptible joy, the pinch of gold which 
 was my last prize. Gillette was busily shaking and 
 twirling his hat, and made no response. He was only 
 anxious to make the most of the water which he had 
 just taken. 
 
 " See here," continued Ward, fiercely, " you had 
 no right to take the last drop in the pool." 
 
 " Why not as much right as you would have \ " 
 retorted Gillette, pouring off some muddy water, 
 watched by Ward as thirsty castaways might watch a 
 glittering raindrop. 
 
 " Because another hatful of water would have cleaned 
 my dust, and it has done you no good," insisted Ward. 
 
 By this time Gillette had poured off the water from 
 his hat, and saw that the remaining contents had as yet 
 very little resemblance to gold. 
 
 ^' Your success wouldn't have helped me," he an- 
 swered, and then he turned his hat inside out upon 
 the ground in disgust, as he added : '' Any more than 
 this does." 
 
 Ward looked almost ready to spring upon Gillette, 
 so maddened was he with disappointed covetousness. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 53 
 
 But instead, tlu-usting Lis hand into liis hat he drew 
 out its contents and threw them at his feet. 
 
 '' We have loitered here long enough," 1 said with 
 returning reason. " It is fortunate the water gave out 
 when it did." 
 
 "Yes," exclaimed Gillette hurriedly, "we can come 
 back ; there is a fortune for us all here." 
 
 In five minutes more each of us had taken up his 
 handkerchief with its burden of gold, and put it in his 
 pocket, and we were all hnriying down the river bed 
 on our interrupted course. For a few rods we kept 
 silence, and then Ward remarked: 
 
 ''That mine comes at the beginning of another canon, 
 you remember. Do you suppose that it leads to your 
 valley?" 
 
 " 1 haven't the least idea," answered Gillette. " It 
 looks like an ancient river bed, but whether it leads to 
 Grape Yalley or to the south, I cannot even guess. We 
 can explore it sometime." 
 
 A very nnpleasant impression had been growing upon 
 me for some minutes. It was that more time had 
 passed while we had been searching for gold than we 
 had been conscious of. We had had an hour and a 
 half to get to Grape Yalley when we sat do\Tn to rest, 
 and only a half hour s walk before us. We stih had a 
 trip to take which would require half an hour. The 
 query kept presenting itself to my mind, how much of 
 that hour and a half was left to us? . Again and again 
 I put my hand on my watch, determined to know the 
 v7orst. But each time I faltered. 
 
 We were apparently now going at nearly our best 
 speed. If there were time to get out of the canon 
 before the fateful hour of five, when Rapid river was 
 to resume its course, why we should be saved. ^ If not, 
 what need to anticipate the death agony ? But if it were 
 no later than half-past four, we were safe. If it were 
 twenty minutes to five, by hurrying we might still 
 make our escape. At this" p oint in my reasoning I 
 
54 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 would see how important it might be for us to know 
 the exact time at once. There might be only a matter 
 of a few hasty strides, at the last, between us and 
 death. 
 
 But then the thought would strike me that I might 
 find the threatening hands at fifteen minutes to five, or 
 even nearer still to that hour. My hand again fal- 
 tered. Perhaps it was even past five. Perhaps Rapid 
 river was already rushing upon our track with murder- 
 ous haste. Gillette had told us that it took but seven 
 minutes for the water to make the whole seven miles. 
 To reach the spot where we now were would requiie 
 less than six minutes. If it were five minutes past five 
 our doom was already sealed. In an instant more a 
 terrible roar would burst upon our ears. It seemed to 
 me I already heard the sound of the rushing waters. 
 
 I stopped short and looked behind me. 
 
 When I made this significant movement, my com- 
 panions turned too, and the color forsook their cheeks, 
 as it had doubtless forsaken mine. But there was no 
 foaming tide of water pouring between the lofty walls. 
 There was not a sound. Then we looked each other 
 in the face, and Gillette slowly drew out his watch. 
 
 "We are all thinking of the same thing," he said in 
 an unsteady voice. " It will be better to know the 
 truth." 
 
 It seemed a full minute before he pressed the spring 
 which op>ened his hunting-case. The case rose as slowly 
 as if it were an immense weight being raised by a der- 
 rick. 
 
 Then Gillette's lips moved, and he gave us the time. 
 
 "• Four minutes to five." 
 
 For a moment we stood stilL The awful suspense 
 was over. We knew the worst. There were less than 
 eleven minutes between Rapid river and us, but, per- 
 haps, there was a chance for us to escape from the cafion 
 before the water swept through it — just a chance. 
 Then Gillette's voice sounded out, shrill and tense : 
 
An Exjperiment in Marriage, 55 
 
 " Run for your lives." 
 
 We needed no second call. As Gillette spoke, he 
 turned and led the way down the gloomy gorge at a 
 fast trot, followed first by Ward, and then by me. I 
 was but four years out of the college where I had 
 been a famous football player, and I was sure I could 
 have outstripped Gillette if I had chosen. But Ward 
 was my senior by a dozen years, and a man entii'ely 
 unaccustomed to violent exercise. I felt required by 
 common humanity to keep behind my friend so as to 
 help him to his feet if he fell, to keep up his courage, 
 too, and banish the thought that he was far in the rear 
 and alone. 
 
 The probabilities were we should be overtaken by 
 the furious waters, but I thought that to live with the 
 ever present consciousness of being a coward would 
 be more unpleasant and infinitely less inspiring than 
 an honorable death. As I, perhaps, made clear sonae 
 pages back, the river bed was a most uneven and un- 
 certain path. Sometimes the sides of the canon came 
 so close together that there was scarce room for two 
 men to pass abreast between them. Sometimes huo-e 
 bowlders obstructed the way. More often ragged ledges 
 of rock projected up from beneath, or inward from the 
 sides. A more difficult course fur runners could not 
 have been made by design. We could hardly plant 
 both feet on a level plane. It was hard enough for a 
 college athlete only a trifle out of practice, but for 
 poor Ward it could have been little less than intoler- 
 able agony. It was only indomitable will that could 
 have kept him at all in this well nigh hopeless race for 
 life. 
 
 Gillette passed out of our sight at the first turn of 
 the gorge, and we saw him no more. A pang of dis- 
 may shot through me as he disappeared. A new hope- 
 lessness came over me, and I know over Ward. But 
 immediately T ceased to blame him. He could not 
 have helped us by sacrificing his own chances for life. 
 
56 A7i Ex'periment in Marriage. 
 
 It could be no consolation to Ward and me, when the 
 mad waters should, in a very few minutes, overwhelm 
 US, that a third victim should be also sacrificed. I think 
 we were both magnanimous enough even in our own 
 despair to wish our former comrade's escape. 
 
 The wonderful endurance of my friend, Ward, com- 
 polled an admiration greater than I had ever before 
 entertained for him. Here was a darling of fortune, 
 a pet of destiny, who had never until now known a 
 discomfort or suffered an inconvenience. He had not 
 so much as suspected that he had muscles such as the 
 less favored use for hard work. He fell over project- 
 ing rocks, and rose bleeding, but it was only to rush on 
 the faster. He staggered against bowlders, until I 
 thought he must have broken every bone in his tor- 
 mented body, but he did not utter more than the first 
 inarticulate groan. Plis breathing was as loud as that of a 
 *' roaring" horse, but still he pressed on in an unsteady 
 trot, his liands bleeding from his almost continual falls, 
 his face bruised from frequent collisions with the piti- 
 less rock. His spirit was miglity still, and whipped on 
 the poor, broken, but unflagging body. I shall always 
 feel that it was more for my sake than to save his own 
 life, that Ward made such a sublime battle. He had 
 too much lionor himself not to know that it was im- 
 possible for me to desert him. He. must have longed 
 most intensely to throw himself face downward in the 
 fatal canon, and wait for the death that was already on 
 our track, whose damp breath was ah-eady in the air. 
 For my sake, not for his own, he made a struggle and 
 endured an agony to which sudden death could not but 
 seem a pleasure by comparison, and endured it too on 
 a bare chance of thus saving my life. 
 
 So we ran on our devious course turning again and 
 again on itself as took us around the mountains. Be- 
 side us still rose the walls of our narrow cell, thousands 
 of feet to the sky, before us what seemed a solid face of 
 rock, opening as we drew nearer for the narrow gorge 
 
An Ex^e7'ime7it in Marriage. 57 
 
 to make another turn. Then it came over us tliat our 
 time must have elapsed. I drew out my watch, and 
 found it was three minutes past live. 
 
 " We have but three minutes to hve," 1 cried. " Let 
 us sit down and die in peace." Certainly it would have 
 been a short death agony. The canon was very nar- 
 row at this place, and the raging waters, half their way 
 down the course by this time, would have come upon 
 us with almost the force of a battering ram. 
 
 But Ward shook his head and still pressed on. He 
 stumbled over a projecting stone and fell his full length. 
 ] raised him to his feet and tried to stay him. It seemed 
 ahiiost infamous to struggle so frantically in a hopeless 
 light for life. The blood flowed from new cuts on 
 his face, become positively dreadful with its fierce de- 
 termination to vanquish fate and death, and in its start- 
 ling contrast of marble hke whiteness and the crimson 
 tint of his bleeding wounds. But he threw my hand 
 from his arm with a strength I could not have believed 
 he retained, and still staggered on. And it is to his un- 
 conquerable determination that, as it happened, we both 
 owe our lives. At the very next turn of the river 
 course the longed for Grape Valley lay open before us 
 and a paradise it certainly seemed to our eyes. In the 
 distance at the south were vast areas of vineyards, 
 while to the north- were green fields and verdant pas- 
 tures with cattle. In the middle, on the banks of a 
 placid stream that flowed from the north, were the 
 houses and streets of a little city. The promised land 
 was before us, and we had been permitted to see its 
 beauties, but as I remembered how few seconds sepa- 
 rated the pursuing river from us, I saw little reason 
 to believe we should ever enter that city alive. 
 
 Still we ran on. The mountains drew farther apart 
 at every step, and if we could have had but two minutes 
 more of time, we should have reached a point where 
 to clamber up a gentle slope would have placed us out 
 of danger. I was running now by Ward's side, hold- 
 8 
 
58 A7i Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 ing his hand in mine, and we had ahnost reached the 
 spot we struggled for. But my companion's feet seemed 
 Hke lead; his limbs to be stricken with paralysis; I had 
 fairly to drag him along. 
 
 Then came an awful roar behind us, as if a thousand 
 fierce JSTnmidian lions had broken loose, and the resist- 
 less waters of Kapid river sprang upon their prey. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "When I recovered consciousness I was in a bed. So 
 much I knew without opening my eyes. A real 
 earthly bed ! After enjoying for a few minutes, with a 
 new zest, the sense of existence, I opened my eyes. 
 Above me, as I might have expected, was a ceiling, 
 not of plaster, however. Since plaster had always 
 seemed to me one of the worst of the bad features of 
 our effete civilization I at once congratulated myself 
 on having found a place where it w^as not; undoubtedly 
 Grape Yalley. But how did I come here ? 
 
 The last clear remembrance I had was of seeing the 
 valley as it spread out most alluringly before my de- 
 spairing eyes, and of doing my best to get out of the 
 course of Rapid river. Then came the dreadful roar 
 behind us, and I knew no more. Yes, I had a vague 
 i-emembrance of a sense of cold, and a sudden shock. 
 Now I awake to find myself in Grape Yalley after all. 
 But how I came here was quite beyond even my ready 
 l)0\vers of speculation. I am sure I need not pause to 
 explain at length why it was I was convinced I was in 
 Grape Yalley. At last accounts I was in the course 
 of Rapid river. Rapid river was on its way to Grape 
 Yalley, and I must either be in Grape Yalley or inthe 
 other world. The other world hyj)othesis was quite 
 absurd and untenable. 
 
 Having inspected the ceiling to my satisfaction I 
 decided to turn on my side, and change my point of 
 view. But what a pain there came into the back of 
 my head when I attempted to move ! I shall feel that 
 pain by association of ideas whenever I call to my 
 
60 A7i Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 mind that moment, all the rest of mj life. I groaned 
 aloud, and decided not to incur further painful experi- 
 ences. If lying still prevented them, I would lie still 
 indefinitely. When the pain in my head stopped I 
 was disposed to resume my study of the ceiling, and 
 so I opened my eyes again. 
 
 But this time I did not see the ceiling at all. An 
 object was interposed, nothing else than a beautiful 
 woman's face. It seemed to me the most lovely face 
 I had ever seen, although I was always staring at 
 women from boyhood. It was framed and crowned 
 with red gold hair which glistened in the light. Her 
 skin was as fair as a child's, but her gentle and tender 
 blue eyes seemed to bless me as they looked into mine. 
 Then her lips parted in a smile, and 1 caught her breath, 
 like that of a rose before the morning's dew has 
 left it. 
 
 '' Y ou are better ? " she said softly, as only a woman 
 can speak to the sick. " But you must not move your 
 head, it was badly hurt." Then I felt her hands 
 readjusting the pillows at my side and smoothing the 
 coverlet. I tried to speak, but my lips and throat 
 were so parched the voice refused to come. Her quick 
 eyes noticed my plight. 
 
 " You are thirsty \ " and in a moment more she held 
 a teaspoon ful of liquid to my mouth. 
 
 " Who is it? " 1 murmured. 
 
 '' Oh, I am Kate," she smiled. " But you must not 
 talk, the doctor says." She added: "Y^ou must try 
 not even to think." Then she drew herself back, and 
 I could not tell whether she remained in the room or 
 not. 
 
 I did very little thinking for some days to come. I 
 was conscious of seeing something very beautiful when 
 Kate's face came between mine and the ceiling. I 
 was soothed by her gentle voice and tender tones, and 
 was quite too sick a man to care to understand or to 
 investigate more than was necessary. I rather pre- 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 61 
 
 ferred mystery, as it helped to muddle my brain, and to 
 put me into the delightful naps which I have coveted 
 ever since. I wondered vaguely whether Gillette had 
 escaped entirely without injury, and bestowed a some- 
 what misty regret on my poor friend Ward, who I 
 concluded must have been lost. Ward was a good fel- 
 low. I should never have such another friend. But 
 the realities were indistinct in those hours of sickness, 
 all but the sweet and winning beauty of Kate' s face as 
 I saw it come between mine and the ceiling at inter- 
 vals, the length of which I was unable to estimate. 
 
 But at last I grew better. My brain seemed to have 
 resumed its ordinary powers. I knew I was myself 
 again because I began to be impatient at confinement, 
 to fret and worry over the mystery which enveloped 
 me. I wondered where my nurse was. How neglectful 
 it was of her to leave me ! I refused to consider that 
 nurses must eat and sleep like other mortals. I became 
 particularly anxious to give her a scolding. I was 
 surely getting into the normal state of man very fast. 
 Then 1 heard a light step across the room and the fair 
 face bent over mine with an almost maternal movement. 
 A true woman is as much a mother as a sweetheart. 
 How fresh her face, how limpid her large eyes, how 
 divinely her lips parted as if for a kiss ; no,' it was a 
 smile she gave me, bright and gracious as a mother's 
 for her waking child. My impatience left me. I tried 
 to think of a new and most tender of names for her. 
 
 ^' I have good news for you," she said, in her clear, 
 full tones, "you can turn in your bed and look around." 
 
 "Is that all, Kate?" and- I too essayed a winning 
 smile. But I was conscious of a dead failure. 
 
 " Who told you my name was Kate ? " she demanded, 
 with a light laugh that disclosed two glistening rows 
 of teeth. "Oh, I remember, I did myself. What? 
 You want more privileges? Well, perhaps bye and 
 bye you can talk a little." 
 
 Then she moved my pillows, while I turned upon 
 
62 A7i Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 mj side. The pain had left the back of my head, but 
 how weak I was. 1 had never been sick before, and 
 had perhaps not been able to properly sympatliize with 
 invalids. But I shall not soon forget the sullen mutiny 
 of my muscles, enervated as they were by fever, when 
 my still healthy will commanded them to work. A 
 sudden light of compassion illumined the woman's 
 face, and she bent and passed her round arms about my 
 shoulders, and put her strength with mine. Her gol- 
 den hair brushed my forehead, then her cheeks, firm, 
 soft and warm, touched my unshaven face. My 
 heart gave a great throb, and pumped the dull blood 
 into each startled vein and artery. For an instant I 
 was strong. But Kate had suddenly released me, and 
 her face was turned away, as she busied herself in ad- 
 justing the medicines on the table by the bed. Was 
 that a flush which seemed to be spreading over her 
 neck and averted cheek, or was it the pink light from 
 the window curtain ? What had I done? Could it be 
 I had kissed that perfumed cbeek as it touched my 
 face? If she became offended with me, I must then 
 plead as extenuation some remnant of the fever clinging 
 to my brain. Surely a man as sick as I had been was 
 not wholly responsible. 
 
 But whether my brain was disordered or not, I re- 
 tained enough of the good judgment upon which I once 
 had prided myself, to know better than to launch at 
 once into conversation. There is no social rule 
 more safe to follow than this : when you don't know 
 what to say, say nothing. From my changed position 
 in the bed, I could see what then seemed to me almost 
 enough of the world. Every movement of the beauti- 
 ful woman, who permitted me to call her Kate, was 
 beneath my eyes. Opposite me was an open window, 
 with a pot of fragrant flowers at either side, and with 
 out were green fields, a glistening river and a summer 
 sky. This world seemed excellent to me at that mo- 
 ment, almost perfect. How stupid of mankind to turn it 
 
All Experiment iii Marriage. 63 
 
 into a place of torment. But this was Grape Yalley, the 
 people of which, as Gillette had assured me, had agreed 
 on a reasonable existence ; had consented to work to- 
 gether instead of at cross purposes, to help to build up 
 instead of to destroy all that is worth living for. Alas ! 
 for poor Ward. His thirst for knowledge had cost him 
 his hfe, a life which he could have spent in a spot 
 where it was made possible for men to be happy. 
 
 " Kate," I called, and she turned toward me. If 
 she had been blushing there was no sign of it now on 
 her calm, fair face. If she had been angry there was 
 no hint of wrath or indignation now in her wide, open 
 eyes, or in the gentle curves of her mouth. "I want 
 to ask you about my friend, Mr. Ward." My voice 
 was faint and my breath a little uncertain, but it was a 
 relief to speak even thus. " Did they find his body ? " 
 
 '' Oh, yes," she answered, with a quiet laugh. I ex- 
 perienced a sense of shock at her lack of seriousness. 
 But perhaps the people of Grape Yalley had a religion 
 which can indeed rob deatli of its terrors, the grave of 
 its gloom. It would be as well worth studying as its 
 social innovations. "They found his body," Kate 
 continued, " and its spirit had not left it." 
 
 " Ton don't mean to say Ward is alive ? " I ex- 
 claimed, in excitement. 
 
 " He was not as seriously injured as you were, al- 
 though he may be confined to his bed longer. He 
 was badly bruised, but his injuries were not on his 
 head." 
 
 "Why," I exclaimed, "it was little less than a 
 miracle that we both should be saved." 
 
 " No," she answered, drawing a chair up to the bed- 
 side, " not a miracle at all. It happened in this way. 
 Mr. Gillette had given the alarm to a numlier of us 
 who were returning to the city with a load of grapes. 
 You were both of you taken from the water within ^vq 
 minutes of the time the river overtook you." 
 
 " Gillette — where is he now T' 
 
^4: An Exjperiment in Marriage, 
 
 "He was obliged to start almost immediately on 
 another business trip. It will be a fortnight before he 
 will return." 
 
 I relapsed into silence. I was alone, then, among 
 strangers, sick and alone. The sun, which a moment 
 ago had been shining so cheerfully into the window, 
 went under a cloud. The river, in the distance, lost 
 its sheen, and took on the appearance to my eye of a 
 black, baleful serpent of monstrous proportions. Even 
 the woman by my side, I fancied, had a distrait ex- 
 pression on her face. Doubtless she wished herself 
 rid of the burden of the sick stranger. 
 
 " How did I come here ? " I asked, wearily. 
 
 She rose and bent over me, taking my hot hands 
 
 to go to sleep?" 
 
 I nodded my head. She did not seat herself, but 
 still stood cooling my hands with hers. 
 
 " I told you that I was with a party from the vine- 
 yards, which Mr. Gillette called to tlie rescue. AVhen 
 you were taken from the river limp and white as death 
 itself, though without disfiguring wounds or bruises, I 
 took your head in my lap, and dried your face with 
 my handkerchief. It was I who forced the few drops 
 of brandy between your lips which made you breathe 
 again. The others had thought you dead, but I could 
 
 not believe that death looked so beautiful 1 mean 
 
 ," and her hands trembled, I fancied, as they 
 
 touched mine. " [ thought that the spirit had not 
 left your body yet, and when you gave the first sign 
 of life, nothing would suit me but to be permitted 
 to nurse you back to health. So you were brought here, 
 and here you are recovering. Now to sleep," and, 
 without so much as a look behind her, Kate left the 
 room. 
 
 But my sense of loneliness had gone. In its place 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 66 
 
 was a sweet peace and satisfaction which I did not care 
 to analyze. A deh'ghtful languor distilled through my 
 veins, and I dropped away into such sleep as opium- 
 eaters describe. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 In another week the physician gave the long-craved 
 permission for me to be dressed, and the young man 
 from the hospital who had assisted Kate in her self- 
 appointed task, really made me look quite presentable. 
 He even shaved me, and when my gentle nurse came 
 into the chamber to find me sitting by the window and 
 looking much like other men, she seemed as delighted 
 as a child. I always have had a particular contempt 
 for an ungrateful man, and I certainly felt myself 
 under great obligations to the assistant from the hospi- 
 tal. Still I knew my strength was limited and I could 
 not consent to waste any of it talking with him, when 
 I had so much to say to my nurse and to hear from her. 
 He had told me that I could sit up tliis first time only 
 an hour, and fifteen minutes of it had slipped away 
 before he made the first movement toward leaving me 
 with Kate. I hope that I did not bid him goodbye too 
 eagerly, but I certainly was very much pleased as he 
 closed the door behind him. 
 
 Kate was pleased also, or I am no judge of female 
 character. She had been busying herself in little 
 nothings while he remained, mere pretenses in the way 
 of occupation. She pulled the curtain down somewhat 
 lower, straightened the pictures on the wall, changed a 
 few vases on the mantel, moved the chair out of the 
 corner and set it back again. When the young man 
 stood in the doorway saying his long-desired farewell, 
 she half turned toward him as if interrupted in some- 
 thing vitally important, "Are you going so soon ? Well 
 
An Ex'periment in Marriage, 6T 
 
 you must be back at eleven promptly to put the sick 
 man to bed again." 
 
 But no sooner had he closed the door behind him 
 and my eyes turned eagerly to her, than she dropped 
 her brush broom into the nearest chair, and hurried to 
 me as if she thought I was in peril. She touched ray 
 hands and gently pressed them, to learn if I were fever- 
 ish, and then cooled my forehead with something very 
 much like a caress. She bent over and looked me in 
 the face, and if my eyes were misty with an unshed 
 tear or two I do not know as I need be ashamed to con- 
 fess it. I was still weak and my nerves w^ei-e unstrung, 
 and she was so sweet and compassionate. Her eyes 
 shone wnth tears of joy and pity. I could not help 
 feeling a little pity for myself. 
 
 *' How happy I am," she said simply. Then she 
 brought a low stool and seated herself at my feet. " I 
 am going to talk with you for the whole of three-quar- 
 ters of an hour. This will be my last forenoon with 
 you." 
 
 I gave a startled movement which made her laugh. 
 " But not my last afternoon. I resume work to mor- 
 row forenoon. I have taken as long a vacation as I 
 can." 
 
 " So women work in Grape Yalley ! " I exclaimed, 
 rather scornfully. 
 
 " Here we draw wages too; that is where we have 
 another advantage over the women of civilization." 
 
 " I should think it would be better for the men, 
 either as husbands or as fathers, to support the women," 
 persisted I. 
 
 " That isn't the way in Grape Yalley. Every man 
 or woman does a share of the necessary work and draws 
 a corresponding share of the returns. The women of 
 Grape Yalley are dependents or pensioners on no man's 
 bounty." 
 
 •'But," I urged, "I should think the men would 
 prefer to provide for the women they love. A father. 
 
68 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 for instance, must certainly take pleasure in feeding 
 and clothing his grown-up daughter." 
 
 " But Avhy should he support her if she is able to 
 support herself, any more than a grown-up son ? There 
 is nothing to admire in idleness. Besides he would be 
 forced to carry an extra burden by so doing, and more 
 working hours would be required than are necessary 
 now that each woman bears her own burden. A day's 
 work is but four hours in Grape Yalley, because all 
 except the children and the sick bear a hand." 
 
 "But, "Ibe^^an. 
 
 *' Wait a minute," she interrupted, eagerly. " There 
 is another reason why fathers do not support their 
 grown-up daughters here. If a daughter were a charge 
 upon her father, when the father died the daughter 
 would be left dependent on some one's else bounty. 
 If she married and her husband died or left her, she 
 would be once more left to charity, or to the chance of 
 commending herself to a second's husband's favor. 
 By giving her work to do, our policy secures her free- 
 dom after so many centuries of bondage." 
 
 " But," I continued, " I should think the husbands 
 of Grape Yalley would prefer their wives should be 
 at home." 
 
 " What good would it do even such fond husbands " 
 demanded Kate, *' for their wives to be at home when 
 they themselves are away at work ? As long as the 
 wife is at home when the husband is there, he ought 
 to be satisfied." 
 
 " But aside from that," I urged, " you must re- 
 member man's pride. He likes to feel that it is he 
 who provides the woman he loves with the necessities 
 and luxuries of existence. It is usually supposed, too," 
 I added, " that the loving wife enjoys her blessings 
 doubly when bestowed by her husband's hand." 
 
 "A grown w^oman should not have such silly ideas," 
 exclaimed Kate with a curl of her red lips, " and a sen- 
 sible man should be above any such pride as you speak 
 
A71 Experiment in Marriage, 69 
 
 of, which it would cost so much to indulge. It would 
 cost her independence, which is essential if there is to 
 he the true and passionate relation between them, 
 rather than the mutually degrading relation of owner 
 and slave." 
 
 "Not if they love each other," I insisted. 
 
 But Kate would not let me talk. " If they love 
 each other, this mercenary relation which you admire 
 so much, corrupts, taints, and tends to destroy the 
 emotion. Love is not bought and sold. But suppos- 
 ing they love each other very little, or, as is often the 
 case, not at all, what then becomes of the pleasure of 
 the proud husband in providing for her, and of her 
 sweet humility in accepting his begrudged bounty ? '' 
 
 I said nothing, and Kate seemed very glad of the 
 opportunity to answer her own question. 
 
 " Why, their union then becomes shameful as well 
 as painful. She eats her bread in bitterness, which 
 he throws to her in contempt. He is under a sort of 
 bondage to her in the continued obligation to support 
 one who cannot provide for herself, and she is an un- 
 willing pensioner for her board and clothes. Common 
 honor and decency constrain him ; absolute and gross 
 hunger and want constrain her." 
 
 " But you have true love matches here ? " I sug- 
 gested. 
 
 " Since the women of this valley are independent, 
 there are no marriages here for support, no marriages 
 for money. Love, pure and simple, or what they think 
 to be love, draws men and women together, and their 
 relation after marriage is the same as in courtship, 
 based on passion, physical and spiritual, and giving 
 that passion its perfect course." 
 
 When any woman talks of love it is apt to make a 
 man's pulses beat somewhat faster. But when she 
 was beautiful, young and gentle, and when she talked 
 with such fervor, such enthusiasm, what wonder that 
 my heart throbbed wildly, and hot words of passion 
 
70 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 rushed to my trembling lips ? It must have been that 
 Kate perceived my emotion, and desired, for some 
 good reason of her own, to check it. She rose sud- 
 denly from her stool, and taking her place by my side, 
 pointed ont of the window and down the valley. 
 
 " Yon see those fields of a peculiar green ? " 
 
 I could not yet trust my voice. She doubtless knew 
 why. Women are all clairvoyants where matters of 
 the heart are concerned. So she continued without 
 waiting for an answer : " Those are the vineyards. 
 That district is on a lower level than this part of the 
 valley, and is much hotter and dryer. See how brown 
 and parched the land looks, except where occupied by 
 the vines; GrajDes would not grow to advantage in 
 this district; It is too cool and moist here. .But we 
 have green grass instead, something the southerly end 
 of the vdlej does not have." 
 
 " You surely do not pick the grapes yourself ? " I 
 exclaimed in something like my natural voice, although 
 I could not hide the admiration in my eyes as I turned 
 them toward her fair cheeks. 
 
 " Oh, no, the men do that. I sometimes go down 
 to see them, as fortunately I had been doing that day 
 wdien I first saw you. My work is packing the grapes 
 in boxes for the market." She extended her closed 
 hands toward me, and then slowly opened them. 
 " Look, you can see the stains on my fingers. I have 
 hidden them before." 
 
 I caught her hands in mine to bring them closer to my 
 eyes for examination. Yes, they were stained at the tips. 
 
 " Ah, you will not admire them any more," she 
 cried, with a sweet mingling of coquetry and reproach 
 in her voice and on her face. But when in an instant 
 more she felt my burning kisses, and heard my breath 
 come in quick sighs, she snatched her hands from me 
 ahnost furiously, and was half way across the room as 
 the door opened to admit the young man from the 
 hospital. 
 
An Exj)eriment in Marriage, 71 
 
 '' The hour is up," he said, smiling pleasantly at us. 
 Then he approached me. " Ah, our patient looks 
 feverish again. I am afraid he has talked too long." 
 
 The next morning a little before eight o'clock, Kate 
 stood in the doorway of my chamber for an instant. 
 
 ''I am going to get some more stains on these 
 fingers," she said, kissing the tips of them to me in 
 wliat I quite justly considered the most exasperating 
 manner. Tlie i'our hours between eight and twelve that 
 she would be absent 1 passed in bed, alternately study- 
 ing the condition of my heart, and taking short naps. 
 The naps were more satisfactory than the self -examina- 
 tions. I woke refreshed each time, and resumed the 
 mental analysis until, confused and tired, I fell asleep 
 again. 
 
 So far as I am able to condense the -results of my 
 meditations, I will give them. I was quite unable to 
 decide whether or not Kate was the most beautiful 
 woman I had ever seen, the brightest or the sweetest. 
 I was unable to recall with sufficient clearness my past 
 experiences to positively decide whether I had ever 
 before been as much thrilled in a woman's presence ; 
 whether I had ever liked as well to look in any other 
 woman's face ; whether I had ever been as fond of the 
 touch of another woman's hand. I was unable to find 
 data to prove that I should always feel toward Kate as 
 I felt now, or that she was and always would be to me 
 the ideal woman, or even that she was the first or 
 the only woman I had ever met who could inspire in 
 me an enduring passion. Before noon, however, I had 
 admitted to mysek that long before I could get away 
 from this house I should have made a complete sur- 
 render of myself and all I was to Kate ; that I should 
 have made as absolute a devotee of myself as a nine- 
 teenth century lover can be. 
 
 I tried to be philosophical, and to look at my case 
 from an indifferent standpoint. I had come to Grape 
 Valley to study its institutions and morals. By falling 
 
Y2 A'/i Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 in love was I not willfullj blinding mjself to a proper 
 study of the situation ? At first I was disposed to ad- 
 mit tliat I was doing just that. But later 1 recollected 
 that nothing usually opens a man's eyes like marriage. 
 Perhaps, even if I had not been led to it by force of 
 circumstances, it would have been my duty as a studerit 
 of social dynamics to have sought the experience of a 
 Grape \^alley marriage. What teacher like experience ? 
 Marriage alone could make me an adept. But even if 
 it had not been in the plain line of my duty, it clearly 
 was my manifest destiny. What other possible de-. 
 nouement could there be to my drama ? A sick and 
 weak man is nursed by a beautiful and charming girl. 
 His fancy is fitful and feverish, his senses impression- 
 able as newly-heated wax. It was for me to thank for- 
 tune that this girl was remarkably beautiful and charm- 
 ing. My cold philosophy would not let me deny that 
 I should probably have fallen just as hopelessly in love 
 under the same fatal conditions with a woman many 
 degrees less worthy. 
 
 Shortly after twelve o'clock when the young man 
 from the hospital came, he was accompanied by the 
 doctor. The latter felt of my forehead and looked in 
 my eyes, took my temperature, and counted my pulse in 
 a most solemn fashion. Then his countenance relaxed. 
 
 " Why the patient is a good deal better and stronger 
 than he was yesterday," said the doctor. 
 
 " Of course I am," I remarked, adding jocularly : 
 ''Who said I wasn't?" 
 
 The young man from the hospital looked surprised. 
 " Then you think it would not hurt him to be dressed 
 and sit up for an hour to-day ? " 
 
 " He can sit up all the afternoon if he wants to," an- 
 swered the doctor, with the bluff address affected by 
 the profession, both in and out of effete civilization. 
 
 " But yesterday when I came to undress him," in- 
 sisted the young man, "liis face was very much 
 flushed and his pulse bounding." 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 73 
 
 "Nonsense, nonsense, my boy. Why, Mr. Yinton, 
 here, can take a walk outside by day after to-mor- 
 row." 
 
 So tlie doctor paid me his last visit, and the assist- 
 ant, in a nijst disheartened manner, proceeded to dress 
 me' He had lost all the geniality and sprightliness 
 which had made him so engaging. I was really sorry 
 for him. And I knew so well just how he came to 
 make that mistake about my condition. When he en- 
 tered the room the previous forenoon, to be sure my 
 face was flushed and my pulse bounding. In the in- 
 terest of science I suppose I should have given him 
 the true explanation of my excitement. He may in 
 liis future career lose some far more important patient 
 than I, owing to negkct of symptoms of high fever, 
 such as he thought he saw in me. Even out of com- 
 mon friendliness I ought to have told him that it was 
 love, not disease, which caused the acceleration of 
 pulse, which he correctly diagnosed. I ought to have 
 admitted that it really was a fever which affected me, a 
 fever which frequently deranges the body and always 
 unbalances the mind. But I concluded that the young 
 man would not keep my confidences to himself. He 
 would feel impelled to tell the doctor in charge what I 
 had told him, if for no other reason than to justify his 
 i-eport of feverish symptoms. The doctor would re- 
 peat the sentimental tale to his professional brethren, 
 and each of them to his best patient, until Kate and I 
 should become the center of interest for the whole set- 
 tlement. 
 
 So it was that, after the young man had rolled my 
 easy chair into position by the window, and had helped 
 mo to it, although, in fact, I hardly felt the need of 
 his assistance, I permitted him to go with only a '' thank 
 you." Considering the ill turn 1 had done him, I felt 
 be was quite excusable for not putting a table within 
 my reach, and for misarranging the pillows so that by 
 no possible position of the human form could I adapt 
 10 
 
74: A?i iLxperiinent in Marriage. 
 
 my back and neck to them. But his malice turned to 
 mj benefit. In a minute more I heard Kate's step in 
 the hall, and her gentle knock at the door. 
 
 ''Can I do any thing for you?" she asked, and I 
 was able to answer : 
 
 *' Oh, yes, lots of things," proceeding to explain what 
 was wrong, and she to put it aright, with many a word 
 of undeserved abuse for the aljsent assistant, and of 
 pity for me, who, she was convinced, had been shame- 
 fully treated. 
 
 She had taken her lunch at the work-room, as was 
 the custom, and so had nothing more important to do 
 than spend a happy afternoon with me. From the 
 very instant Kate entered the room and gave me her 
 first look, I abandoned myself to the inevitable. I knew 
 that, unless for some direct interposition of fate, I 
 should, before we se^Darated again, offer myself to her. 
 But I determined that whatever small amount of will 
 power I possessed should be exerted to postpone the 
 inevitable for two hours at least. 1 was loth to sacri- 
 fice the charming piquancy there is in the relations of 
 two undeclared lovers. I wanted to make the most of 
 the delicious mystery which envelops the woman one 
 loves before she confesses a like passion and makes 
 haste to reveal her inmost soul. I always had the dis- 
 position and taste of an epicure in matters intellectual 
 as well as physical. I was resolved to extract and enjoy 
 the last drop of sweetness there was in the first and 
 undetermined period of love, before passing into the 
 second, that of sweet assurance. Charming and beatific 
 as the first act might be, I almost dreaded to bid good- 
 bye forever to the prelude. 
 
 But as soon as Kate, instead of taking the stool at 
 my feet as she had done yesterday, drew a chair up to 
 my side, I knew my determination was all for naught. 
 I confessed to myself that if Kate was not in my arms 
 within five minutes, it would be because she did not 
 return my passion. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, V5 
 
 " Have jou missed me ? " she gently asked, bending 
 forward to look in my face. 
 
 But witiiout answering I reached out my hand and 
 took liers. It gave one tug as if seeking escape, and 
 then lay still. 
 
 " Oh, you want to see if my fingers are stained 
 still ? " aiid she tried to laugh, but the color left her 
 face, her eyes had fallen to her lap, and I shall remem- 
 ber as long as I live the bewitching quiver of the lashes 
 on her cheek. She knew as well as I that the supreme 
 moment was at hand. 
 
 "Kate, I love you." 
 
 I had thought it certain that this woman loved me. 
 But it suddenly came over me now that I might have 
 been mistaken. I would not have been the first con- 
 ceited fool to have been convinced that a woman was 
 in love with hira simply because she had a kind heart. 
 
 What, it suddenly burst upon me, was there in me 
 to inspire a passion ? Since my illness I was not even 
 good-looking. I had been unable to talk very much, 
 so it could not be I had been interesting. My social 
 accomplishments, which had not been wholly amiss in 
 Eastern drawing-rooms, had no field or occasion here. 
 My wealth and position were not only unknown to the 
 woman to whom I was just offering myseK, but utterly 
 out of account in this colony. 
 
 All these thoughts passed through my mind in the 
 pause which followed my declaration, and I was sud- 
 denly plunged into the despair Avhich should be the 
 condition of the true lover's soul. There is something 
 unchivalrous in a lover w^ho counts it only necessary 
 for hhn to speak to be accepted, for him to ask in 
 order to receive unconditional surrender of the fortress 
 which he should be willing to risk his life to win. I 
 forgot I was weak or had ever been ill. I sprang to 
 my feet and stood before her. 
 
 " Kate," I cried, " do not say you have only pitied 
 me ; that you only cared for me as a good angel might 
 
Y6 An £kperi7/i€nt in Marriage. 
 
 care for any suffering human being. I want your 
 love." 
 
 She, too, must have forgotten that I had been ver^i 
 ill, for she seemed to see nothing surprising in the fact 
 that I was standing. She rose too, and suddenly 
 lifting her downcast lids, let her great bhie eyes sbine 
 into mine with all the splendor of awakening passion. 
 The warm blood rushed back into her cheeks, and 
 tearing her hand from mine she threw both her arms 
 around my neck and laid her beautiful head upon my 
 slioulder. 
 
 This was surely answer enough, but what triumph- 
 ant lover but would have wanted more. 
 
 " Then, you love me, Kate ? " And I put my arm 
 about her waist. ^' Tell me. Say so, then.'- 
 
 Without lifting her head from my shoulder she 
 turned her face toward mine and smiled like an angel. 
 A woman's passion makes her almost divine. Her 
 dewy lips parted : 
 
 " I love yon '' she began, and then my lips met 
 
 hers in a kiss which is the true confession of love. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Then Kate seemed to discover that her patient had 
 been on his feet, and altogether behaving himself like 
 a well man. Nothing wonld satisfy her bnt that I 
 take my easy chair again. In vain I assured her that 
 my happiness had completely restored me to health. In 
 vain I argued that a tonic was all that I had required 
 to make me well, explaining that while the doctor had 
 failed to find the proper agent, and was leaving nie to 
 the slow recuperative influences of nature, she had of- 
 fered me the elixir of life, and lo, I was restored. 
 
 But at last I had to yield to Kate's inflexible com- 
 mands and return to my easy chair, while she, drawing 
 her chair nearer to mine, for consolation laid her head 
 upon my shoulder. 
 
 So every thing was amicably arranged at last, and, 
 without further loss of time, we started upon those 
 mutual confidences which always come at the beginning 
 of love affairs, and usually cease all too soon. Kate 
 told me that it was while she looked down upon my 
 face as it lay in her lap, death-stricken as it seemed to 
 be, she had first fallen in love. 
 
 As the reader has not my photograph by which to 
 confirm or correct Kate's fond description, I will not 
 give in detail her language concerning what nothing 
 shall ever again convince me are not Grecian features 
 of most classic mould. I may forget the criticisms of 
 my enemies, or the half compliments of my friends, but 
 although I am too much afraid of being ridiculous to 
 write here the words Kate used, I shall never forget 
 one adjective of them all. AH men are vain, and if 
 
78 An Exjyeriment in Marriage. 
 
 we do not suspect your sincerity, believe me, dear 
 readers, since I speak from my own experience, when 
 I say it, you can please one of us more by praises of 
 our physical graces and facial beauties, half or wholly 
 imaginary though they may be, than by any amount 
 of ascriptions to our virtues or to our talents. We feel 
 perhaps that others may not see the virtues or admire 
 the talents, but a handsome face or a fine figure can be 
 appreciated by everybody. 
 
 But Kate told me, too, that I was so patient with my 
 pain that it would have been a heart of stone not to 
 have softened for me. " Most men," she said, " are 
 brutes when tliey are sick." And when I began to re- 
 cover, and called her by name, and seemed pleased to 
 have her near me, she said she first knew what pure 
 happiness was. But then came the fear lest I should 
 not love her, or worse still, if when I grew befter I 
 asked her to marry me, it might be out of gratitude 
 and not out of true love. 
 
 " Are you sure you love me ? " Her voice came in a 
 more subdued tone from my shoulder where her head 
 rested. 
 
 "■ Tell me what you think love is." 
 
 I tried to make her lift her head, so I could watch 
 her face as she answered. But women seem half 
 ashamed of the intensity of their feehngs. 
 
 "No," she said, "you must not make me look at 
 you now." 
 
 Then she continued : " A man who loves should 
 never want to leave the woman he has chosen, should 
 think only of how he can make her happy, should, 
 when in her presence, feel a tender warmth always 
 about his breast. When she comes his heart should 
 give a bound of delight. When she leaves him, if 
 only for a moment, it should be as if the light were 
 taken from the room. Her smiles should be reward 
 enough for every effort, her continued favor a solace 
 for every misfortune.. All that is best, noblest and 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 70 
 
 most unselfish in him should be stimulated by her pres- 
 ence, every thing base, covetous or unjust, should find 
 stifling the atmosphere of his passion for her. He 
 shonUi feel that life without her would be a blank, and 
 death with her a delight. This is the way a man 
 should love a woman. Like that, I think, is ray love 
 for von." 
 
 "'Why do you say *I think'?" I demanded, re- 
 proachfully. 
 
 '^ Because we cannot be sure," she answered, sadly. 
 " I have described love as it is in its own nature. If a 
 man and woman are not fitted for each other they find 
 it out in time. When they cease to love as I have de- 
 scribed, then they cease to love at all." 
 
 Then it was for me to tell her how 1 had grown to 
 love her, how beautiful she seemed to me, how sweet, 
 how divine. 
 
 " If I am so," she said softly, '' it is you that make 
 me so. Love can make us fulfill all our best and 
 hio'hest possibilities " 
 
 "" Where did you get such ideas of love?" 
 
 "Why, it is our religion here. But you have not 
 even told me your first name," she continued, "or 
 about your life before you came here." 
 
 I told her that my parents had died when I was yet a 
 boy, leaving me an ample, though not unusual property. 
 I went over my school and college experiences, and my 
 first ventures and small successes in literature. I even 
 revealed to her my one unhappy love affair, explaining 
 how the woman, although professing herself in love 
 with me, and knowing fully my infatuation with her, 
 preferred a man she despised, but who had thousands 
 of dollars to my hundreds. 
 
 "Are you sure you do not love her still?" Kate 
 raised her head and looked me in the face. " I do not 
 mind it if you have loved others. I do not care how 
 many. But 1 should not be happy, nor able to make 
 you so, if you still loved another woman." 
 
80 A7i Exjyei'hnent in Marriage. 
 
 " Love Isabel Blakesley ? No, I hate her." 
 
 Kate let her head drop to my shoulder again, and 
 put her hand in mine. But I was for an instant so 
 full of indignation for the woman who preferred wealtli 
 to love that Kate's gentle reminder passed unnoticed. 
 <'I had rather," she said, when I carried her hand at 
 last to my lips, " that you had satislied yonrself by ex. 
 perience that she could not make you happy. Then 
 yon would have been indifferent to this Isabel." 
 
 But it did not take me long to convince Kate or my- 
 self that there was no woman to me in the world but 
 her. It would be a poor lover, indeed, who, on the 
 very afternoon of his acceptance, could not forget the 
 woman who had more of a passion for wealth and 
 power than for the man she professed to love. 
 
 " But it is now yonr turn to tell me about yourself," 
 I said, when complete accord seemed restored. ^'Just 
 think of it," I added with a laugh, as Kate had not 
 replied, *' I only know your first name. How do you 
 come to live in this house alone? Have you no 
 father, no mother, nor sisters % Does every woman of 
 Grape Yalley have a house of her own \ " 
 
 " I will answer your questions," began Kate, with a 
 slight change of voice, " but I can talk bettei'-if I sit 
 erect. There, let me go for now. By and by you 
 can have me again if you wish." 
 
 So Kate seated herself by my side, and folded her 
 hands in her lap. I thought it well not to insist on 
 further endearments just now. AVomen are capricious 
 creatures, and it is a wise lover who respects the 
 moods and whims of his mistress. 
 
 "In Grape Yalley," she continued, "the land, and 
 the houses built upon it, belong to the State, and are 
 allotted to women who set up homes. Our young 
 people remain at the schools until twenty-two, and 
 their homes are in the dormitories attached. Our men 
 and women, until married, live in the larger buildings, 
 which we call phalansteries^ where all have the pleasure 
 
An Ex])eriment in Marriage. 81 
 
 of privacy in their own rooms, when desired, but meet 
 each other and the liouseholders as well at the common 
 evening meal, and at the social gatherings and enter- 
 tainments which take place in the central halls every 
 evening." 
 
 "But why," I asked, as she seemed wandering 
 from my qnestion, " do yon have a house by yourself \ 
 I should think you would prefer to live in a phalan- 
 stery." 
 
 Kate gave me a startled look. Then she answered 
 hurriedly : " I took for granted you knew I had been 
 married." 
 
 A dull pain settled about my heart. Some other 
 man had once been loved by this woman wliom I had 
 thought all my own. She had thrown her arms about 
 some other man's neck as gracefully as about mine. 
 She had looked into some other passionate eyes as 
 fondly as into mine. She had learned that clinging 
 kiss of hers from some previous lover. I felt a chill 
 creep over me at the thought that at every stage of my 
 courtship, at every advance in our intimacy, she had 
 doubtless compared me with my predecessor. Perhaps 
 I did not embrace her as gracefully, but held her hand 
 more tenderly. It was too hard to bear. 1 could not 
 look at her, but sat staring fiercely at the opposite wall 
 where hung the clock whose hands pointed to t\yenty 
 minutes past three. I could feel her sad, reproachful 
 eyes upon me, and knew she understood what feelings of 
 impotent wrath possessed me. Then I heard her voice 
 coming as from a distance, faint and low, but pleading. 
 
 " You are sorry that I married. But how could I 
 know you were coming % " 
 
 '' How long have you been a widow ? " I asked, in a 
 constrained voice, but without meeting her eyes. 
 
 "A widow?" she exclaimed. "I am not a widow, 
 my husband is away on a business trip." 
 
 I could feel the blood forsake my face, and knew 
 my cheeks must be as white as death, from which she 
 11 
 
82 An Ex])eriment in Marriage. 
 
 had saved me. I sprang to raj feet and turned on the 
 frightened woman as stern a countenance as ever 
 avenging angel could assume. 
 
 " And you are the wife of another man ? Still you 
 have won my heart and accepted my love. What 
 have I done to deserve such punishment?" 
 
 In my desperation I turned my back to her and 
 walked toward the door. I forgot I was sick, and 
 longed as only a man overwhelmingly in love can ever 
 long to escape from the presence of the woman I 
 loved. Then she sprang to her feet, remembering that 
 I was ill, and followed me, her womanliness overcom- 
 ing her sbame. But I felt only a desire to scathe her 
 with new and terrible rebukes before I should go, to 
 tear her fond heart with agonizing reproaches and bit- 
 ter taunts. She had wounded me. I would give her 
 scar for scar. So before 1 reached the door 1 turned 
 to face her again. My lips opened for words but they 
 would not come. A strange dizziness affected my 
 brain. I felt that I was dying, and was glad if it 
 would but break the heart of this most cruel of 
 women. I felt my knees shaking and then I knew no 
 more. 
 
 When I began to come to myself, I was lying on 
 the bed, and I opened my eyes to see the pale, tear- 
 stained face of the woman I loved bending over me in 
 that most winning of all her attitudes. My arms obeyed 
 my heart, and throwing them about her neck I drew 
 her to my face. Her cheeks were cold, even her lips, 
 as they pressed mine, were like ice, while my heart was 
 beating high with renewed life and love. 
 
 '' Then you forgive me? " she murmured. 
 
 " Forgive you," I repeated in astonishment. " For 
 what?" Then the memory of her terrible confession 
 came back to me. Joy was not for me. I fairly moaned 
 in my misery, and my arms unwound from about the 
 woman's neck, and fell inert to my side. 
 
 Then came a knock at the door, and in response to 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 83 
 
 Kate's " come in " the young man from the hospital 
 entered. He would have been somewhat else than 
 human if he had not experienced a slight sense of satis- 
 faction at seeing me lie pale and haggard on the bed. 
 And, when Kate explained that I had fainted while 
 trying to cross the room, a look very near akin to ecstacy 
 passed over his face. The absurdity of the second mis- 
 take in diagnosis the young man was making appealed 
 to my sense of the ludicrous, stricken as I was. Jiut he 
 merely said with a satisfied air : 
 
 " I told the doctor that Mr. Yinton was not as well 
 as he thought." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The next morning the young man came from the 
 hospital provided widi a new sort of medicine from my 
 physician. But when he found me dressed and in my 
 easy chair, he looked at me as if he could not beheve 
 his eyes. 
 
 '' Surely you did not dress yourself ? " he ejaculated. 
 
 " But I did just that," I insisted, " and what is more, 
 I sliall try my legs a little in the outer air to-day." 
 
 "Then this is of no use," he exclaimed in disgust, 
 as he threw the bottle of medicine far out of the 
 window. 
 
 I was not at all in a merry mood, but his complete 
 discomfiture was almost enough to bring a smile to 
 the stone face of a statue. 
 
 "Don't be angry with me for getting better," I 
 urged. 
 
 " But why can't you live up to your symptoms ? That 
 is what I want to know." 
 
 "I always was an eccentric man," I said. "Let 
 that fact explain the other. But sit down here, my 
 dear boy. I want to ask you a few questions." 
 
 His face brightened, true philanthropist that he 
 really was, at the opportunity of making himself use- 
 ful. He drew up his chair and assumed an attentive 
 expression. 
 
 '• In the first place," I began, " whose house is this I 
 am in ? " 
 
 "Why, Mrs. Vegas' of course." 
 
 " You mean Mr. Yogas', I presume 1 " 
 
 " Oh no, I don't. It is the wives to whom the 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 85 
 
 houses are allotted in Grape Yalley. The husband is 
 her guest. As for Mr. Vegas, he is one of our buying 
 agents, and is at San Francisco now." 
 
 '' Who supports me here ? " I continued. 
 
 ^' The State, which takes care of all the sick and 
 disabled people in Grape Yalley. You will have a 
 chance to go to work later, never fear." 
 
 "Now, my dear boy? — By the way what is your 
 name ? George ? Well, George, I want to get away 
 from this house as soon as possible. I have been a 
 burden on Mrs. Yegas too long ah-eady." 
 
 " I don't think she regards it in that way," said 
 George. But I insisted. 
 
 " Of course she couldn't say so, but, if I am able, I 
 want to go from here to-morrow. Now where am I 
 to go ? " 
 
 " Why, there is the phalanstery, No. 1, that is where 
 your friend is." 
 
 " Just the place," I cried eagerly. " Now will you 
 make the proper arrangements for me to go to that 
 phalanstery ? " 
 
 *' Certainly I will. It is a very simple matter." 
 
 " And then come back for me to-morrow morning. 
 I think I shall be able to go by then ? But George, 
 be careful of one thing. Don't let a word of my plan 
 get to Kate — I mean to Mrs. Yegas' ears. We can 
 go in the forenoon, when she is at work, you know." 
 
 " Just as you say. But wouldn't that be a little 
 rude to her? However, that is your aifair, not mine." 
 
 When the young man had gone, I put on my hat 
 and ventured to open the door, and slowly make my 
 way across the hall. In a moment more I had passed 
 down the steps and was on the street. I was much 
 stronger than yesterday. I almost wished I had made 
 my plans to go to the phalanstery this very morning. 
 Tiie prospect of Kate's return, and of the tortures her 
 presence would cause me, made me dread the after- 
 noon. I glanced up and down the street on which I 
 
86 An Exjperiment in Marriage, 
 
 stood, and up the intersecting street, lined witli little 
 houses like the one I had suddenly grown to liate. I 
 saw no large building such as the phalanstery must be. 
 
 Indeed, if I had seen it, and had been strong enough 
 to walk there unassisted, I had no credentials such as 
 I supposed would be necessary to show, entitling me 
 to be received. I leaned against a lamp-post and tried 
 to reconcile myself to the unavoidable return to Kate's 
 home. 
 
 I laid out a scheme of demeanor. When she first 
 returned from her work, and knocked at the door, I 
 would call to her that I was just taking a nap. This 
 would, perhaps, preserve my solitude for an hour or 
 more. When she should at last sit down with me, 
 and wait for my first word of reproach, I would sur- 
 prise her by uttering none. I would proceed precisely 
 as if no word of love liad ever been spoken between 
 us. I would talk of impersonal matters, and meet all 
 approaches toward sentiment with silence, or with 
 affected misunderstanding. 
 
 Did I still love her ? My whole nature was aflame 
 with a j^assion which even the thought that she was 
 another's wife could not abate. But my passion was 
 not of the baser sort which would be satisfied at the 
 cost of honor or decency. No stolen delights could 
 indeed satisfy such passion as mine. I wanted her 
 for mine and mine alone, mine to make happy and 
 proud, mine to cherish early and late. The more I 
 loved her the less was I disposed to dishonor her, the 
 more determined was I to endure the agony of living 
 sacrifice before I should tempt her by word or look, or 
 even by unguarded tone of voice, to lend to me what 
 she had given to another. I would go away to-morrow 
 because I was afraid that the tense fibres of my resolu- 
 tions might relax after too long a strain. But it would 
 prove me a weak and unworthy creature indeed, if I 
 could not stand the trial of one afternoon. 
 
 Suddenly my heart gave a bound as a familiar wo- 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 87 
 
 man's figure appeared at some distance up the street 
 which intersected the one on which I stood. It was 
 Kate, and she was running toward me as if in great 
 excitement. Could she have met with some acci- 
 dent ? It seemed an eternity before she reached my 
 side. Her face was flushed, her eyes were shining as 
 if in liigh fever, her bosom I'osc and fell tumultuously 
 with her distressed breathing. She caught my arm. 
 
 "Where — were — yon going?'' she cried, catching 
 her scant breath. "Were you going to leave me?" 
 Then she drew me toward the house, " Oh, come 
 back," she said. " Only come back." 
 
 In vain I assured her that I had merely come out for 
 a walk. She did not release my arm until she had 
 helped me into what had been my sick room. Then 
 she threw herself into the nearest chair, and leaning 
 her head upon the table, began sobbing as if her heart 
 would break. Her thick coils of hair became loosened, 
 and fell like sheets of burnished gold to the very floor 
 beneath. Then in sudden shame — a woman looks on 
 unbound liair as one sort of nudity — she straightened 
 herself, and with trembling hands tried to fasten up 
 her hair. But in an overwhelming spasm of abandon, 
 as if she cast all thoughts but of her own misery to the 
 winds, she released her hair again and dropping her 
 head upon her hands gave way to weeping. 
 
 Now, as the reader will I'em ember, I had made no 
 plan or laid out no procedure for a case like this. The 
 interview for which I had prepared myself was to have 
 in it no sudden outburst of pitiful weeping. Indeed I 
 had been taken off my guard by her very appearance 
 in so excited a condition, when I had believed she was 
 still at her work, and could not return for hours. Now 
 followed this mute agony and ravishing picture of 
 womanly beauty in distress. Was it a wonder that I 
 forgot my scheme of behavior, and sought to meet the 
 emergency as man has met similar ones since men and 
 women first gave each other raptui'e and misery ? I 
 
88 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 laid my hand upon her head. I stroked her wonderful 
 hair, taking its shining lengths between my fingers 
 and wondering at its softness, all the while murmuring 
 some soft wor^s of pity, and I am afraid, in spite of 
 all my high resolutions, of endearment. I could onlj" 
 remember that she was a woman who loved me, as she 
 sobbed there, trembling like a child. It would be time 
 enough by and by to remind myself that she was 
 another man's wife. 
 
 Little by little her grief seemed assuaged. Her sobs 
 grew less frequent, and she tried twice to speak before 
 she could catch her breath. 
 
 " I grew so worried about you, I could not work," 
 she said at last, without lifting her head. " I felt some- 
 thing might be happening. And oh," she suddenly 
 lifted her face wet with tears from her hands, " Oh, 
 when I saw you on the street, I thought I had just 
 
 come in time you know I couldn't live if you left 
 
 me," she cried in hurried excitement. " Promise you 
 will not leave me." 
 
 Then it was that I did something else quite out of 
 m}^ plan, and quite out of keeping with my sober 
 sense of right. I bent down and kissed her, just as if 
 the fact that we loved each other gave me any such 
 privilege. But after this I got my bearings again. I 
 left her side, and crossing to my own easy chair, sat 
 down. 
 
 " Kate," I said with an air of calmness, which I 
 found easier to assume at this distance, " sentiment is 
 very beautiful, but we must look tliis matter fairly in 
 the* face. Come and sit by me, and let us talk for a 
 few minutes." 
 
 Without a word she rose and went to the mirror, 
 where she carefully bound up her hair. She dried her 
 face and eyes, and afterward came, and placing her 
 chair where she could see my face, seated herself. 
 
 '* We have fallen in love with each other," I began. 
 
 " Then you love me still \ " she said, and a radiant 
 
An Exjyeriment in Marriage, 89 
 
 smile overspread lier face, at wliich I became so trans- 
 ported and confused that the clear delimitations of right 
 and wrong, of honor and dishonor which had been 
 so apparent a moment before, seemed vagne and 
 fugitive. 
 
 '' Yes, I love you still," I struggled on, *' and I be- 
 heve I always shall love you. But that is so much the 
 worse for me, I could not be satisfied with a part of a 
 woman's life, even if I were base enough to be willing 
 to cheat her husband." 
 
 "I didn't suppose you could," she assented. 
 
 So ray duty became easier for me. The woman 
 agreed Avith me. I did not, indeed, see how so noble a 
 creature could be otherwise than pure. 
 
 " We ought to see each other no more," I w^ent on. 
 "These mutual confessions and embraces, these kisses 
 of passion, make the ultimate parting more difficult. 
 We should part at once." 
 
 " Don't say it," she exclaimed, putting her hands to 
 her ears, " it is impossible." 
 
 "But," I insisted, in astonishment, "you yourself said 
 only a moment since, that you thought as I did." 
 
 " Oh, no," she answered. " I said I didn't suppose 
 you could be satisfied with part of the woman you. 
 loved, or be willing to deceive her husband." 
 
 "Well," I cried, "isn't that the same thing? " 
 
 She looked puzzled for an instant, and then a slight 
 smile passed over her face, and she uttered words which 
 were like a new and startling revelation to me. 
 
 " You forget we are in Grape Yalley. Here we 
 marry for love, and when we find we love another than 
 our husband we can close a marriage relation — which 
 has then become unnatural, asquickl}^ as we created it." 
 
 To be sure. This was what Gillette had meant by 
 free divorce. This other man's wife could cancel her 
 marriage at will. Apparently, according to the laws 
 and customs of Grape Yalley there was nothing to 
 shut me away from the happiness which I was so con- 
 12 
 
90 An Exjjyeriment in Marriage. 
 
 iident this woman could give me. I had come hither 
 to study the workings of this institution. Before I 
 ]iad so much as walked through the settlement, or had 
 the first conversation with the leaders of this new so- 
 ciety, I was offered that lesson which comes from ex- 
 perience. 
 
 A moment ago I would have believed that I should 
 welcome as a special dispensation of fate the oppor- 
 tunity to marry this woman. But now the information 
 that I could marry her in accordance with the law^s and 
 customs of Grape Yalley, instead of ravishing me, af- 
 fected me with a shock. Instead of bringing her nearer 
 to me, it seemed as if we were more divided than ever. 
 The prejudices of six generations of Puritan ancestors 
 were deeply imbedded in my nature. 
 
 But the situation was becoming very trying. I had 
 told this beautiful creature that I loved her. She liad in- 
 formed me that under the laws of the State I had en- 
 tered, she could cease to become anotlier man's wife 
 when she chose, and become mine. She is expecting 
 me to give some sign of relief and joy, but I sit there 
 in gloomy thought. It is at this fortunate juncture 
 that there comes a ring at the outer door. - With a 
 pretty move of impatience Kate leaves the room, and 
 in a moment more ushers in no other than my friend 
 Ward. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 He bore not a very close resemblance to the elegant 
 Mr. Ward as he was known, and as he is doubtless re- 
 membered, at the most fashionable New York clubs. 
 Not having shaved since we lef i: St. Louis, his cheeks, 
 chin and upper lip were covered with a stiff, scrubby 
 growth of beard. He had lost the clean cut, Grecian 
 style which he used to affect. He had doubtless ex- 
 pected to see me as much changed for the worse as 
 himself. So the first remark as he limped across the 
 room to my side was : 
 
 " I can't see that your appearance has been injured 
 at all by your sickness, my dear boy." 
 
 I rose and we clasped hands with an heartiness which 
 was almost an embrace. I believe, indeed, if there had 
 been no one else in the room, we should have exchanged 
 a genuine hug. 1 had not appreciated before how much 
 my old friend really was to me. 
 
 " All you need is to use your razor," I said. " Haven't 
 our trunks com^eyet? Gillette promised, you know, 
 that they should be here soon after we were." Then 
 I noticed my friend's inquiring glance at Kate, who 
 was busying herself with her charming air of ingenu- 
 ousness, about the room. 
 
 "Kate," I called, and Kate came to where we stood. 
 " Kate, I want to present you to my oldest and best 
 friend, Mr. Ward. Ward, this is the woman who has 
 saved my life." 
 
 Then I remembered that I had been using her first 
 name, and my voice changed in spite of my effort to 
 
92 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 control it, and a warm flush of consciousness rose to 
 her cheeks too as I added : " This is Mrs. Vegas." 
 
 Ward, trained man of the world and accomplished 
 o-entleman as he was, could not keep the surprised look 
 from his face. But he bowed as gracefully as if such 
 a thing as a sprained ankle were unknown in his ex- 
 perience, and responded in his most courtly tones : 
 
 " Mrs. Yegas is entitled to my sincerest thanks." 
 
 "I will leave you for a little while," she said; "such 
 devoted friends must have much to say to each other. 
 Only do not make him too tired, Mr. Ward." 
 
 But just before she opened the door to go out she 
 glanced anxiously, I thought appealingly, at me. I think 
 she felt, with what we sometimes call woman's intui- 
 tion, that she was leaving me exposed, at a most critical 
 moment, to an influence very hostile to her and to her 
 heart's desire. If so, she left in the remembrance of 
 that appealing look a powerful shield against whatever 
 my friend might say. I was conscious, too, that Ward 
 saw the smile I sent to her at parting, and that his face 
 grew more serious still. Then I set my teeth and 
 morally braced myself to resist an attack. 
 
 What stnpid mistakes our friends make. They put 
 us upon the defensive, when we are about to surren- 
 der our position. They stir us up, by opposition, to in- 
 vent excuses for doing something which in fact we 
 w^ere quite undecided about. So AVard, who I had in- 
 stantly concluded was anxious lest I might marry Kate, 
 took the very course most adapted to determine me to 
 marry her. 
 
 "1 have any amonnt of things I want to talk over 
 with you," he began somewhat constrainedly, as is 
 the manner of those who feel impelled to discuss our 
 love affairs with us. " But I feel as if there is one 
 particular matter which it is my duty to speak about, 
 first of all " 
 
 " I concluded so." 
 
 "Ah," he continued with more freedom, "you ex- 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 93 
 
 pected it. So it is ' conscience makes cowards of us 
 all.' I need not mince matters then '{ " 
 
 ^* Not at all," I replied with a somewhat cheerless 
 smile. "Avail yourself of the ancient privilege of 
 friendship, and proceed without delay to make your- 
 self disagreeable." 
 
 We had both seated ourselves, he taking the chair 
 recently occupied by the woman whose fate we were 
 about to settle. 
 
 " I think I noticed the familiar signs of a quite good 
 understanding between you and the 1 must ac- 
 knowledge the exceedingly handsome young 
 
 woman who just went out." 
 
 ''With your usual acumen," I assented, calmly. 
 
 " I think also yon spoke of her as Mrs. Yegas," he 
 continued. " May I inquire is there a Mr. Yegas, or 
 shall I use the past tense ? " 
 
 " From the present outlook," I answered, " the past 
 tense will apply to Mr. Yegas very soon." 
 
 " Great heavens," ejaculated Ward, forsaking the 
 interrogative for the imperative mood under stress of 
 excitement: "You don't mean to say my boy that you 
 have already decided to marry another man's wife?" 
 
 In fact as the reader knows, I had not so decided, 
 but my friend had driven me past the possibility of so 
 ignominious a confession, and I replied coolly : 
 
 " You have it.'' 
 
 He leaped to his feet with the idea of walking to 
 and fro across the room, a very exasperating habit of 
 his. But he had, in his excitement, forgotten the 
 sprained ankle, and after hobbling a few feet away, he 
 came back and seated himself once more. 
 
 " The woman is not yet divorced, I conclude 'i " 
 
 " A just conclusion," I assented. " Kate is now 
 legally married to Mr. Yegas. But I believe it do.s 
 not take long in Grape Yalley to " 
 
 "To make her free to marry you," interrupted 
 Ward impatiently. " You are right. I have been 
 
94: A71 Experiment hi Marriage. 
 
 studying the laws and institutions of this settlement 
 wliile conlined bj mj sprains and bruises to mj bed, 
 and can give you all the particulars. It is only neces- 
 sary for her to go to the record office, make a declara- 
 tion of her wish to be divorced, serve a notice on her 
 husband ; he comes to the house no more, but returns to 
 the phalanstery, and she is free to marry again." 
 
 " Then there need certainly be no uncongenial mar- 
 riages in Grape Yalley," I remarked unflinchingly. 
 
 " But, Yinton, my dear boy," and "Ward exchanged 
 his sarcastic for his persuasive tone, "just stop and 
 think what this is that you are doing. Do you really 
 want to marry a woman who has been as fond of 
 another man as she can be of you ? Love and mar- 
 riage ouglit to be things of eternity." 
 
 " And when true love finds its fruition in true mar- 
 riage it mnst be for eternity," I said, a flood of new 
 ideas touching the peculiar institution of G-rape Yalley 
 rushing in upon me. '' But that a woman is tied for- 
 ever to a man whom she does not like, or, for that 
 matter loves, but not to the full capacity of her nature, 
 does not make true man*iage. That is simply bondage, 
 humiliating, brutalizing, stupefying bondage." 
 
 " But perhaps her husband loves her," urged Ward. 
 
 " Suppose he does," I retorted. " Does that entitle 
 him to make her an unwilling victim ? Is she not 
 entitled to her experience in love as well as he? But 
 for my part I do not believe in the reality of a love 
 which inspires no return in its object. Love is a har- 
 mony of the male and female nature. One alone can- 
 not make it." 
 
 " But how do you know yon and she are ideal 
 lovers? " objected Ward. " Her present husband and 
 she made a mistake, you believe. Why may it not be 
 that you and she may make alike error ? The romantic 
 circumstances under which she first saw you, the pity 
 and interest any handsome invalid has for a woman, 
 may have captivated simply her imagination. As for 
 
An Mcperime7it in Marriage, 95 
 
 yon, the proximity of a fond and beantifiil woman 
 when your senses were in a weak and tremulous con- 
 dition, gratitude and complacency in the enjoyment of 
 the evident admiration you excite, may well liave made 
 even a less fanciful man than you believe himself pos- 
 sessed by a love which is enduring. How do you 
 know tliat you may not, both of you, awake at no dis- 
 tant date to lind your marriage too a failure, or at least 
 a failure to one of you ? " 
 
 ^' Let me see," I remarked with an air of testing my 
 memory. "That would resemble the case of a widow who 
 makes a second poor marriage. There would be this 
 difference, however; in civilization a mis-mated hus- 
 band and wife only have opportunity to marry again 
 under happier auspices through the death or disgrace 
 of one or the other ; in Grape Yalle}' a mistake is no 
 sooner discovered than it can be rectified. As you 
 shrewdly suggest, a mistake is possible even in the in- 
 stance now under discussion. It is always possible 
 that infatuated men and women may not discover, until 
 after the intimacy which marriage only can bring, that 
 they are inharmonious. But, while in civilization such 
 mistakes result in life-long misery, in mutual unkind- 
 ness, in hunger for the sympathy and inspiration only^ 
 a true marriage gives, in (irape Yalley they can be 
 corrected as soon as discovered. Here the man and 
 woman who cannot answer to each other's needs are 
 permitted to find their way to other hearts, ready and 
 waiting for them." 
 
 " Then the idea of marrying and remarrying ad lib- 
 itum does not shock you ! " demanded Ward. "After 
 a woman has had several husbands how must a sane 
 and unprejudiced man regard her 1 " 
 
 This question was, to be sure, a searching one, and I 
 did not answer it as readily as most of my friend's 
 challenges. It appealed to my prejudices, and not 
 wholly in vain. I recollected the not always unde- 
 served slurs cast upon the women in civilization who 
 
06 A7i Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 had been throiigli tlie divorce court, the common re- 
 flections, too, on widows and widowers who ventured 
 again and still again into new bonds of matrimony. 
 But not content with his advantage, Ward proceeded 
 to follow it up. 
 
 ^' Think of the disgrace to a woman of being repeat- 
 edly divorced.'' 
 
 JBut my friend had himself suggested a point of view 
 taking which the aspect of matters seemed tomechanged. 
 " The conditions in civilization and here are entirely 
 different," I answered. "In J^ew York a divorced 
 woman is counted disgraced because the causes for 
 which divorces are issued are disgraceful. In Grape 
 Yalley you tell me the desire of either party to be free 
 is sufficient. In civilization, the cause of a divorce 
 must be bad conduct of at least one party, implying 
 most commonly some fault in the other. Here incom- 
 patibility is the all-sufficient occasion for divorces, and 
 since it is a matter of common sense to see that the 
 man and woman who are not suited to each other are 
 no less likely to be entirely suited to some other na- 
 tures, so both man and woman are freed here from all 
 possible stigma or reproach. It is the very frequency 
 of divorce here which must make the fact as touching 
 this or that woman insignificant as a measure of worth, 
 amiability or virtue. As to your comparison of widows 
 and widowers, whose too often repeated marital ex- 
 periences serve to point so many ghastly jokes and se- 
 pulchral witticisms-^ — - " 
 
 ''Well, as for them, what?" interjected Ward. 
 
 " Why there is no analogy, my dear Ward," I con- 
 tinued; "a husband or wife in Grape Yalley does not 
 have to wait until the other's death for freedom when 
 desired. It is because rapid remarriages by widows 
 and widowers indicate that they have been hoping for 
 the death of their partners that we look upon them 
 with such disfavor. It must be considered one of the 
 advantages of society in Grape Yalley that, under no 
 
A71 Experiment in Marriage, 97 
 
 circumstances, could a luisband or ^vife here be sus- 
 pected of wisliiDg the other under the ground." 
 
 Ward arose. '' J^ot going? " I exckimed. '' Why 
 there are a tlioiisand things I want to ask yon about — 
 when is Gillette coming back ? Plow long before " 
 
 "Not to-day," he said shortly. "I am out of all 
 patience with you, and am going back to the phalan- 
 stery. Where did Mrs. Vegas put my hat ? Oh, here 
 it is." And taking his hat from the table and pulling 
 it low on his forehead, as I had known him often to do 
 when out of temper, he walked slowly toward the door. 
 Jnst before reaching it, however, he turned and said: 
 
 " I presume nothing will keep you from doing this 
 very foolish tiling. \ on forget all your previous be- 
 liefs and faitlis ; you forget that bj^ taking this step 
 you are binding yourself to this system of society, and 
 to the sacrifice of a civilization for which you are par- 
 ticularly fitted. You forget every thing but the over- 
 mastering passion which you would be the first to de- 
 spise in another." 
 
 "Excuse me," I began. 
 
 " No," he interrupted ; " I am not going to stay to 
 hear any more foolishness. I just want to urge j^ou, 
 in the name of the good sense you once possessed, do 
 not offer yourself to her to-day. Think over all I have 
 said in cool blood through the watches of another 
 night. I can't think that you will be as foolish to- 
 morrow. I will see you, then. Good-bye." 
 
 And he opened the door and shut himself out so 
 quickly that I had no time to answer even his good- 
 bye. 
 
 Did I intend to follow his discreet advice and post- 
 pone further love-making until to-morrow ? Why, 
 when he had come I was very far from being ready to 
 offer myself in marriage to this woman, wlio was an- 
 other man's wife. But after an hour's discussion of 
 the subject, after hearing all his objections, which 
 were, indeed, my own, and forcing myself to answer 
 13 
 
98 A7i Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 them, I felt tliat mj mind was made up. I was only 
 glad my friend Ward had not insisted on my making 
 him a promise to postpone a proposal of marriage until 
 to-morrow. I should have been verj^ sorry to be dis- 
 courteous and refuse so small a favor to so old a friend, 
 and very probably would have given him the promise. 
 I always dislike lying, too, and despise a liar, such as 
 I know I should have proved myself, if I had promised 
 what he desired. Before his footsteps had ceased to 
 be audible, as he limped angrily up the street — what 
 is more vehemently expressive than the limp of a man 
 out of temper — I was already listening for the other 
 step I knew so well, and which never failed to make 
 my heart beat faster. Before I saw her I knew I was 
 going to say, and to-day, just what "Ward had asked 
 me not to say. The longed-for knock came, but it was 
 more timid than ever before, instinct with a dread of 
 that loving heart for what my visitor might have urged 
 against her cause. 
 
 I crossed the room and opened the door myself. As 
 Kate turned up to me her doubting, questioning face, 
 as if she were almost certain mj^ friend was not hers, 
 and had made my heart cold to her, yet still ventured 
 a sweet little hope that I had resisted him, she was, 
 indeed, quite adorable. 
 
 I led her into the room, with my arm lightly about 
 her, and waited to hear her speak. Man is a cruel 
 being. He delights in the tender tortures of the 
 woman he loves. 
 
 " Your friend is gone," she said faintly, and then, 
 in a moment, as if yielding to irresistible impulse : 
 
 '' Did he urge you not to not to " But her 
 
 lips quivered and she did not complete her sentence. 
 
 " Yes, Kate," I answered calmly, for all the loud 
 beating of my heart. " He told me that what I wanted 
 to do would ibe the most foohsh act of my life." 
 
 ^'And you ?" JShe raised her eyes to mine, as if she 
 could not wait for the dreaded answer from my lips. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 99 
 
 How sweet is the spectacle of the agonies of love, when 
 one knows he can tarn them to raptures with a word. 
 
 "In spite of all, I have decided to ask you to be inj 
 wife." Then my voice trembled too. 
 
 She threw her arms about my neck in that sweet 
 fashion I wonder no other woman ever learned, and 
 drew my face to hers, pale no more, but flushed with 
 the glad crimson of satisfied love. 
 
 " You know my answer," she murmured. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The next day Kate Yegas filed her record of divorce, 
 and I removed to the phalanstery. 
 
 The evening that I went down to the main hall for 
 the first time I was met at the door by Kate. She 
 drew me into a retired corner and whispered : 
 
 " Mr. Yegas has returned. I have notified him of 
 my divorce." 
 
 The thought of the man who had lately stood to my 
 sweetheart in the relation of husband was a pain to 
 me. 
 
 ■ "How did he take it ? '' I asked, in a rather perfunc- 
 tory manner. 
 
 " I don't think he was displeased. I almost suspect 
 he has met some one in San Francisco whom he thinks 
 he can love better than he has loved me." 
 
 " I hope I shall never see him," I exclaimed ve- 
 hemently, " I cannot bear the thought that a living 
 man besides me ever gathered you to his heart." 
 
 Kate gave me a reproachful look. Her lips parted 
 for an eloquent protest, but she closed them again, and 
 turned away from me. Her womanhood had suffered 
 insult, and from the man whom she had expected would 
 be the first to cherish it. 
 
 " There comes Mr. Gillette," she said, as a figure 
 separated itself from the groups in the center of the 
 hall, and moved in our direction. " He will want to 
 talk with you, and I will go." 
 
 Like a coward, I let her go without a word to heal 
 the wound I had given her. A convalescent is, per- 
 haps, entitled to some excuse for the faults which grow 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 101 
 
 'out of low vitalit}^ and enfeebled tone. I crave all the 
 allowance due me. 
 
 " Kaised from the dead ! " exclaimed Gillette, as he 
 took my hand in his hearty grasp. "]S"owyon can se- 
 riously begin to study the institutions of Grape Yalley. 
 By tlie way," he continued, looking around, " who 
 was the woman whom my approach seemed to drive 
 away." 
 
 "'it was Mrs. Yegas. She nursed me to renewed 
 life and health, and I am going to marry her in a fort- 
 
 night." 
 
 '' Bless me,' ejaculated Gillette. " Let me con- 
 gratulate you. You are going to study our institutions 
 from the inside, I see." 
 
 Be lauglied, but, noticing that my face did not re- 
 lax, he suddenly grew serious in turn. "Excuse me. 
 I am, perhaps, too frivolous. By the way, Yinton, this 
 is no place for us to talk con ti den ti ally, and I know we 
 must have a great deal to say to each other. Sujipose 
 you take me to your room. You look too pale to be 
 in such a crowd to-night, anyhow." 
 
 Within a few minutes more he was seated in my 
 room. Having accepted a cigar from my guest, I was 
 enjoying my first smoke for several weeks. As the 
 genial influence of the tobacco began to diffuse itself 
 over me, my heart began to expand, so that when 
 Gillette said, "Tell me all about it," I rehearsed the 
 short story of my courtship and acceptance. Perhaps 
 my manner lacked the enthusiasm and my tone the 
 fervor to be expected of one of my temperament who 
 describes what should be the happiest experience of his 
 life. Gillette, however, had far too much tact to -inform 
 me that I betrayed an unloverlike fechng. If he had 
 been a more intimate friend, he might have committed 
 the indiscretion of cross-examinino^ me. As it was he 
 sought refuge in abstractions, and betook himself to 
 generalities. 
 
 ^' It is one of the most striking features of our sys- 
 
102 A7i Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 tem," he said, " that it puts to death so many of the 
 artificial sentimentalities, and false conceits which 
 have flourished through centuries of courtship and mar- 
 riage, under tlie old regime. That a woman has ever 
 been engaged to a predecessor is always a most painful 
 revelation to your lover of civilization. It takes the 
 flne edge from his sentiment. He would have his sweet- 
 heart come to him without ever having known that 
 men were handsome and fascinating. He craves the 
 privilege of teaching her heart to beat full and strong, 
 her breath to come in sighs, she knows not whj^ All 
 that is a remnant of the ages during which women 
 were the slaves of their lords and masters, men, and 
 unworthy a time when women proudly claim to be our 
 equals. Men in Grape Yalley ask no more of the 
 women they love than the women in civilization ask of 
 the men. As the women of the old order of society 
 usually prefer men who have had their affairs of the 
 heart, and received the expansion and edacation such 
 experiences give, so the men of this settlement for the 
 most part prefer women who understand enough of 
 themselves to know what qualities in a man are to their 
 taste, and enough of men to escape the error of being too 
 exacting, on the one side, or too careless, on the other. 
 The rest of the world appreciates what experience does 
 to develop and to proportion a man, to make him agree- 
 able, considerate, sympathetic, to make him wholly 
 himself. We in Grape Yalley appreciate that ex- 
 perience does the same for a woman as for a man. \i 
 she has grown to be adapted to our taste we have only 
 thanks for the lovers or husbands who have made her 
 all thai she is. We care not whom she loved when her 
 nature was only partly formed, and has outgrown. We 
 care not who it was to whom she was attracted for cer- 
 tain qualities which she afterward found insufficient 
 to hold her love. We care not whom she thought she 
 loved, so long as she loves him no more, and, we be- 
 lieve, offers us the cream of her life's experience, so 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 103 
 
 long as we believe she finds in ns that spiritual and 
 physical completion that her fully-developed nature re- 
 quires." 
 
 Thus Gillette seemed to take for granted that 1 
 agreed with all he said, and it was only long afterward 
 that 1 suspected that he was really reading me a lecture 
 of which he saw 1 stood greatly in need. What he 
 said, indeed, came like balm to my heart, torn and 
 bruised as it^^as bj the reawakening prejudices im- 
 bibed through the commonplaces to which I had listened 
 since boyhood, and which in fact fih the pages of all 
 the sentimental literature of the world. There are 
 times when the nature is as hungry for counsel, as 
 eager for correction as the sick man for his medicine. 
 But to be accepted, that counsel or correction must 
 come without exciting our combativeness or our dis- 
 trust. Human nature is always most willing to be led, 
 but it always dislikes to be reminded that the process 
 is threatened or going on. Finally, however, the dis- 
 cussion of this subject, even in generalities, was more 
 than I felt as if I could longer endure, and after a few 
 silent puffs at my cigar, I changed the current of the 
 talk. 
 
 " You have told me that this settlement of a thou- 
 sand men, besides the women and children, is but seven 
 years old. Surely you did not all emigrate here at 
 once?" 
 
 " Ko," answered Gillette, calmly accepting the dis- 
 missal of the other theme, " there were but two hundred 
 of us, and all men, who first set up here new industrial 
 and social institutions. We were from different cities, 
 but all belonged to societies and clubs organized to dis- 
 cuss and promulgate advanced or radical ideas of some 
 sort. The scheme of a colony originated in a New 
 York club, and the full number of two hundred for the 
 original colony was made up by sending one of our 
 number to other societies of like scope, and proselyting. 
 Only those with plenty of money could be taken at first, 
 
101 A /I Ej!pe rime lit in 2Larrta(je. 
 
 for tliere must be no liindrances to success founded on 
 a lack of money." 
 
 "How did you decide upon the place?" asked I, in- 
 tensely interested in the remarkable story. 
 
 " Oh, a committee was sent out, first of all, to find a 
 location where we would be likely to have no interfer- 
 ence while we should carry out our plans. The com- 
 mittee was unrestricted in its choice by nation, continent 
 or hemisphere. The general feeling seemed to be, how- 
 ever, that we had belter seek out some small island in 
 Australasia or Polynesia. It was by accident that the 
 committee, while lost in the desert lying south of us, 
 came upon this valley. There were no signs that it 
 liad ever seen the face of human being before. It had 
 every advantage and convenience as to market and 
 of climate, indeed, the conveniences of every climate. 
 It was large enough at least to congregate our colony, 
 an:] enable ns to pass through our provisional and ex- 
 perimental period. From this center we could gather 
 new converts with the greatest ease ; then if, or rather 
 when, we were discovered, and the wiseacres sliould 
 proceed to adjudge us mischievous, and interfere with 
 our social institutions, it would be time enough to sell 
 our possessions and emigrate with our acquired strength 
 and numbers, to some country where we might make 
 and keep our own laws." 
 
 " There were but two hundred men of you, 3'ou say ; 
 where did your women afterward come from? " 
 
 *' It is simple enough. There is every thing in our 
 scheme of equality of the sexes and of the removal of 
 old restrictions which operate so much more to the in- 
 jury of women than of men, to commend it to the 
 imagination and judgment of intelligent women. But 
 you ask for details. Many of the two hundred had 
 wives of intelligence as enthusiastic for the colony as 
 their husbands, others had sweethearts. Some had 
 female relatives dependent upon them and most eager 
 for this opportunity to emancipate themselves. But 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 105 
 
 far the greater portion of the first female colonists 
 were bright and beautiful women who were known as 
 having advanced ideas, and who threw in their lot with 
 ns full of a faith and devotion which fairly shamed 
 certain fearful ones of the men. When the committee 
 reported, the first delegation of two hundred went out^ 
 to put up such buildings as we should need, plant the' 
 first crops and prepare the site of what was afterward 
 to be the happy home of the colony, which when it 
 finally arrived and set up the new State, numbered 
 four hundred and fifty in all, including a few 
 children." 
 
 " And what is your total number now ? " 
 "Something over three thousand," answered Gil- 
 lette. Then he continued with a smile for the excitement 
 which I could not but display at his narration : "I suppose 
 that you want me to tell you how we have more than 
 sextupled our numbers in seven years. Well, every 
 year we have added nearly as many to our settlement 
 as constituted our first colony. Propagandism we con- 
 sider one of our first duties ; for a few hundred of us 
 to rest happy in the enjoyment of institutions, which, 
 if adopted, ^vould cure all the diseases of the old 
 social order, would seem unpai'donable selfishness to us. 
 We seek, therefore, for new converts, and seek for 
 them on an organized system, which, if our success 
 continues, will soon overcrowd the valley. Then we 
 plan to equip a new band of pioneers, who shall seek 
 out some other unknowai spot, and make another city 
 as happy as this. It may be by that time there will 
 have been changes in the outside world, however, 
 which will open to us far greater possibilities of 
 proselyting, and a field for illustration of our principles 
 on a more open and progressive scale than we now can 
 calculate on. Our agents, i>i whom there are none 
 more persuasive than Mr. Vega-, whose wife you have 
 won, move in the most cultivjited society of our large 
 cities. When they meet a progressive spirit, a hint 
 14 
 
106 A7i Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 is first dropped, and if properly received, then a partial 
 description of our ideal State is given. Sometimes 
 men and women are prepared by their own ideas to be 
 converted, but more often they are the scholars of bit- 
 ter experience. You have no idea how radical the 
 cultivated mind of to-day has become. It fears noth- 
 ing, dares every thing. I^othing is too high for it to 
 doubt, or too low for it to study. There are innumer- 
 able men and Wianen of culture in the United States 
 alone, who would gladly join us to-morrow if we could 
 reach them. And as for the millions of the poor and 
 suffering to whom any change would be welcome, such 
 a state of society as ours would seem like paradise 
 itself to them. Universal as is the dis^^ust of men for 
 nineteenth century civilization, society and morals, 
 almost as great is their faith in the possibility of some- 
 thing better." 
 
 My cigar burned my moustache and I threw it away. 
 Gillette had suffered his to go out while he talked, and 
 now meditatively chewed it. I was filled with a thril- 
 ling desire to become a positive part of this marvelous 
 State, but I was in a dense condition of ignorance as to 
 its industi-ial and economical organization. 
 
 "I must not be looked upon as a guest here," I said 
 after a short pause. " I shall be able to go to work in 
 another week. Just tell me how I can pull an oar." 
 
 " Our system is very simple. Of course you know^ 
 what socialism is so far as employment and livelihood 
 go. If not, read up on the subject. We practice it in 
 Grape Yalley, as it is only under proper and natural 
 economical conditions that even the most shocking 
 failures of civilization can be corrected. You can 
 choose the line in which you would be active, as long 
 as you choose something you are capable of doing 
 reasonably well. You need to w^ork but four hours a 
 day. You will receive a card entitling you to receive 
 your share of all the good things brought to Grape 
 Yalley or produced here. Everybody shares alike 
 
Aoi Experiment in Marriage. 107 
 
 here/' Then Gillette glanced at his watch and ex- 
 claimed : " Ah, it is high time a convalescent like you 
 were in bed. I have talked to you too long. But one 
 thing more," he said as he rose: ^' Every time I look 
 at this watch, I think of that awful experience of ours 
 in the canon. Now as to that gold mine. I have not 
 forgotten it, though you may have dune so, amid your 
 more delightful meditations. As soon as you are 
 entirely well, and Mr. Ward's ankle is stiong again, we 
 must make up a party and explore. It will be a great 
 boon to our colony, and make you new comers very 
 popular, as bestov>'ing it. Good-night." 
 
 The next week I felt able to begin my activities, 
 and being urged on account of my literary experience 
 to take a position on the weekly publication which 
 entertained and sought to instruct the valley, 1 acceded. 
 My first work was to review a novel which had made 
 the hit of the season in the outside world by exposing 
 its vices, and the editor was pleased to compliment me 
 on my effort. 
 
 In another week Kate Yegas became Kate Yinton, 
 and I went to live with her at her pretty home where 
 I had already experienced so much happiness and such 
 keen distress. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 I have no space in this record to describe in detail the 
 economical s)^stem of Grape Valley, except so far as nec- 
 essary to give a correct impression of the peculiar social 
 institutions. It was simply an example of practical 
 socialism. The State regulated and directed labor, and 
 divided among the laborers all the profits thereof. Each 
 adult man and woman worked four hours of six days 
 in the week at the tasks assigned, and each man and 
 woman received an equal share of the profits of that 
 labor. Thus no one had more than he needed while all 
 had enough, with leisure and cultivation to enjoy it. 
 It was a state of society where selfishness tended to die 
 out, and the principles of religion, hard to follow else- 
 where, became the natural impulse. The tendency was 
 to develop the higher faculties and enlarge the spiritual 
 capacities. The viler passions and grosser impulses, 
 from lack of field or occasion, fell into disuse. 
 
 But it is with regard to the effect of this new 
 economical system on the emancipation of women, and 
 in bringing into being a fuller and higher sexual rela- 
 tion, that I want to write more particularly here. The 
 religious revival in this society is of very great im- 
 portance, but I must leave even that for the present. 
 If I can give the outside world a true sense of the 
 meaning and full scope of the altered relations of the 
 sexes as exhibited in this new colony, I shall, perhaps, 
 have done all that my duty now lays upon me. 
 
 As soon as my friend Ward had recovered from his 
 lameness sufficiently to be assigned to some activity, he 
 selected a position on the newspaper, more I think to 
 
A71 Experiment in Marriage. 109 
 
 be near me than from any inclination for what he rather 
 contemptuously styled "everlasting scribbling." His 
 leisure time he devoted most assiduously to studying 
 the social and economic conditions of tlie settlement. 
 He was- as fond as ever of discussion, and with tlie 
 single exception of the peculiar marriage laws in Grape 
 Yalley, a subject which was tabooed between us for a 
 long time, we used to analyze, philosophize, correct and 
 revise every thing said or done in this most interesting 
 State. 
 
 He did not care to talk about the peculiar relations 
 of the sexes here because he saw me irrevocably com- 
 mitted to them, and to attack and score them, as I 
 knew he wanted to do, would be intolerable to his 
 only friend. For the first few weeks after my mar- 
 riage I was naturally in no mood to hear profane criti- 
 cisms. I was as happy a husband as the certainty of 
 eternal possession of the woman I called my wife could 
 have made me. I was, to be sure, thankful that free 
 divorce had been a possibility in Grape Yalley, because 
 it was owing to this institution that so happy a union 
 as mine with Kate became a fact. If it had been 
 in New York that I had met her, although her hus- 
 band might be the object of profoundest aversion 
 to her, and I the sole object of her tender thoughts 
 when awake, and of her dreams when asleep, we 
 could not have become what we longed to be to 
 each other. We might have caused open scandal and 
 made ourselves notorious, regardless of the customs of 
 decent people. We might have met each other by 
 stealth, and sacrificed our honor and self-respect for 
 the sake of stolen hours which would have had more 
 of agony than of rapture. But the free divorce law of 
 Grape Yalley gave us to each other fully and un- 
 grudgingly, £0 I could not take offense at the institu- 
 tion. 
 
 To be sure I did not forget that Kate was free, if I 
 showed myself surly or unloving, to put a limit to our 
 
110 A71 Experhnent in Marriage, 
 
 intimacy to-morrow. IS'or did I forget that if I saw a 
 woman whose beauty thrilled or whose intellect at- 
 tracted me more, I could leave my new-made bride 
 forever. But Kate and I would prefer each other al- 
 ways I was sure. No law was required to keep us al- 
 ways close to each other's hearts. We would continue 
 to love each other forever, because we were each what 
 best supplied the wants of the other. 
 
 I had lost the sense of outrage that scourged me 
 ■when I first knew that she had had another marital ex- 
 perience. She was mine nov^ and I behoved mine for- 
 ever. So, when one evening she dropped a casual 
 word which implied that she had been married more 
 than once before, and then gave me a frightened look, 
 as if expecting an indignant outburst, I bore the test 
 W' ithout a change of color. I even asked her to tell me 
 her whole history, and felt prepared to listen to it 
 calmly. It was at dusk and we sat on a secluded piazza 
 in the rear of the house, when the conversation took 
 this turn. I drew her head to my shoulder while she 
 talked, so she should be spared the discomfort of meet- 
 ing my eyes. 
 
 " I was one of the first four hundred and fifty who 
 came to Grape Yalley," she began. '' It did not look 
 much as it does now. But you don't care about that. 
 1 came with my father who was a famous radical, and 
 who gladly put all his own property into this experiment. 
 Those who were already married lived as we are Hving 
 now in separate houses. Most of us, however, were un- 
 married then, and occupied rooms in the phalanstery. 
 There was but one phalanstery at that time. There 
 are six now. Forenoons Ave were at work. Afternoons 
 we usually gave to reading or study, while the even- 
 ings went for amusement and social intercourse in our 
 large hall. I was called pretty then." 
 
 Of course I kissed the beautiful up-turned face, and 
 gave the proper rebuke to her false modesty. Then 
 she continued with a laugh: 
 
All Experiment in Marriage. Ill 
 
 " Bat not as pretty as you call me now. Love and 
 courtship were in tlie air. I was w^ooed to my heart's 
 content. But I did not know what love was, much 
 less what marriage ought to be. I thought if I liked 
 and respected a man, and if there was nothing m Ins 
 person which oii^ended me, that was reason enongh for 
 marrying him if he asked me. I laughed at what I 
 considered the wild words of passionate lovers. I 
 thought they must be constituted very differently from 
 me, \)r else language meant very little to them. 
 You must remember it was not because I was rebellious 
 against the restrictions which civilization puts about 
 the passion of men and women tliat I came hither. 
 I was here simply because my father was a convert, and 
 brought me. So when I married it was a friend of my 
 fathe'r's, an elderly man who had as little sentiment 
 about the relations of the sexes as myself. He was an 
 enthusiast over the solution of the labor problem, and 
 was a firm believer in the emancipation of women 
 throudi pecuniary independence and free divorce. 
 Toward me he was always polite, and used to talk a 
 great deal about the principles of the new order, but 
 not at all of love or sentiment." 
 
 Kate sighed and was silent for a moment. 
 
 ''It can't be," I broke in sharply, " that yon regret a 
 man whom you do not think loved you even for one 
 minute?" 
 
 " Oh, no, it was not for him I sighed just now. 1 
 was thinking of my father." 
 
 ''Why have I not seen your father ? " 
 
 She pressed my hand. " He died when T had been 
 married two years. Upon him I had lavished all the 
 tenderness a woman must give somewhere. When he 
 died I suffered intensely, but my poor husband could 
 not give me the smallest consolation. Yet I so longed 
 for love then. For weeks I did little else than moan 
 and weep, and the obvious discomfort I caused my un- 
 sympathetic husband was almost absurd. I grew to 
 
112 All Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 despise him, and so the first joung man after that who 
 breathed a woi'd of ordinary human sympathy into my 
 ear won my heart. It was a month from the death of 
 my father that I had become unmarried again. As for 
 my first husband, he has not ventured a second time 
 into matrimony. Hundreds of thousands of tender 
 impulsive girls marry such men in the outside world, 
 and beat their very life out against such cold, unrespon. 
 sive natures. There is no release except in death. 
 In six months I had married the young man who 
 had first comforted me. His affectation of pity had 
 won fondness from me which was as near love as my 
 nature was ripe for then." 
 
 She released my hand for a moment, and turned her 
 face a little more away from me. " My life with this 
 young man was an experience I do not like to call to 
 
 mind. I do not doubt that even Ralph but never 
 
 mind his name, I don't doubt that even he, sensual 
 as was his nature, purely physical as was his whole at- 
 traction toward our sex, served to develop me. Yet 
 he had no conception of intellectual or spiritual attrac- 
 tion. His love was nothing but animalism, and in my 
 ignorance I believed him to be what lovers always 
 were. To be sure my first husband was not of his sort, 
 but my first husband, I remembered, had no idea of 
 love of any kind. I believed I had now married a 
 representative man, the sort of creature women die for, 
 the hero of love sonnets, the ideal of sentimental girl- 
 hood which does not, in its purity, suspect the brute 
 under the thin disguise. If my first marriage failed to 
 teach me the real meaning of the sexual relation, I cer- 
 tainly learned to despise it as exemplified in my sec- 
 ond. I pitied every wife in Grape Yalley. I hated 
 every man in Christendom. But speedy as was my 
 conviction that marriage was too great a degradation 
 for me, this second husband of mine was before me 
 with his application for divorce. He had wearied of 
 me already, and had passed on to educate some other 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 113 
 
 woman. I could but think of the shame worse than 
 death of being bound, as countless women are to such 
 husbands for life, as completely grot^s in their nature 
 ;is the beasts of the Held, selHsli, cruel creatures of flesh, 
 to whom women are simply victims." 
 
 She gave a shudder of repugnance and continued : " I 
 lived at the phalanstery for two years after this. A 
 woman once married has the choice between her allotted 
 house and the phalanstery. I became a satirist on mar- 
 riage, even as it is in Grape Valley. If indeed all men 
 were aamy second husband, love was a mockery, and 
 women would only be really emancipated when they 
 ceased to marry at all. I was quite a favorite in the 
 theatricals we had at the hall, and the object of the at- 
 tentions of many suitors. But it was only after being 
 convinced that all men were not beasts that I married 
 Henry Yegas. 1 was not infatuated with him, I was 
 not oblivious to his faults, which, however, I will not 
 rehearse. But until I met you, I thought I loved him 
 and that he loved me." Then she raised her head 
 from my shoulder and throwing her arms about my 
 neck, turned her eyes to mine. " Xow I know not 
 only that I did not love him but that he did not truly 
 love me." 
 
 I kissed her, but an uncomfortable thought was 
 troubhng me. " May I ask you one more question ? " 
 
 '' Any thiugyou like," she answered, without remov- 
 ing her arms f lom my neck. 
 
 *'• Have you had no children ? " 
 
 "None," she answered. "But if I had been a 
 mother,you know, the children would not be wuthme." 
 
 " I know," I answered, '• the nursery and schools take 
 the little ones." I hesitated a moment and then I 
 added softly: " I do not believe this part of the system 
 v\'ould suit me. Would you leave Grape Valley if I 
 asked you ? " 
 
 She had dropped her eyes, although her arms still 
 clasped my neck. Her face flushed with emotion as 
 15 
 
114 A?i Exjyerinient iii Marriage. 
 
 she answered : '^ I will go where you ask me to go. I 
 believe in yon so." 
 
 The next afternoon I suggested to Kate that we 
 visit the nursery together. 1 felt that there was no 
 detail of the whole system more important tlian this 
 matter of the disposition of the children. She readily 
 assented, but just as we were setting out who should 
 appear at our door-step but Mr. Gillette, come to pay 
 us ]iis first call since our marriage ? Gillette was always 
 charming and full of tact, genial in his manner, appa- 
 rently enjoying our society, and eager that we should 
 enjoy his. He congratulated me on the good work 
 Ward and I were doing in the " Fraternity " ofhce, 
 and said it was exciting general interest. He spoke of 
 the plans for a new sort of evening entertainment at 
 the phalanstery halls. Finally he announced that he 
 should start on another trip East, during the next week, 
 and remarked : 
 
 " Before I go we must organize an expedition to the 
 gold mines." Then he added : ''I take it for granted 
 that the temporary insanity which made us want to keep 
 the treasure for ourselves has left us all long ago." 
 
 " Of course," I answered. " But how can we reach 
 the mines ? " I asked. ^' Must Kapid river be drawn 
 off again, and so every time when the miners set out 
 for the mine, or return from it 'i " 
 
 "You doubtless remember," answered Gillette, 
 " that the gold mine was found at the head of a sec- 
 ond gorge, perhaps a former bed for Rapid river, or 
 certainly for some stream. " Well, I think I have 
 found a spot where that gorge opens into this valley." 
 
 " Then all we shall have to do," I exclaimed eagerly, 
 " will be to follow up the ravine to the placer mine." 
 A sudden thought struck me. " But what object can 
 be so much gold to this community ? " 
 
 *^ It would be of little good, except for its purchas- 
 ing power outside, as we all appreciate, but through 
 that purchasing power it will be of inestimable value 
 
An Exjperiment in Marriage, 115 
 
 to us. Our gold mine, if it is as rich as we believe, 
 will make a great change in Grape Yallej. We are 
 comfortable now ; we ujaj be luxurious. We live in 
 simple homes ; we may be able to convert them into 
 mansions." 
 
 '• Shall we start on our exploring expedition to-mor- 
 row ? " I asked. 
 
 ^' Why not ?" Then he rose to his feet. " But I 
 see Mrs. Vinton is dressed for the street. I am de- 
 taining you." 
 
 " We are going to the nursery," answered Kate, ris- 
 ing. " It would be pleasant to have you go with us. 
 You could explain to Mr. Vinton better than I. Besides, 
 he always stares when he hears me talk half reasonably 
 about the principles of our life here." 
 
 So Gillette went with us. 
 
 *' This is the nursery proper," said Gillette, w^hen 
 after a short walk, he stopped us in front of a large 
 building, in general appearance resembling the phalan- 
 steries. " Here our little ones are kept and cared for 
 until about six years old. Sometimes they stay for a 
 shorter, and sometimes for a longer period, depending, 
 of course, on the greater or less precocity of the 
 child. When old enough for school, the children are 
 transferred to the building in the rear, with the white 
 pillars, which you see. Still another building takes 
 them at eleven, and keeps them until seventeen, after 
 which they are ready for advanced training, industrial 
 and intellectual, until twenty-two." 
 
 "Are they separated from their parents all these 
 years \ " I inquired, and I know I looked any thing 
 but satisfied with this feature of Grape Valley life. 
 
 " Separated from their parents ? " repeated Gillette. 
 " Why, there is no separation at all. In infancy, in 
 youth, in early manhood and womanhood, the children 
 meet, know and love their fathers and mothers to the 
 heart's content of all concerned. All the features of 
 the relation of parent and child which give unselfish 
 
116 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 joy are gratified throiigli our system. The family, as 
 an alliance, offensive and defensive, against the world, 
 however, has no occasion in a state of society where 
 the feeling of good-will and fraternity is universal. 
 Fathers and mothers are no longer the stern mentors, 
 the masters and mistresses of their children, forced to 
 discipline more often than to pet, and in case of the 
 death of a child, having usually more words of irrita- 
 tion to repent than memories of caresses to cherish. 
 Under our system parents seem to their children love 
 and tenderness personified. The natural emotions 
 have full scope unmixed with the vocation of teacher 
 or disciplinarian. Why, my dear Yinton, our system 
 of nurture and edncation of children is as satisfaclory 
 in its results as the altered relations of the sexes here. 
 But let us go inside the nursery." 
 
 There was not the slightest restriction upon our 
 coming and going as w^e washed. Indeed, many men 
 and women entered wdiile w^e were there, some in 
 pairs, but others alone. Each seemed to know just 
 where the little one he or she sought w^as to be found, 
 and the joy shining in baby eyes and the smiles dimp- 
 ling baby cheeks were sweet to see. If the visitor 
 w^ere a man a short call usually sufficed. The nurse 
 put the little one on its points and the father admired 
 and kissed his baby for the usual length of time babies 
 are wont to amuse their fathers the world over. Then the 
 men were wont to saunter out. But most of the mothers 
 came to spend hours, and no nurses were needed then, 
 you may be sure. 
 
 In other rooms were children who could play and 
 talk, and there, too, were fathers and mothers listen- 
 ing in delight to the prattle of infancy and joining in 
 the games. A happier sight I had not seen in Grape 
 Valley. 
 
 "How long can the parents stay with their little 
 ones?" I asked. 
 
 " All daj^ and all night, too," answered Kate, " if 
 
A71 Experiment in Marriage, 117 
 
 they choose, always provided they do not interfere 
 with the sanitary rules of the nursery." 
 
 <'What more could a parent's heart desire?" de- 
 manded Gillette. "During his working and his sleep- 
 ing hours his babies are well tended and carefully 
 nursed. Their food is the most healthful than can be 
 provided, and every device of science and invention is 
 exhausted to insure health, growth and entertainment. 
 Whatever leisure the parent may have can be spent 
 with the children, if desired. To be sure the parents 
 of Grape Yalley are not deprived of needed sleep by 
 the demands of the baby ; to be sure the mothers are 
 not worried out of their" health and defrauded of their 
 youth by the tasks of doing housework, attending to a 
 husband's necessities, and nursing crying and unhappy 
 children. I know that you are a httle prejudiced 
 against this one of our institutions. Admit now, don't 
 you begin to think we do these things better here 'i " 
 
 " But some mothers would, I should think, want to 
 be with their babies, and care for them more than dur- 
 ing what you call their leisure," I objected. 
 
 ^' Our system is elastic enough to suit such cases," 
 replied Gillette. " If } ou will notice, my dear Yin- 
 ton, I think you will see that such mothers have every 
 right or privilege they could desire. A mother, who 
 chooses, can have nursing assigned to her for her labor, 
 and so can stay with her little one as long as in this 
 building. In such cases she is taken from the rolls of 
 her previous employment and entered here. It is from 
 such women, indeed, that the furce of nurses is kept 
 supplied, their hours of labor, however, being made as 
 light as those of other workers. In such cases the hus- 
 band rooms here with his wife as long as she remains. 
 As a matter of experience we have found, however, 
 that while, of course, most mothers remain here for 
 about a year, after that period they usually prefer to 
 resume their regular avocations and live in a home by 
 themselves." 
 
118 A7i Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 Before talking any further we began a tour of the 
 building. There was perfect cleanliness everywhere, 
 and the sweet-faced babies in every stage of growth, 
 from that of a few weeks and long dresses, to the tod- 
 dlers, just taking their first steps, and the rosnpers, 
 with bright eyes, rosy cheeks and curling locks, made 
 an enchanting spectacle. 
 
 " Behind these portals are the very little ones," 
 smiled Gillette, as we passed a row of chamber doors, 
 "and their mothers." 
 
 " Then this is a lying-in hospital, as well as a nur- 
 sery ? " I inquired. 
 
 " Yes," he answered, *' the women of Grape Yalley 
 in coming here are assured the best of care and medi- 
 cal attendance, and the little one from the moment 
 of its arrival in the world is subjected to only the best 
 advised sanitary influences. The first few weeks of a 
 baby's life should have the wisest of nursing and most 
 judicious management. J^othing should be left to 
 accident or to indiscreet if affectionate attendants. 
 We have prevented that careless nurture of very little 
 children which in the outside world results so com- . 
 monly in the slaughter of the innocents." 
 
 Then Gillette took us to the room where the larger 
 children were at play, watched and assisted by their 
 nurses, and the numerous visitors, and having most 
 royal fun. The door into the playground was wide 
 open, and each child took its own choice of indoor or 
 ontdoor delights. 
 
 " Even the plays of the children," said Gillette, " we 
 make the means of their education, moral, intellectual 
 and physical. All plays which really interest children 
 do so because they develop certain faculties or muscles, 
 employ, and hence educate certain moral qualities. It 
 is because manufacturers do not remember this fact 
 that children in the outside world throw away so many 
 of the toys brought them by fond, but not discrimi- 
 nating parents and fi'iends, and prefer some rude inveu- 
 
An Exjperiment in Marriage. 119 
 
 tions of their own. In Grape Valley we make use of 
 our knowledge of tliis principle in onr scheme of edu- 
 cation, beginning at infancy and lasthig through all our 
 school pej-Iod. We make the plays and the sports edu- 
 cate, and in turn we make education entertaining." 
 
 Then we glanced into the dining-room with its rows 
 of high chairs and dainty trays. The bed-rooms next 
 came in for our attention, and a more sweetly sug- 
 gestive sight than the hundreds of little cribs, in 
 each of which nestled at night some little one fresh 
 from the clouds, I do not expect ever to see. Then 
 we glanced into the hospital, happily unoccupied. 
 
 " No children are sick, I am glad to see." 
 
 *' Sickness is a very rare thing with our little ones," 
 answered Gillette. '^ Their nurture as you have seen 
 is not a matter of accident. Each one is always under 
 the eyes of the nurses, whose entire duty it is to look 
 out for the health and entertainment of their charges. 
 Such a thing as an exposure to chill, or too great heat 
 of the sun, or as over- excitement, injudicious eating, 
 serious falls, or accidents of any sort, are well-nigh im- 
 possible. So they grow up strong and robust, and will 
 make healthy men and women, with every advantage for 
 after life which perfect physical condition can give. 
 So, too, they will be more likely in turn to have healthy 
 offspring. Calisthenics are also provided to form and 
 develop the children's muscles, and promote complete 
 circulation of the blood. A few generations of such 
 physical training as the children and youth of Grape 
 Valley receive will produce a new athletic race of both 
 sexes." 
 
 " It is a most charming place," I said as we made 
 our way slowly to the street. " I would not have be- 
 lieved it possible yon could have solved the diflSculty 
 so well." 
 
 " Yes," remarked Gillette. ^' You see that we had 
 a great difficulty to overcome. There were three 
 reasons why children and parents could not live in one 
 
120 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 family under our system. First, it would have inter 
 fered with the attention of husbands and wives to each 
 other, have shut the women out from social pleasures, and 
 have made impossible the financial independence which 
 alone can emancipate them. Second, without the labor 
 of the women in general industry, we could not re- 
 duce the hours as much as was advisable. Third, the 
 presence of children in a home would be insurmount- 
 able obstacles to free divorce. But while we solved 
 those difficulties and without antagonizing nature in 
 her smallest promptings, without flying in the face of 
 any instinct, we have accomplished most excellent re- 
 sults in other directions. The children are the future 
 members of the social State. They should be fitted for 
 their duties and enjoyments by the State herself, for 
 whose well-being and for the gradual uplifting of 
 human nature it is vital that the children im- 
 bibe no mischievous individualizing ideas such as tend 
 to disintegrate society, which should be organized on 
 universal relations of fraternity. Under our sj^stem, 
 too, tlie parents need be put to no anxiety as to the sup- 
 port or education of their child. All this is taken from 
 their shoulders by the State. The intense desire of 
 parents that their offspring should have every possible 
 advantas^e in their start in life is at once a cause of 
 harrowing anxiety and a constant spur to overwork. 
 Yet in civilization that longing is seldom gratified. 
 Here, on the other hand, every child is assured a com- 
 plete and symmetrical education, and is started in life 
 with all the natural powers in the most-perfect possible 
 development. "What consummation could be more de- 
 voutly wished for by any father or mother ? Moreover 
 the life and activity, hopes and fears of men and women, 
 when just entering upon what should be their most 
 pleasant and useful period, need not be entirely ab- 
 sorbed in providing for the present or future of their 
 children. The mother may retain here her fresh- 
 ness of mind and body. Her vigor and vitality are 
 
An Experiment in Carriage. 121 
 
 not sapped by tlie constant care of cliildren at a time 
 when she should be in her glory. She can contmue to 
 be ornamental and useful to society. She is able also 
 to continue to make herself pleasing to her husband, 
 to hold fast his attachment if there is the proper re- 
 lation between them, and if on the other hand, he proves 
 not to be her ideal, she has kept her attractiveness, and 
 is likely to make a new and more happy connection." 
 
 " But," I suggested, " this nurture of the children by 
 the State would naturally tend to destroy individuality, 
 I should think, and make the man and woman of the 
 future less interesting and less useful." 
 
 Kate made haste to reply: '' If we have, through our 
 system, prevented the perpetuation of some of the 
 eccentricities which make people different, I think it a 
 ganeral advantage." 
 
 Gillette listened to Kate's remark with interest, but 
 apparently he concluded she had not disposed of the 
 whole question. " Our system," he said, " gives to all 
 the benefits of the best' conditions for nurture and 
 education, so that no victim of circumstances can ever 
 grow lip in Grape Yalley to curse early associations or 
 lack of training. I think the breadth of our scheme 
 of education will provide, too, against distorted or per- 
 verted growths, which are commonly due to narrow 
 influences and limited knowledge. Our graduates, 
 too, will be certain to have the personal habits and 
 manners of what are called in your civilization gentle- 
 men and ladies. But as the same sunlight, the same 
 showers, the same variety of soil develop different 
 seeds into entirely different fruits and flowers, so^ the 
 infinite diversities of inherited traits and capacities 
 must develop into diversified maturity in human be- 
 ings. Just as different fruits and flowers intensify their 
 diversity under the highest cultivation, so it will be 
 with our nurture and education of the human slips 
 committed to the broad and universal care of the State. 
 The variations caused oy comparative ignorance or 
 16 
 
122 A7i Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 knowledge, by unnatural perversions of disposition or 
 of taste, from scant or defective education will, I hope, 
 disappear. But the men and women of the future, 
 the graduates of our State nurseries and schools, will 
 show far more variety of excellence, far more diver- 
 sity in genius than has ever been dreamed of in the 
 past." 
 
 " You think the education of the child I'en is the 
 reasonable service of the State \ " I remarked, as we 
 turned into our own street. 
 
 "Yes, for two reasons," answered Gillette. " First, 
 because the State can do it so much better, as I have 
 been showing ; second, because the burden is too great 
 for the individual. The father, freed from such 
 responsibilities, can give his energies to perfecting him- 
 self, extending the scope of his usefulness to his lellows 
 as well as enjoying the fulness of the lover relation 
 with his w^ife. The burden which weighs down the 
 father usually cruslies the mother, and by its removal 
 she leaps at once into the glory of comj)lete woman- 
 hood, the source of infinite improvement and inspira- 
 tion to society. Thus our species will make rapid pro- 
 gress as much through the continued education of tlie 
 parent as through the better education of the children." 
 
 By this time w^e had arrived at our home, and Gil- 
 lette w^as raising his hat at parting, but I detained 
 him. 
 
 "By the way, why don't you invite me to your 
 house { Where do you live, anyhow ? " 
 
 " At the phalanstery, No. 1," he answered with a 
 laugh. " Come up and see me." And he hurried olf 
 as if to shut off further questioning. 
 
 "Poor fellow," I said as I put my arm about the 
 shoulders of my sweet wdfe. " You don't mean to say 
 he is not married? That is very strange." 
 
 " Charming as he is," answered Kate, as soon as her 
 lips w^ere free again, " he has failed to commend him- 
 self to the only woman in Grape Valley he has ever 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 123 
 
 seemed to care for. Oh no, I don't mean mjself," she 
 laughed. " But they now say that he has found con- 
 solation in a rich widow of New York, and is likely 
 soon to bring her to Grape Valley." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The next day the proposed exploring party was or- 
 ganized and we set out for the Kapid river placer mine, 
 ma what was known as White Gorge. The party was 
 composed of Gillette, Ward and me as leaders and 
 guides, the mining expert of the settlement, Harvey 
 by name, and a half dozen able-bodied men, whose 
 names are of no importance in this history. We had 
 two pack mules loaded with implements for washing- 
 out the " 23ay dirt " in a more modern fashion than be- 
 fore, axes to clear away the path when necessary, and 
 provisions for two days. 
 
 The trip thither was witliout accident, but involYed 
 a considerable amount of hardship and un poetic labor. 
 The theory of Gillette as to the location of the mine 
 proved to be correct. For many hours before we 
 reached our destination we could hear the dull roar of 
 Rapid river, which grew loader and fiercer every rod 
 we cut our way through the thickets, until we reached 
 the head of White Gorge and saw the stream rush 
 boiling and seething on its course down the canon. 
 For the first few seconds, Gillette, Ward and I stood a 
 little apart and looked down the canon where we liad 
 fled only a few weeks ago from the madly pursuing 
 river. It was as if the river had been a dire monster 
 set to guard the treasure of gold, as if he had been 
 bound hand and foot for awhile, but when our profane 
 ej^es had searched out the secret he protected, he had 
 burst from all restraint and rushed upon us with awful 
 fury. Even now he was cursing us in impotent wrath, 
 and when some spray from the foaming stream leaped 
 
An Exjyeriment in Marriage, 125 
 
 higher tlian tlie rest, it almost seemed as if we should 
 yet be overwhelmed. 
 
 '' Show ITS your mine," demanded the practical Har- 
 vey. '' "We have no time to waste." 
 
 " I see notliing that looks like a gold deposit," said 
 another. " Perhaps you dreamed it." 
 
 It took but a moment, however, to lead them to the 
 knoll where Ward had taken up the first handful of 
 soil, and then our seven companions became as excited 
 as we had been that other afternoon. As we watched 
 them the memory of the baseness which had been in 
 our hearts that shameful day came back to us. Three 
 faces turned askance toward each other, and three pairs 
 of eyes sank in self-contempt to the ground. Then 
 Gillette laid his hand on the^arm of one of the ne^v- 
 comers, as he said in a brisk voice: " Come boys, this 
 isn't business. Let's set our sluices and wash out the 
 ' pay dirt ' to some purpose." 
 
 Every thing was soon made ready for the test. The 
 sluice was arranged so that it took its supply of run- 
 ning water just where tlie river made a sharp descent. 
 In tiie bottom of the sluice were the '' riffles " to catch 
 the gold as it sank of its own weight freed from the 
 dissolving earth. Then we all tlirew off our coats for 
 the work of washing for gold. Shovelful after shovel- 
 ful was taken from the knoll and thrown into the 
 sluice, and it was not until nearly a cart-load of soil had 
 been washed away that we prepared for examination. 
 As the ten men bent low to see how much, if any, of 
 the precious metal had been gleaned from that mass 
 of earth, a sight met our eyes which was fairly daz- 
 zling. The places between the riffles were packed with 
 gold dust. There was at least live hundred dollars' 
 worth of gold still on the boards, and it seemed more 
 than probable that in our recklessness we had suffered 
 as much more to be washed a^vay into Rapid river. 
 
 " It is one of the richest placer mines ever known,'' 
 exclaimed Harvey. "If the yield continues at this 
 
126 A7i Exjperiment in Marriage, 
 
 rate the streets of our settlement can soon be paved 
 with gold." 
 
 For a few minutes we all stood there fairly dazed^ 
 and it was only the fast deepening shadows which re- 
 minded lis that it was time to make ready for the 
 night. While some of us were pitching the tent, 
 others lighted a fire and prepared supper. As for 
 myself, 1 could hardly swallow a mouthful. The cir- 
 cumstances and their suggestions impressed my mind* 
 and fancy overwhelmingly. As it became quite dark, 
 and the litful gleam from the camp-hre reflected from 
 the river was the only relief from the blackness of the 
 night, the thoughts bred of the situation came faster 
 yet upon me. I felt I could not endure the dull com- 
 monplaces of the company, and made my way to a flat 
 rock overhanging the foaming torrent. There I threw 
 myself down, intending to enjoy the sweetness of 
 revery, without so much as making one demand upon 
 my will. In a few minutes, however, I heard steps 
 approaching, and then Ward's voice came out of the 
 darkness close beside me : 
 
 " Where are you, Yinton ? " followed by a sugges- 
 tion from Gillette : 
 
 "If he doesn't speak we are likely to stumble 
 against him and jostle him into Eapid river." 
 
 I had had quite enough experience of the scant 
 mercies of that wicked stream, and so I responded 
 somewhat ungraciously to the salutations of my 
 friends, and grudgingly made place for them on the 
 rock. 
 
 "We felt like talking," remarked Gillette. 
 
 " I did not feel so," I retorted. 
 
 " Well," said Ward, " we will do the talking and 
 vou need not so much as open your mouth. I say, 
 Gillette," he continued, "this enormous find of gold 
 is a strange thing. Why, if so much as the vaguest 
 rumor of what we have done to-day was spread through 
 the country, a hundred thousand greedy men would 
 
An Ejiperiment in Marriage. 127 
 
 start for Grape Valley to-morrow. Ko moiintajn 
 would be liia-li enoiigli to stop them ; no desert and 
 enoucrli. Starvation, savage Indians, outlaws and des- 
 peracfoes more savage still, could not hold them back. 
 The unquenchable desire for gold would burn fiercer 
 than ever did the delirium of fever." 
 
 " And millions of gold lie buried here — enough to 
 buy all the pleasures of life for thousands now sutter- 
 in<Thuno'er of body, and more intolerable a hundred 
 times, hunger of soul, of taste, of intellect." And Gil- 
 lette sighed. . ,., , 
 
 My impatience at the intrusion upon my sohtude 
 had vanished. These friends of mine were voicmg my 
 revery, making my thought articulate. I was very 
 willing they should continue. 
 
 " I don't wonder at the agonizing struggles of men 
 for wealth," said Ward. " Although the moral philoso- 
 phers reprove it, the satirists ridicule it, and the poets 
 decry it, isn't it true that an abundance of money is 
 necessary to obtain every thing of value in lite^ 
 Without a large share of it w^e have cares and anxie- 
 ties which torment the soul as in a hell. Without it our 
 bodies lack the nutriment, the clothing, the shelter 
 they require, and the comforts, the luxuries the^^crave, 
 without which latter even we are little better oil than 
 the beasts of the field. The poor man cannot cultivate 
 his mind or his fancy, indulge his tastes or gratify Ins 
 aspirations. The world has only wounds and bruises 
 for those who have no gold in store. No wonder men 
 covet riches with all their souls, no wonder that tor 
 them they will commit all imaginable wrongs, c-rawl in 
 the mire of moral degradation, offend all laws of lienor 
 or iustice. No wonder that the dawning possibility ot 
 acquirincr wealth will make nine out of ten human 
 beings i^ady to commit murder if necessary to make 
 the possibility a certainty." 
 
 " Ah, Mr. Ward," exclaimed Gillette, '' how well you 
 have described the evils and the monstrous inhumani- 
 
128 A7i Exjperirnent i7i Marriage. 
 
 ties of the old civilization. It was to cure the terrible 
 ravages of the disease you have just diagnosed that this 
 settlement was founded. In civilization one of the 
 maxims is: ' Each man for himself.' Another, more 
 rudel}^ phrased, sa^'S : ' Koot hog or die,' as if all man- 
 kind were indeed swine, brutal, selfish, merciless, greedj. 
 In Grape Yalley, by putting men in the relation of 
 brothers to each other all of whom work for the com- 
 mon good, covetousness, envy, hate, treachery, all the 
 vile and hideous progeny of your system of individuahsm 
 are no more known." 
 
 The faces of my two friends as they sat at opposite 
 ends of the rock were completely shrouded in darkness, 
 and it was with difficulty I could make out vague and 
 broken outlines of what- might be hum;an shapes. It 
 was as if their voices came out of the night, as if invisi- 
 ble creatures of space were debating, over my head, the 
 great problems of life. The weird effect touched my 
 imagination intensely. 
 
 It was a few seconds before Ward spoke again. It 
 seemed as if he had been fairly silenced by Gillette's 
 unexpected retort. Then he took a somewhat different 
 line: 
 
 '' But have you yet stopped to calculate," he inquired, 
 "what will be the effect of the discovery of this mine, 
 and of the harvesting here of tens of millions of dollars' 
 worth of gold every year ? " 
 
 "Why," exclaimed Gillette, "I have no objection 
 to wealth. It is only its unfair distribution of which 
 I complain. The gold we expect to find here will be 
 of the utmost advantage to us. We cm have libraries 
 which would bo the envy of the old universities ; art 
 galleries worthy of Kome or Florence, Paris or Dres- 
 den, and architecture, such as never earthly city knew 
 yet. We can surround ourselves with ever}^ elegance 
 and with every convenience. What wealth can only 
 begin to do in civilization for its few possessors it will 
 accomplish for our whole settlement. Suppose every 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 129 
 
 citizen of some town in civilization a millionaire ; im- 
 agine, then, the grandem- of their buildings; the per- 
 fection of their streets, the beauties of their parks. 
 There would then be no squallor to shock the senses, 
 no ugliness to hurt the eye, no rude sounds to violate 
 the ear, no misery to distress the heart. But that 
 picture would be but a poor thing compared with the 
 effects of the same amount of wealth in a socialistic 
 settlement like ours. The rule of all for one, and one 
 for all, would still prevail, and the effect of the uni- 
 versal wealth be multiplied almost in geometrical pro- 
 gression. We should have an earthly paradise indeed." 
 
 " But who would do your work ? " demanded Ward. 
 " Who would be disposed to do the hard labor neces- 
 sary to provide your happy valley with all the won- 
 ders of architecture, the marvels of convenience you 
 describe ? '' 
 
 " It would be clear enough to all,'' continued Gil- 
 lette, " that without continued labor, all our wealth 
 would be of little value to us. It would only be by 
 improvement of the means which nature had provided, 
 that the means would effect the desired end. It would 
 plainly enough be as necessary for all to continue to 
 work in order to enjoy the luxuries and amenities great 
 wealth can give, as it now is, in order to satisfy the 
 ordinary requirements for food, shelter, clothing and 
 education. Besides, we do not regard labor here as an 
 evil, as a humiliation, or even as a disagreeable ne- 
 cessity. Under the old system labor is a badge of pov- 
 erty, of weakness, and of subjection, and on that ac- 
 count is hateful. Then your laborers work twice as 
 long as they should, and have merely their food for 
 their labor, the same as any beast of burden." 
 
 Ward this time made no reply, but rose to his feet 
 as if about to return to the camp. I rose, too, but Gil- 
 lette laid his hand on Ward's shoulder to detain him, 
 and continued; 
 
 " Think, too, how this sudden discovery of enor- 
 
 17 
 
130" A7i Ex'periment in Marriage. 
 
 mous wealth will extend the possibility of spreading 
 our great truths, and making converts to find happi- 
 ness in Grape Yalley and other settlements colonized 
 from liere. Our additions then would be numbered by 
 thousands, while now they come by scores. To Grape 
 Valley we might not bring many of them. It is 
 doubtful whether we have room for more than double 
 our present number. But there are countless other 
 spots on the earth, where truth can be taught and its 
 principles practiced without interference from legis- 
 latures, kings, or emperors. So we can have our full 
 course, until we carry tlie whole of civilization with us." 
 
 JS^ext morning we were early at work, scraping the 
 gold from the riffles and collecting it carefully in a ves- 
 sel. Then the sluice was set once more in position, 
 and Kapid river ]30ured ferociously down its length, 
 as if doubly enraged to be forced to do our service. 
 Eagerly we began to shovel the earth into the sluice. 
 This time, however, it was when less than half as 
 much earth had been washed out as the night before, 
 that we made our examination. We did not want again 
 to run the risk of having a considerable portion of 
 our treasure washed down the stream because the 
 riffles were too full to hold it. 
 
 But it appeared that we need not have been so cau- 
 tious. In some of the riffles there was no gold sedi- 
 ment at all, in others but very little. Our total harvest 
 was not one-twentieth part as much as that of the night 
 before. JMobody ventured a word of discouragement. 
 Not one of us was willing to admit to himself that 
 there was a possibility of failure. The sluice was 
 cleaned and restored to its place, and, with a new 
 feverishness, we set to work to wash out a new lot of 
 earth. 
 
 Before my mind as I dug, floated visions of the beau- 
 tiful city of the blessed, to be made possible by the 
 gold for which we were delving. Such a city no poet 
 ever ventured to describe, no artist to paint, no phil- 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 131 
 
 osopher to foreshadow. It was to be through us that 
 the glorious dream would become a fact ; that a city 
 which it would be happiness to look upon would be 
 built; and people walk its streets to whose every want 
 there would be a full response, for whom it would 
 only be necessary to ask and it would be given. 
 Through our discovery, too, it would be that the work 
 of proselyting the woi'ld at large were undertaken on a 
 grand scale, and the ultimate fulfillment of the mil- 
 lennium prophecy hastened perhaps hundreds of years. 
 My heart swelled with pride and triumph. How^ 
 glorious that to me should be granted the privilege of 
 helping to bring about these marvelous results. 
 
 Then Harvey's voice broke upon my revery, with 
 its hard practical tones. 
 
 " Shall we try again ? We have thrown in at least 
 a cart-load of earth this time." 
 
 " Not yet," said one of the workers. '^ Let's double 
 it and then try." 
 
 The man voiced a common feehng. We all dreaded 
 another disappointment. When, a few minutes later, 
 Harvey told us that we had now washed out the two 
 cart-loads, I think most of us were more irritated than 
 pleased. But the sluice was removed, and the instant 
 the water ceased to flow, all bent over it in hope of a 
 glad sight, all except one. I drew back and leaned 
 upon my shovel, and listened tor the announcement. 
 I did not even look at the eager company. But my 
 ears were all the keener for the first sonud that should 
 betray the truth. As they looked there w^as not so 
 much as a single exclamation, not a word, and the 
 silence told me more forcibly than words could have 
 done, that it must be there was even less gold than be- 
 fore on the riffles. As I stood there wdth wandering 
 eyes and pale face, while my sense of hearing was 
 strained for the merest syllable, my dreams took flight, 
 my ecstasy of triumph turned to the anguish of disap- 
 pointment and humiliation. 
 
133 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 All day long we shoveled and washed, and went to 
 sleep with bitterness in onr hearts. Another day until 
 noon we kept to our task, taking soil for washing 
 from all parts of the knoll by turn, but each time we 
 examined the riffles there was less of gold among them 
 than the time previous. But it was two o'clock in the 
 afternoon that the final washing was completed. Soil 
 had been scraped from the whole surface of the knoll 
 so that this test should be unerring, and when we all 
 examined for the result, we found absolutely not one 
 grain of gold. 
 
 The great placer mine had been completely exhausted, 
 and in almost perfect silence we packed our tent and 
 utensils, and started homeward, Ward and Gillette 
 keeping far apart from each other and from me. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Married life in Grape Yalley was very different from 
 married life in civilization. Tlie wife was not here 
 expected to devote her whole life to serve and please 
 her husband, any more than the husband was expected 
 to limit all his friendly relations with women to his 
 wife. It was not the theory in Grape Yalley that 
 when a woman married, she resigned all active inter- 
 ests except those of her luisband, and henceforth it 
 should be enough for her to make herself agreeable to 
 him ; that the opinion of othet- men was henceforth to 
 be of no account to her. JN'or was it the unwritten 
 law here that the husband should confine his interest 
 to his wife. They were both believed to be fitting 
 themselves to be worthy companions, by making the 
 most of the social intimacy with both sexes encouraged 
 in Grape Valley. In civilization each wife watches 
 her husband in his relation with those of the opposite 
 sex with jealousy, and the husband recij)rocates in 
 kind. In civilization, too, there are weighty reasons 
 for this distrust. Feeling sure that his wife is his, 
 bound and fettered by law, the husband usually takes 
 little pains to keep the admiration she cherished for 
 him in the courtship which she never ceases to regret. 
 He does little to entertain her. He no longer treats 
 her with his earlier tenderness, or makes her happy 
 with praises as of old. With other women he is quite 
 a different creature, seeing which it is small wonder 
 she distrusts him. But she, too, is a very much changed 
 woman from the sweetheart he used to think so dainty 
 
134 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 in her pretty clothes, so winning in her manner, so ir- 
 resistibly gentle, so thrillinglj responsive. If another 
 man pays her some little attention, she is something 
 like her old self again. But to her husband in his 
 own home she is usnally as- indifferent in her manner as 
 if his opinion had ceased to concern her. She keeps in 
 the closet her bright dresses when he alone is to see 
 her, and even arranges her hair in the most unattract- 
 ive fashion when lie only is with her, as if he had 
 ceased to have eyes after marriage, as if the qualities 
 and graces which made her seem beautiful and charm- 
 ing to him when they were lovers, were now of no ac- 
 count. The married man and woman in civilization 
 are quite too sure of each other, legally, to give them 
 motive enough to keep themselves attractive. Thus 
 they leave each other exposed without armor to the 
 charms of others, and may well be fearful of results, 
 though they seldom think of causes. 
 
 In Grape Valley, however, as much is expected by 
 society of the man and woman after marriage as be- 
 fore. It is not believed here that marriage is a ban, 
 condemning the husband and wife to seclusion, and 
 society to the deprivation of their activity. If a hus- 
 band and wife are properly mated, they will love each 
 other not the less, but rather the more if they continue 
 to meet others in the unrestrained social intercourse by 
 which development and education are continued after 
 marriage. While aiding the whole community with 
 whatever good judgment, inspired thought, poetical 
 ideas, witty satire, keen criticism, they may be espe- 
 cially able to give, they are also rendered better com- 
 panions to each other. 
 
 The fact that there are no home cares upon them 
 makes this stimulation and useful outside life possible. 
 The acceptance of the principle that no marriage should 
 be a lasting one which does not completely satisfy, also 
 requires free and continual social activity, as an essential 
 element of the system; such social activity as opens each 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 135 
 
 one's eyes to the demands of his nature, and makes re- 
 cognition of harmonious qiiahties in others possible. 
 
 The light repast which served for a morning meal 
 was the only one pi'ejmred at home, and even this was 
 very often ordered from the general caterer. The mid- 
 day hmch was taken wherever the forenoon's work was 
 done, while the principal meal of the day took place at 
 evening, in the dining-room of the phalansteries, to 
 some one of wdiich all the families were attached; 
 dinners which were more of the nature of banquets. 
 Husbands were assigned as escorts to other women than 
 their wives. These meals w^ere Cjuite elaborate, and 
 "were always followed by short speeches. It w^as a 
 sluo^gish nature indeed which w^as not stimulated on 
 these occasions, a poverty-stricken man or woman, 
 whose intellect, when inspired by the influences of the 
 hour, could not yield some treasure to enrich the mind 
 and experiences of others. Then came the evenings 
 in the general phalanstery halls. There were some- 
 times concerts, vocal and instrumental, sometimes 
 theatrical entertainments. At other times there were 
 dances or games; still again we w^ould have an essay on 
 some social question or some significant epoch in his- 
 tory. Then there were debates, exhibitions of psycho- 
 logical feats, and at other times purely social gather- 
 ings, at which the assembled men and women had no 
 entertainment provided except what they found in each 
 other. 
 
 There was of course no restraint laid upon any one 
 to insure attendance at these gatherings, but the con- 
 ditions of existence here were such that it was only 
 very exceptionally that we absented ourselves from 
 them. Our labor was all done in four hours of the 
 day, so there was no duty to detain us, and the whole 
 of the afternoon was full time enough for leisure or 
 readino^. To meet too^ether and to understand each 
 other, to grasp each other's feelings, sound each other's 
 strength and weakness, lo exchange ideas and criticisms, 
 
136 A7i Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 was at once delightful and necessary to achieve the full 
 results of the social institutions of Grape Yalley. It 
 was in a line, too, with the principles of the system, to 
 di-aw men together as into a common soul, overcoming 
 the individualizing influences which are the fathers 
 and mothers of what is called original sin. 
 
 The happiest year I had ev^er known passed away. 
 The transport of my relation to my wife was replaced 
 by a spirit of genial comradeship, on my side at least. 
 I no longer felt as if the place from which she was 
 absent lacked something as necessary to my comfort as 
 sunlight. 1 no longer felt a glow come over my heart 
 at her approach. Yet I did not doubt that I loved her 
 as much as ever. I liked to be with her. I enjoyed 
 her conversation, I respected her opinions, I admired 
 and enjoyed her beauty. Surely, I told myself, it was 
 unnecessary that I should always keep the ardent dis- 
 position of the new lover. The lover before marriage, 
 and for a short time afterward, is laboring under a 
 stress of emotion which custom naturally mitigates. 
 As he becomes wonted to intimacy with the woman 
 whose very presence was at first like a strong draught 
 of wine to him, it is reasonable that he should cease to 
 be so overwhelmingly aiiected. It was not owing, I 
 thought, to abating love that I was growing into a 
 cool, comfortable, but not at all exciting relation with 
 Kate. I was very much at peace, completely satisfied 
 with Grape Yalley sociahstic life, and filled with great 
 hopes for the coming conversion to this system of the 
 world at large. I believed I was as much in love as 
 ever, but my wife Kate did not entirely agree with me 
 on this point, as will soon become manifest. 
 
 It was one evening something over a year after my 
 marriage that Kate and I were putting a few finishing 
 touches to our toilets before going to dinner at the 
 pljalanstery hall. It was the universal habit to appear 
 at all public gatherings in full dress. I tied my cravat 
 and threw myself into an easy chair to wait for Kate. 
 
A /I A'xjjerujieni in Marriage. 137 
 
 Noticing that she seemed an unusually long time 
 adjusting her breast-pin, I at last cast a quick look at 
 the mirror to see what could be detaining her. 1 saw 
 to my astonishment that she was weeping. Her beau- 
 tiful eyes were dimmed with tears, and great drops 
 flowed down her cheeks. 
 
 " Why, Kate, darling," I exclaimed, leaping to my 
 feet and crossing to her side, "what is the matter? 
 Are you sick, dear ? " And I put my arm about her 
 round waist. 
 
 "If you did that more often," she sobbed, "you 
 would not have seen me cry^" Then she turned and 
 looking eagerly in my face, threw both arms about my 
 neck in that old impulsive way of hers, and putting 
 her head on my shoulder cried harder than ever. 
 
 To say that I was bewildered and non-plussed would 
 be coming as near to describing my feelings as perhaps 
 words can do. I did not understand at all wdiat she 
 meant, and tried to tell her so in the gentlest way I 
 could. 
 
 " It is simply because I know you do not love me as 
 you did," she cried. ''' Don't tell me that you do. Oh, 
 I don't mean that. Tell me that you do. Keep saying 
 you love me. I have wanted you to say it for so long." 
 
 " Don't my actions show that I love you, Kate ? Am 
 I not kind to you ? Am I not happy with you ? " 
 
 "You are kind simply because you like me," she 
 answered, " or because you are sorry for me, or because 
 you are so good you could not be any thing but kind 
 to any one. Yes, you are somewhat happy with me. 
 Are you as happy as you could be? " 
 
 ^* Happy?" 1 echoed. "Indeed I am happy as I 
 never was before." 
 
 She gently released herself from my embrace, and 
 taking a handkerchief from the bureau dried her cheeks. 
 " You do not say as much as you once did about how 
 dear I am to you. Yon do not always think to say 
 some tender word for me to remember when I go out. 
 18 
 
138 An Expei^iment in Marriage. 
 
 Sometimes I come where you are, and you do not even 
 notice me." She hurriedly completed her toilet. *'Then 
 yon do not seem to like to talk with me as you once 
 did. I notice you vdvacious and full of ideas when 
 with others, but I seem to have ceased to call out your 
 best, as I should do if you loved me. Then I miss the 
 glad light of welcome in your eyes which I used always 
 to see there when I came to you." She put on her hat. 
 " Come, I am ready now." 
 
 '' But Kate," I insisted, " it is not to be expected 
 that we shall be just as we were while lovers — I 
 mean, before our marriage." 
 
 "No," she said quickly, "we should not be just as 
 we were before marriage, but if we truly love each 
 other we should be a hundred times fonder, since we 
 know each other so much better than then. But 
 come, my dear," and she moved toward the door, "it 
 is of no use to talk of these matters. All the re- 
 proaches in the world cannot make a husband's heart 
 beat one pulse faster." 
 
 As we entered the reception-room of our phalan- 
 stery, as was the custom before dinner, I was surprised 
 and delighted to be met by Gillette, who had been 
 absent in the East on a very long trip. I noticed at 
 once that he was under considerable excitement. He 
 listened with ill-disguised impatience to my expres- 
 sions of pleasure at his return, and to Kate's greetings. 
 
 " Come with me," he said. " I want to present you 
 to my wife." 
 
 " So you have charmed the Eastern beauty at last," 
 1 laughed. " We shall be delighted to know her." 
 As we started with him he met Ward, whom he took 
 by the arm, and in a moment more had crossed the 
 room and touched a queenly woman lightly on the 
 shoulder. She turned, revealed a dark, richly-tinted 
 face, lips of vermilion and eyes the most bewildering, 
 I thought, man had ever looked into. 
 
 "My wife," said Gillette, and as he spoke Mr. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 139 
 
 Ward's name that gentleman bowed, and then stole a 
 quick glance at me where I stood a little back as if in 
 a dream. 
 
 '' I have met Mr. Ward before," she said, extending 
 her shapely hand to him and then to me. "And Mr. 
 Vinton is one of my oldest friends." 
 
 Yes, it was certainly minecessary to introduce me to 
 the woman wlio had been the idol of my heart and 
 who liad so basely jilted me two years before. 
 
 "Mrs. Blakesley," I exclaimed, stupidly, "and 
 here?" 
 
 " J^ot Mrs. Blakesley at all, ray dear sir," answered 
 Gillette, rather sharply, "but Mrs. Gillette for two 
 months now, and right here is the place for her." 
 
 Then 'she turned in that queenly fashion of hers I 
 used to think so perfect. '' But, my dear husband," 
 she said, in half-caressing rebuke, '' why did you not 
 tell* me my old friend was here? I suppose you did 
 not know he was my friend." By this time I had re- 
 covered my senses sufficiently to resume the manners 
 of a man of society, and my wife coming up was also 
 duly presented to Mv^. Gillette. Perhaps only two of us 
 noticed the peculiar look Mrs. Gillette gave the woman 
 1 had married ; a measuring look, as if to see how far 
 beneath herself, my old idol, I had chosen. Both Kate 
 and 1 saw ir. Then the chamberlain came toward us, 
 and on Gillette's suggestion, to me was assigned the 
 honor of taking his wife into dinner, and to him the 
 care of Kate. As Gillette drew Kate away she cast 
 one anxious look back at me, as if fearful of the fascina- 
 tions of my old idol, a look which I was extremely pro- 
 voked to see was observed by Mrs. Gillette. 
 
 Our seats at table were far removed from those of 
 Mr. Gillette and Kate, and my companion was not slow 
 to avail herself of the opportunity to talk very freely. 
 
 " You must wonder at my being Mrs. Gillette," she 
 said. " But I had been a widow a year. It is strange 
 you did not know of it." 
 
140 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 '' 1 had tauglit rajself that what Isabel Blakesley did 
 was no concern of mine," I answered. 
 
 "You blamed me too mncli for marrying Mr. 
 Blakesley," she said softly. " Women of my complexion 
 are more fond of wealth and power than of love. The 
 former are usually more lasting, but not always." 
 
 " What do you mean ? Did your husband lose his 
 money ? ' ' 
 
 " When he died I found there was nothing of any 
 account left for me after paying his debts, that is," 
 she explained satirically, " all his other debts had to be 
 paid befoi-e the great debt he ow^ed me, who married 
 him for his money, was reached." 
 
 " You would have done better if " But I bit my 
 
 lip and stopped. 
 
 " If I had married you ? So I have often thought. 
 And I would have had such a royal lover, too," she 
 added, with a sudden uplifting of her eyelids which 
 unveiled an expression in her eyes of bewildering pas- 
 sion. A wild rush of feeling overcame me. I saw the 
 others as through a mist. She only seemed really 
 present. Once more I felt, as I did in the old days, 
 that my wliole life was in this woman, that I would be 
 willing to die to-morrow if 1 could possess her to-day. 
 It was not a spiritual yearning, it was absolutely phy- 
 sical, but physical emotion to an intensity which made 
 ordinary feeling seem tamenesss itself. 
 
 " Be careful," she murmured, dropping her eyes 
 again, " people are observing us. I will see you alone 
 before I go home." 
 
 Then the tumult in my veins turned to rapture. I 
 was sure now that she saw my passion and returned it. 
 I seemed to float on air. In vain I made a pretense 
 of eating. I was unable to swallow a mouthful. I had 
 supped on ecstasy. I was surfeited with joy. If earth 
 had pleasures greater than our happiness in anticipating 
 them, what a heaven this would be ! I dared not trust 
 myself to look at Isabel again, but without turning my 
 
A71 Experiment in Marriage. 141 
 
 face I saw tlie gleam of her glowing neck, the polished 
 glories of her matchless arms, and my passionate heart 
 kept saying: " She is mine." Her every motion sent 
 its different thrill of delight through me. I listened 
 for her breathing, and when I caught asoftsigli, it was 
 as if my whole being was lifted on a miglity wave, and 
 swept onward whither I knew not and cared not. 
 
 " You did not talk much after all," remarked Gillette, 
 as he came to where we were standing, speechless, in 
 the reception-room." 
 
 "No. It is such bad form, you know," answered 
 Isabel lightly, " to engage in absorbing conversation 
 at meals." 
 
 I was so ashamed of the injury I was planning to do 
 my friend that I could not look him in the face. 
 
 " It is a lovely moonlight night," continued Gillette. 
 '^ Why don't you step out upon the piazza and have it 
 out % " 
 
 ^' Since you suggest it," I muttered between my teeth. 
 
 " Yes, that will be better," she smiled gaily, as she 
 rested her hand on my arm. As we crossed the room 
 I tried to think. What was I doing? Keviving an 
 old love affair with my friend's wife ? How then 
 would it end ? How but in misery to him and to 
 Kate? Yet, if I loved Isabel and she loved me, better 
 than we could either of us love any other human be- 
 ing, it was only right we should be brought together, 
 whoever else suffered. But then, I asked myself, was 
 this indeed love, which burned my whole nature until 
 my head swam and my brain refused to do any thing 
 but dream ? Or was it mere animal passion, mastering 
 to be sure, such as few women can excite, but only 
 physical in its nature, in its life, in its death ? Mere pas- 
 sion is fleshly and dies. It is mortal, while love is of 
 the spirit also, the attraction of harmonious souls to 
 each other, and is eternal as is the spirit. 
 
 But it was as if my destiny compelled me onward, 
 and left me no choice. Memories of the purer joys 1 
 
142 An Ejoperiment in Marriage, 
 
 had known with Kate flitted across my mind, pictures 
 of her anxious, despairing face were painted by my bet- 
 ter spirit upon the tablets of my fancy, but the touch of 
 this woman's burning hand upon my arm, her thrilhng, 
 perfumed breath upon my face, made me incapable of 
 resistance to her influence. 1 led her apart from the 
 others, to a spot secluded by a trellis, where indeed 
 Kate and I had often come for something between 
 solitude and society. I seated Isabel here on the very 
 spot where Kate had sat, and seated myself by her 
 side. 
 
 For a moment we looked into each other's eyes, and 
 such perfect sensual beauty I had never seen. The 
 languorous softness of her face, the drooping bow of her 
 red lips, parting a little, denoted the very incarnation 
 of physical passion. Then, as it seemed, unconsciously, 
 our faces drew nearer, until her breath mingled with 
 mine, and her eyes sliot their liquid fire into mine, 
 ahuost touching them. All the world beside passed 
 from my mind. It was as if I were dying. Then our 
 lips met and I lived again in a bliss which was agony. 
 I put my arm about her, and drew her to my bosom, 
 and kissed her as she palpitated against my heart, until 
 my whole being was intoxicated with hers. 
 
 Then came a sound of rustling skirts, but neither of 
 us heard it j then a footstep on the walk outside, but it 
 did not arouse us. Our senses were drugged with bliss. 
 Then there came a voice, familiar, but almost ks from 
 another world ; it pierced my heart like a dagger. 
 
 " Harry," it said, " Harry, this sight is killing me." 
 
 We sprang from each other's arms, as if impelled 
 by a shock of electricity. Isabel tried to draw back to 
 some kindly sheltering shadow. I leaped to my feet, 
 now wide awake to every thing. It was my wife who 
 stood before us, and the look of agony on her face was 
 more than I could bear. 
 
 " Kate," I cried, " I have been mad. I have been 
 mad. I love you and will always love you." And in 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 143 
 
 the presence of the very woman who had so deeply 
 infatuated me, I tried to take my wife's hand. " For- 
 give me, Kate." 
 
 But she drew back as if a wasp had* stung her where 
 ni}^ hand touched hers. 
 
 " Forgive you \ There is nothing to forgive. You 
 are not to blame simjDly because you do not love me." 
 
 "But listen to me. I do love you. 1 was beside 
 myself to-night." 
 
 "I have seen you changing," she said with des- 
 perate calmness. " I warned 3'ou of it before we came 
 here this evening. I knew then that you were no 
 longer my lover. Love me, indeed ! If you did such, 
 madness as this should be for my kisses, not for hers." 
 And she turned to cast a look of scorn and hite at the 
 beautiful woman who had made me forget every thing 
 but herself. The place where Isabel had sat was 
 vacant. She had escaped from the painful scene. 
 
 " Sit down," I urged, " and let us talk a few minutes. 
 I promise you by all that is holy " 
 
 " What use to promise ? " she asked, wearily. 
 
 "Sit here, Kate," I persisted. But she suddenly 
 flamed out for the first time. 
 
 " Dare you place me where that woman just sat ? 
 N^ow I am sure you never loved me." Then she 
 turned on her heel, "I am going home. Good-bye." 
 
 I stepped to her side. " I will go now, too," I said. 
 But once more she turned a stern face toward me. 
 
 " Never again," she exclaimed. " Did you for a 
 moment suppose I could ever live with you after this ? " 
 
 The woman who had so captivated me a few mo- 
 ments before was entirely forgotten now. The fever 
 she had stirred in my blood was cooled. I thought 
 only of what I was about to lose. Kate once more 
 seemed as lovely as when I had first offered her rny 
 heart. As the sun sometimes sends a brilliant gleam 
 of light and radiance from behind a cloud, just as he 
 sinks below the horizon, so sometimes love gives forth 
 
i 144 An Exjyeriment in Marriage. 
 
 all its forgotten splendors, for the moment before it 
 goes out forever. 
 
 " Kate," I cried, " it would kill me to lose jou." 
 
 But she shook her head. " You do not know your- 
 self as I know you. To-morrow I will apply for a 
 divorce, and you will be free to seek once more for the 
 woman — she must live somewhere — whom you can 
 truly and wholly love." 
 
 " But you are that woman," I said. 
 
 She let me take her hand, but I felt, in gathering 
 despair, that it was merely in token of parting. She 
 then spoke more softly. " No, you had ceased to love 
 me before you again met this Isabel and I was forced 
 to endure to-night's shame. But you will iind some 
 one who will be all in all to 3^ou ; that will be love in- 
 deed. But it is not this woman ; do not believe it for 
 an instant. I cannot bear that you should go down to 
 her level. But good-bye ? " 
 
 She released my hand and drew a step or two away. 
 Then suddenly she turned and rushed up to me, and 
 for the last time twined her arms around my neck. 
 
 " No, do not kiss me, I could not bear it after what 
 I saw. This must be our good-bye. Yon were so 
 dear to me, Harry, Good-bye," And she was gone. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The next six months was a most wretched period for 
 me. I had taken a room at phalanstery No. 1, and 
 my friend Ward was so much pleased at my compan- 
 ionship, that he failed to show any sort of sympathy 
 for me in my bereavement. But during tlios(3 months 
 I could hav^e been of little more satisfaction to him 
 than a lay figure. 
 
 Ward, as the reader has seen, had not by any means 
 been the convert to the institutions of Grape Yahey 
 that I was. He approved the economical relations es- 
 tablished here. He gave in his adhesion to the prin- 
 ciples which in practice made all men and women work, 
 and gave them all equal shares in the fruits of labor. 
 He was even enthusiastic over the short hours of labor, 
 which left the afternoons free for leisure or study ; and 
 admitted that the stimulating social Hfe here was the 
 most delightful he had ever imagined possible, and, as a 
 means to the culture of all the intellectual and moral 
 qualities, was perfection itself. He had nothing but 
 praise, either, for the spirit of brotherly love which 
 seemed to tind its full scope here, driving out the 
 selfishness, with its attendant miseries, induced by the 
 competitive system on which outside civilization is 
 based. 
 
 But the scheme of marriage and divorce as carried 
 into practice here did not please him at all. The 
 subject had been too delicate a one for him to discuss 
 with me while I was married, but now that I was 
 divorced, and plunged into bitterness and general dis- 
 pleasure with the institution from which 1 thought I 
 19 
 
146 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 had so unfairly suffered, Ward felt free to say any 
 thing he chose concerning the marriage relations of 
 Grape Valley, and I was not unwilling to listen. 
 
 As fur Mrs. Gillette, whose advent had been the 
 signal for my discomtiture, I fairly hated her, and I 
 think the feeling was reciprocated, for it is usually safe 
 to conclude that if one feels a strong repugnance to 
 any particular persou, the feeling is returned in degree. 
 From absorbing infatuation to intense dislike seems hke 
 a very long step, but in fact it is a most natural transi- 
 tion. We dislike a woman because she is very differ- 
 ent from others of her sex. She affects our sensibili- 
 ties very keenly. We are far more likely to be in- 
 fatuated* with just such a person than any other. We 
 hate her or we are bewitched by her, as the case may 
 be. Very often we first are bewitched by her and then 
 hate her, and as often we first hate and then are be- 
 witched by her. But the infatuation was over, the 
 charm was forever broken, and if Isabelle Gillette and 
 I had been cast on a lonely island together, I could 
 never have felt toward her again as I did that terrible 
 night when I lost Kate. So much for the difference 
 between infatuation and love. But Ward, to whom I 
 had told the whole affair, thought differently. 
 
 " You apparently must either hate or go crazy over 
 this woman ; one state indicates the imminence of the 
 other. Only when you become indifferent to her shall 
 I consider you safe." 
 
 This is one of the instances where my friend Ward 
 has been mistaken. But my unhappiness over the loss 
 of Kate continued unabated. To see her familiar form 
 across the reception-room, and give a sudden start to 
 go to her, and then to remember that she was mine no 
 'more, was like a twinge of physical pain to me. To 
 hear her voice in conversation with others, and feel 
 that I should never listen to its gentler accents in 
 words of endearment again, intensified my melancholy 
 almost to the point of despair. But one day I met her 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 147 
 
 face to face, on one of tlie city streets, and she ex- 
 tended her hand to me as sweetly as if we were brother 
 and sister. Her voice was cahn, and to my astonish- 
 ment I found mine became so. 
 
 "We need not cease to care for each other," she 
 said sweetly, " merely because we do not love each 
 other." 
 
 " May I feel that yon always think kindly of me? " I 
 asked, eagerly. 
 
 ^' Yes, "and wish yon the best of fate." And so we 
 parted, and I did not feel as inconsolable afterward. It 
 seemed clear enough that Kate was not a martyr, so I 
 had nothing to reproach myself with in that respect. 
 Then I gradually took more interest in the marvelously 
 active social life of the valley and grew to be more hke 
 myself again. 
 
 *^One evening as Ward and I stepped into the phalan- 
 stery hall after dinner, Gillette joined us and said: 
 
 " It is a social evening and we can have an old- 
 fashioned talk." 
 
 " Isti't Mrs. Gillette here ? " inquired Ward, with his 
 ever present courtliness. 
 
 I thought a peculiar expression passed over Gillette's 
 face. Could it be his dream of bhss was so soon over? 
 How indeed could a woman who had so much to give 
 to others make her husband happy ? 
 
 *'0h, yes, she is here. She is entertaining Harve}', 
 the mining expert; yon remember him." Then he 
 added plainly willing to change the subject : " You 
 are not looking as well as usual, Yinton." 
 
 " I have been a good deal out of temper. Kate's 
 leaving me was a terrible blow." I was thankful Gil- 
 lette did not know the occasion of the rupture between 
 my wife and me. 
 
 " I tell him," said Ward, "that the peculiar institu- 
 tion of Grape Yalley is to blame for his sufferings. 
 The only way to keep a man and woman together is to 
 tie them." 
 
148 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 "That would be bondage in the full sense of the 
 word," exclaimed Gillette, " bondage of mind, body 
 and soul, brutalizing to the body, degrading to the soul, 
 and stunting to the mind. It is only when both man 
 and woman love to the full capacity of their natures 
 that they should live together. Such love as that should 
 be the only bond." 
 
 " But all men and women are not capable of sustained 
 feeling," said I. "Some of us can be very intensely 
 affected for a time, and then become almost indifferent." 
 
 " That is," said Ward, "they can be infatuated with 
 one woman to-day, and with another to-morrow. Such 
 men and women will spoil the workings of your insti- 
 tution." 
 
 Suddenly a light feminine voice broke into our con- 
 versation. 
 
 " Who is it speaks of spoiling our institution ? Avaunt, 
 profane one." 
 
 Turning, 1 saw a woman of perhaps thirty, with a 
 high broad forehead, exquisitely chiseled features, and 
 wonderful!}^ expressive eyes. Her smile was so full of 
 brightness that I was attracted to her at once. Mr. 
 Gillette introduced me to her as Miss Barden. Ward 
 appeared to be already an acquaintance, for he retorted: 
 
 " I am the profane one. I was saying that there are 
 many men and women unfitted for lasting love." 
 
 "Like yourself, Miss Barden," laughed Gillette, 
 giving her a significant look. 
 
 " Perhaps you mistake me," she answered. " The 
 fault may be with the manhood of Grape Yalley, 
 unable to supply me with a counterpart." 
 
 " Describe to me your ideal," said Gillette, " and I 
 will put the whole world under contribution. It would 
 be payment sufficient for all my trouble to see you once 
 in love. Experience shows it is women of the intel- 
 lectual type who make the most perfect lovers. De- 
 scribe now the man 3^ou conld adore." 
 
 "How can I?" asked Miss Barden, with a cool 
 
All Experiment in Marriage. 149 
 
 smile. " It is not given to us mortals to know our- 
 selves. The Socratic injunction sounded like very 
 wise advice, but like most sucli, is impracticable. I 
 can only tell whether any particular man is my coun- 
 terpart when I meet him." 
 
 " Then, you are not an infidel as to the possibility 
 of true love ? " I asked. 
 
 '' Far from it. But I think, too, that there is a 
 great deal of love founded on the condition of natures 
 at certain periods which they outgrow as they outgrow 
 those conditions. Hence, true love is not always last- 
 ing. There are numerous imitations of pure love, 
 however, most deceptive of all of which is tiie excite- 
 ment a novel intimacy always induces. Most of the 
 mistaken marriages in Christendom are founded on 
 this delusion, which, of course, disappears as the inti- 
 macy becomes an old story." 
 
 "You must believe, then," I said, "that the social 
 freedom of Grape Yalley tends to reduce the frequency 
 of mistaken marriages." 
 
 Her face lighted up with appreciation, and she 
 turned for an instant to Gillette. " Why haven't you 
 introduced Mr. Yinton to me before ? He is worth 
 talking to." 
 
 " Perhaps I need not scour the world for you after 
 all?" suggested Gillette, maliciously, and then he 
 added : " Come, Ward, these four-handed conversa- 
 tions are somewhat difficult. Suppose you and I find 
 some place where we can have it all our own way." 
 
 No sooner were Miss Barden and I left together 
 than she gave me an arch glance. " If you are afraid 
 of me you may go, too." 
 
 "I fear nothing in petticoats," I asserted boldly. 
 " But let us take seats in the window while you answer 
 me. 
 
 We found two chairs which overlooked the well- 
 lighted street below. We could see in the distance 
 Bapid river winding its shining length in the moon- 
 
150 Aji Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 light ; while if we chose to look within, there were 
 hundreds of beautiful women and attractive men with 
 faces which expressed every grade of satisfaction, in- 
 terest and delight. Compared with any social gather- 
 ing I had ever seen in the outside world, it was as 
 light to darkness. I have met friends and intimates, 
 with whom I bad no sense of restraint, whose conver- 
 sation was as free and stimulating as that which gen- 
 erally prevailed here. Here all were friends and inti- 
 mates, so there was a total absence of the restraint 
 which destroys the meaning, the pleasure and tbe piotit 
 of society. Woman was really emancipated here in 
 mind and soul, as well as in her physical relations. 
 She was no longer a constraint upon man, but a stimu- 
 lus to constant intellectual and spiritual excitement. 
 The most brilliant salons in the history of the world 
 have been those of women who had emancipated them- 
 selves from the restraints of tradition and at the same 
 time from those of good morals. Here all were eman- 
 cipated, the married as well as the unmarried, but the 
 moral nature was never in a higher state of refinement. 
 All wanted the best that others had to give, and sought 
 it without regard to existing marriage relations. If a 
 love fuller and more satisfying than a marriage yielded 
 was awakened, so much the better, for that was pro- 
 gress. No ill consecpiences, according to the theories 
 of this community, could result irom the most unre- 
 stricted social relations. If husband and wife were 
 well mated their married harmony would not be dis- 
 turbed; if not, the sooner each met some one who could 
 inspire a complete love the better. All this wonder- 
 ful liberty of the sexes in their relations with each 
 other put the men and women always on their mettle. 
 The interchange of wit and wisdom, of repartee and 
 epigram, was constant, and the faces in the company 
 before me were alert and flushed as if with champagne. 
 After a moment's ])ause Miss Earden said : 
 " The idea you have just suggested interests me. In 
 
An Exjperiment in Marriage. 161 
 
 the outside world so many artificial restraints are 
 placed on the acquaintance of the sexes, that intimacy 
 of any kind between a man and woman, however nn- 
 snited for each other, is likely to cause an excitement 
 which is mistaken for love. Hence rich heiresses 
 elope with their father's coachmen, and heads of fam- 
 ilies marry their servant girls. If a man and woman 
 are thrown together on an intimate relation for a con- 
 siderable length of time, it is almost a foregone con- 
 clusion that they fall in love, as they call it, with each 
 other, and marry if they can; if not, disgrace them- 
 selves. 
 
 " If, on the other hand," I continued, " the sexes 
 freely meet and become famiharized, this mistake of a 
 novel intimacy for love would not occur. Intimacy 
 would cease to be novel. Men would not be completely 
 bewitched when a glimpse of peculiarly feminine 
 qualities was revealed to them. Women would not 
 lose their heads when they saw in this or that man the 
 strength or energy of our sex. To look into each 
 other's eyes without pal23itation of the heart, to touch 
 each other's hands without a tumult of feeling, would 
 be the result for both sexes except in cases of true love. 
 Your freedom of restraint and untrarameled relations 
 of the sexes will clarify the air in time, so that a man 
 and woman will not be likely to think they fall in love 
 unless they have a peculiar fitness for each other." 
 
 " There is another idea that occurs to me." As she 
 turned her face toward me it was fairly illumined with 
 intelligence and vivacity. " In the old civilization a 
 man is expected to find everything in his wife, to see, 
 or at least to enjoy no charms of manner, no suggestive- 
 ness of thought in other women. The result is he is 
 either deprived of social delights and educating in- 
 fluences, or his wife considers herself abused and 
 society looks on her as deserted. But if a husband or 
 wife in the outside world had free social intercouse with 
 those of the opposite sex, were permitted aud en- 
 
152 An Exjperiment in Marriage, 
 
 conraged to make the most of every attractive and in- 
 teresting personality, love might invade hearts that 
 hitherto had not known it. And the old civilization 
 makes no provision for such cases. This is another 
 respect in which Grape Yalley presents the ideal civili- 
 zation. Here we all associate with whom we like, 
 gather sweetness from every flower, broaden every 
 faculty of our mind, as well as expand the sympathies, 
 which are the best proofs of immortahty, and by culti- 
 vating which we best cultivate the soul and strengthen 
 its divine attributes." 
 
 I was fairly carried away by the eloquence of my new 
 acquaintance. I had not met a woman before with 
 such perceptive and analytical powers. She paused for 
 me to speak, but I preferred to listen. 
 
 She resumed after a moment. " That you love one 
 woman is no reason why she should be required to 
 please your every taste, satisfy your every demand. 
 Every human being is a specialist. Some quality, some 
 attribute, some insight, is more developed in some one 
 of us than in any other. Each person has some ex- 
 perience, has learned some lesson out of life which 
 others do not know. From acquaintance and intel- 
 lectual intimacy with men other men have always 
 learned most that they know, acquired the chief part 
 of their education. Women have their exclusive 
 personal experiences too, their intuitive powers, their 
 sexual clairvoyance, their peculiar religious and sympa- 
 thetic inspirations. Men should be as free to exciiange 
 their intellectual and spiritual treasures with women as 
 with each otlier. Thus only can women share in the 
 strength of mind, breadth of generalization, the fullness 
 of knowledge of the sterner sex, and thus only men 
 become more the equals of Avomen in the delicacy of 
 understanding, the quickness of perception, and the 
 gentleness of heart peculiarly feminine." 
 
 " That would be a glorious consummation, indeed," I 
 said. " But can one man and woman love each other 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 153 
 
 as completely where they liave so much to give and to 
 take from others?" 
 
 " Why not! " she demanded. " Does a man in tlie 
 old world love his wife less because he has free inter- 
 c )nrse with other men ? No more would the husband 
 of Grape Valley be incapable of perfect lover relations 
 with his wife because he enjoyed and profited by what 
 cultivation of mind and soul other women in the world 
 could give him. It might rather be expected that, by 
 what he could learn from these other women, he might 
 be brought into a still more harmonious relation with 
 his wife. She is, or ought to be, the only woman in the 
 world he can love. If she is not that woman he should 
 lose no time in finding the one who is, and in releasing 
 the mistaken object of his first choice to accomplish her 
 own destiny. But it does not follow that she should 
 be the only woman to him in the world simply because 
 she is the only woman he can love." 
 
 I hesitated a moment and then taking courage from 
 her remarkable frankness, I asked : 
 
 " What is the difference between the interest which 
 a man may take in other women without love, and the 
 feelincr you call love which he should have for his 
 wife's" 
 
 Miss Bard en laughed somewhat oddly and seemed 
 at a loss what reply to make. I was afraid I had 
 pressed her too far. But while I was meditating some 
 excuse for my question, she began to speak. 
 
 " Now yoii force me to make an honest but awkward 
 confession. I know nothing of this love from expe- 
 rience. I was never in love. I have met many men 
 who interested me and entertained me, many whom 
 I wanted to see again, as you for instance, but all I 
 know of love is through my study of others and of my 
 imagination. If an opinion founded on such poor data 
 is good for any thing you are welcome to it." 
 
 '^Perhaps," I answered, pleased at what I thought 
 an opportunity to make a good point, '' perhaps your 
 20 
 
154 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 definition is likely to be broader and less biased than 
 if offered by a person who thinks he has experienced 
 to the full the grand passion. Definitions may be 
 offered by those who are in error in supposing they 
 were ever in love, and hence define the false for the 
 true, the delusion for love itself ; or even if the person 
 has known, in his own experience, true love, he may be 
 all the more likely to describe accidents as essentials, 
 to color his definition with the individuality of that 
 experience." 
 
 " You are very ingenious," she said, giving me a 
 very appreciative look. " I will take courage and offer 
 my definition since you think it is quite as likely to 
 be near the truth as those of men and women who 
 boast of having run the whole gamut of passion. A 
 man loves a woman and is a fit husband for her, if 
 their natures, physical, intellectual and spiritual, are 
 suited to each other. They should mutually stimulate 
 each other in every direction, mutually soothe each 
 other, mutually satisfy each other. The stimulus each 
 supplies to the other keeps every facult}' and percep- 
 tion alive and progressive, and is the strongest force 
 for improvement to which a human being can be sub- 
 jected. The world at large, through its imperfect 
 social institutions, has made very little of this force for 
 good. It is almost accidental when the full relation 
 of lovers exists between married people in civilized 
 countries. Asa possible force for mischief, for out- 
 break of violence, it is sufficiently recognized. The 
 sexual influence is the greatest enginery for the de- 
 velopment of our whole natures which this world sup- 
 plies. Our bodies, minds, and souls, are educated and 
 uplifted, perfected and purified by true love. If sexual 
 selection is rightly practiced, each man and woman 
 will marry where the stimulus most adapted for the 
 development of the triple nature is best supplied." 
 
 As she finished speaking she rose to her feet. " I 
 must leave you now, I was to meet a friend to-night 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 155 
 
 for an historical lesson. Yon have made me very late." 
 Then she gave me her brilliant smile, a sort of greeting 
 more vivid than words. " JSliall you be here to-morrow 
 night ? " 
 
 "Yes," I answered eagerly, "but it is theatrical 
 night, and we cannot talk. Can't I come to see you 
 iu'the afternoon ? " 
 
 " Why, yes, if you do not think I am talked out. I 
 feel something as an exhausted reservoir looks." And 
 she moved a step or two away. 
 
 "A reservoir often fills up over night, you know," I 
 threw after her, and then she left tlie room. 
 
 The foundations of my intellectual life had been 
 stirred, as never before, and by a woman. I was glad 
 to go to my room, and locking the door, to abandon 
 myself to reverie. _, 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 I do not think, however, that I had been a half honi 
 alone, when a knock came at the door, and, as with 
 considerable reluctance I opened it, Mr. Harvey, the 
 mining expert, entered. 
 
 " 1 want a little talk with you," he said. "Lock the 
 door so we shall not be interrupted, please. Gillette 
 might blunder in any minute." 
 
 I locked the door not without some manifest surprise. 
 " And if he did come in, wouldn't he be a desirable ad- 
 dition?" 
 
 "l!sot to-night," answered Harvey, seating himself, 
 "for it is about Mrs. Gillette I want to talk.'' 
 
 I was fairly amazed. " About Mrs. Gillette ? " 
 
 " Yes, I am infatuated with her. I am as crazy over 
 her as a mad inventor over perpetual motion. Why, 
 Yinton, when I think of her going home with Gillette 
 as her husband, it makes me quite frantic. Wild ideas 
 of attacking him and taking his wife away this very 
 night, overwhelm me." 
 
 "Beware of the woman," I exclaimed, startled and 
 humiliated at the thought that she, who took such pains 
 to charm my senses so recently, should already have set 
 her snares for another man. 
 
 " Why do you tell me to beware of her ? " he de- 
 manded, angrily. " If she loves me better than her 
 husband, is there any reason why I should not marry 
 her ? '' Then doubtless remembering that he had 
 opened the subject to me, not I to him, he saw that too 
 much sensitiveness on his part was absurd. So he mol- 
 lified a little. 
 
A71 Experime7it m Marriage, 157 
 
 " She has spoken of you, and somewhat unpleasantly 
 by the way. So I thought, perhaps, you could give me 
 some advice. I do not feel, myself, that her influence 
 over me is good. Perhaps I ought to shun it if I have 
 the strength." 
 
 " Oh certainly you ought," I answered, determined 
 to do my duty by Harvey, if I could without reveal- 
 ing too much of my recent experience with her. ''It 
 is not true love you feel for her or that she feels for 
 you. She is too sensual in her nature to be capable of 
 any passion save of the senses. She would enslave you 
 to-day, and be enslaved herself, and to-morrow or next 
 week or next month, perhaps, be as ready for a new 
 lover or husband as she was for you. Such women as 
 she would, I believe, be impossible after a few genera- 
 tions in Grape Valley. They are the offspring of 
 those relations of the sexes in civilization which were 
 so distorted that there followed the most monstrous 
 perversions of instincts. Men most commonly ex- 
 hibit these perversions, which are often merely overde- 
 velopment of the purely physical aspect of sex. The 
 more brutal an indulgence, the more coarse its sur- 
 roundings and associations, the more degrading its sug- 
 gestions, the better satisfied are such perverted men in 
 their relations with women. Sometimes decent and ac- 
 complished gentlemen in other directions, they are 
 simply beasts and glory in their degradation, in their 
 sexual relations. Women are naturally more fitted for 
 the true functions of love than man; the physical rela- 
 tion is seldom foremost in their minds, very often 
 hardly recognized until the mental and spiritual 
 harmonies are fully established. When we find a sen- 
 sual woman, however, she is capable of spreading more 
 poison through the social State than a dozen preachers 
 of anarchy and assassination. Such women have done 
 much to destroy faith in the reality of the complete 
 triple attraction of the sexes which is love, to make 
 beasts of all who come beneath their infiuence, and to 
 
158 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 make gross all who know of their history. They are 
 instances of atavism, retrogression toward a former 
 type, toward the brute without intellect or sonl and 
 which only responds to physical instinct." 
 
 "But how did such a retined man as Gillette come 
 to marry her?" demanded Harvey, apparently amazed 
 and shocked at what I said. 
 
 " He married her for the same reason that you want 
 to marry her, and will do so nnless what 1 say C)pens 
 your eyes. Yon are maddened by the physical attrac- 
 tion which she puts forth with a boldness and abandon 
 well nigh irresistible. The display of sensual passion 
 on the part of a woman is usually absolutely intoxicat- 
 ing to a man. This woman displays it so alluringly, so 
 seductively, that your senses are enthralled and your 
 judgment suspended. Yon do not stop to see that the 
 basis for your attraction is absolutely of the flesh, and, 
 liow^ever rapturous to-day, will to-morrow turn to dust 
 and ashes. But the triumphs of such women are only 
 limited by their opportunities. Kings and potentate?, 
 conquerors of kingdoms, prophets and philosoj^lieis 
 have fallen beneath the lightnings in their eyes since 
 history began to keep its records. Perhaps, after all, 
 they are not wholly without use in the world. They 
 help to show at least what love is not." 
 
 Harvey rose to liis feet and took my hand. " I be- 
 lieve you speak the truth, Yinton, and 1 thank you 
 from my heart for 3'our warning. The thought of her 
 tills me with no good aspirations, with no exaltation of 
 soul. It is merely the apotheosis of flesh, a profanity 
 and a mockery. Good night. I thank you for what 
 you have done for me." 
 
 After he went out I dismissed the queens of sensual 
 passion from my mind, and went to bed to dream of 
 Miss Barden. 
 
 The next forenoon, however, when I entered my 
 editorial room, I found the whole force in great excite- 
 ment over the announcement that Gillette's wife had 
 
A 71 Expei'iment in Marriage, 159 
 
 that morning filed ber notice of divorce. In a week 
 more Isabel was married to Mr. Harvey, and doubtless 
 he confided to lier all that I had said about her and her 
 kind. At any rate she did not ever recognize 
 me again. But it must have been a secret humihation 
 for her to feel that, in spite of herself, she irresistibly 
 fulfilled my prophecy and justified my description of 
 her nature by procuring a divorce from Harvey, in 
 turn, before six months were gone. Her future history 
 is of no particular importance to detail here, and she 
 was not after all a very mischievous element in Grape 
 Valley social life. The men whom she beguiled be- 
 came aware of their delusion in good time, and were all 
 the wiser for their lesson. She served as a healthy 
 corrective of sensual tendencies, and if she did not seek 
 for her freedom as soon as the eyes of her successive 
 husbands were opened and their lessons learned, they 
 had, of course, the blessed privilege of taking the initia- 
 tive themselves. 
 
 Under the old order of society, the years of Isabel 
 Blakesley, almost her months, could be counted by the 
 number of homes she destroyed, of honored men she 
 disgraced, of careers she wrecked and victims she drove 
 to despair, crime and death. Gillette had certainly 
 done civilization a good turn in bringing the woman 
 here, where her influence over no man's life could be 
 any thing but temporary. 
 
 Of course I could not for a moment forget that Miss 
 Earden had given me the privilege of calling upon her, 
 but I felt that I owed a first duty to my friend Gil- 
 lette, and finding that he nad returned to his own room 
 at our phalanstery, I went up to see him. 
 
 ''Poor fellow," I bega grasping his hand. But 
 Gillette apparently did not regard himself as a proper 
 object of sympathy. 
 
 " Congratulate me rather," he exclaimed. " Why, 
 Yinton, you cannot conceive of the mise: , that I was 
 suffering with Isabel. But since I had brought her 
 
160 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 so far, I felt a certain embarrassment in divorcing 
 her." 
 
 '* I have a confession to make," I began with con- 
 siderable embarrassment as I seated mjself. '' The 
 first evening I met her here I was completely enslaved. 
 She was an old sweetheart of mine, the woman I told 
 yon about that night on the Brooklyn bridge, you will 
 remember. It was she who threw me over for a rich 
 husband. I was in despair at the idea of taking your 
 wife from you, even at the moment when I was most 
 infatuated with her. But I was saved only by Kate. 
 It cost me my wife, so I received my punishment." 
 
 " You surprise me ; I understand now why it was that 
 she was so bitter against you after that first night. 
 When I presented you to her I thought she showed an 
 interest somewhat unbecoming in so recent a bride. 
 But later in the evening she spoke of you very disdain- 
 fully. Even your features, which I know you regard, 
 not inexcusably, with some complacency, she criticised. 
 Your figure, too, was too slight, or too tall, I forget 
 which, now. As for your manner, it was too assured, 
 insolent she thought. In vain I tried to defend you, 
 Vinton, but I assure you I did try. So it was all 
 because your wife discovered you making love to 
 Isabel?" 
 
 I was a good deal taken back by Gillette's unconcern, 
 but managed to say : " I presume it seemed ungallant 
 of me that I should forget her presence while I pleaded 
 for my wife's forgiveness." 
 
 " She ought to have been more reasonable," mocked 
 Gillette; ''she should have appreciated the extreme 
 awkwardness of your position. If it had been a choice 
 between the sacrifice of a man or of Isabel, you would 
 of course have trampled upon the man without remorse. 
 But wdien it was a question which woman of the two 
 you should honor, it seems to me even Isabel ought to 
 have had reason enough to see Kate was entitled to the 
 oreference." 
 
An Exjperiment in Marriage, 161 
 
 I was quite at a loss to know just what to saj, and 
 wliile hesitating, Gillette continued more gravely: 
 
 ''Thus endetli the tirst chapter of inj passionate ex- 
 perience, and the last, I think. 1 always thought women 
 too cold, but in Isabel I found a volcano. The first 
 week of my mari'ied life was pleasure in perfection, I 
 thought. I was blind to evidences of selfishness and 
 of grossness. I would not entertain my dawning sus- 
 picions of ignorance, of laziness or of' cruelty in my 
 wife. I fancied I had found a woman who would be 
 everything to me that woman could be, more than ever 
 woman was to man before ; the same old story you 
 know. Our life should be one ecstasy. But I shall 
 not marry again, Yinton." 
 
 " liow long before you go East ? " I asked. 
 "I had planned to stay here a month, but I now am 
 anxious to get aw^ay to-morrow. There are quite a 
 number of converts of both sexes on the point of join- 
 ing us. When I return in a month or so, I shall bring 
 a very interesting company with me. Must you be 
 going ? Well, good-bye." 
 
 At his door 1 met Ward just coming to make a call. 
 I was for a hni-ried salutation and departure, since I 
 was eager to see Miss Barden. But Ward absolutely 
 declined to remark my haste, and taking me by the 
 shoulder, said : 
 
 " I want to speak with you a minute." 
 " But I have an appointment," I protested, looking 
 at my watch. 
 
 " You have your whole afternoon for your appoint- 
 ment ; you must give me a minute or t\vo." 
 ''Well, what is it?" 
 
 " Not particularly pleasant news, at least not flatter- 
 ing," answered Ward, laughing. 
 
 " I might have known it," I retorted. " You are 
 so anxious to give it to me." 
 
 But Ward continued imperturbably : "Your former 
 wife is receiving attentions from a new lover. He is 
 21 
 
1G2 An Exjperiment in Marriage. 
 
 the superintendent of the shipping department, 1 be- 
 lieve." 
 
 "I don't blame him," I answered, indifferently, yet 
 I could not subdue tlie disagreeable sensation in my 
 throat. 
 
 "And I may add," continued Ward, maliciously, 
 '* that I think she appears to like it." 
 
 " What do you judge by ? " I asked hotly, forgetting 
 my role of nonchalance. "What does a confirmed 
 old bachelor like you know of the signs and tokens 
 of love?" 
 
 He winced, somewhat unnecessarily I thought, at 
 this fling, but answered : 
 
 '•They have been walking since lunch, and I think 
 if you sauntered up 'A ' street, and assumed your 
 most unconscious air, you could meet them without 
 seeming to intend it. Thus you could judge for your- 
 self, since you distrust my advantages. By the way, 
 his name is Sawtelle." 
 
 '' I am sure it is not my affair whom she likes or 
 dislikes," I exclaimed, as I broke away trom him. 
 
 " ^or mine either, I suppose you think," he laughed 
 as he knocked at Gillette's door. 
 
 Of course I had no intention of following Ward's 
 suggestion. If Mr. Sawtelle chose to make love to 
 Kate, and she to listen to him, it was outside of my 
 jurisdiction entirely. Yet instead of entering the 
 phalanstery reception-room, and sending up my card 
 to Miss Barden, as I should have done, I passed out of 
 the main door and went down the steps. I had no ex- 
 cuse for walking up "A" street, unless it were to meet 
 Kate and Mr. Sawtelle, in accordance with Ward's 
 recommendation, which I had scornfully rejected. Yet 
 I turned up that very street, and when I saw a woman 
 leaning on her escort's arm and coming toward me, I 
 took a last week's copy of my newspaper out of my 
 pocket, and affected to study a paragraph in it, most 
 intently. Still I managed to see every turn of Kate's 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 163 
 
 head, every movement of her graceful figure, and as, 
 with her companion, fche came nearer, I could even 
 catch a word or two of their conversation. They 
 doubtless saw^ a man on the sidewalk near them. But 
 so absorbed were they in each other that the existence 
 of other specimens of their race was of no moment to 
 them. 
 
 Why was I in haste to con chide so ? Because when 
 he spoke she turned her face to^vard him as a rose 
 opens its rarest beauties to the sun, denying them to 
 the moon or to the briglitest stars of night. Because 
 when she addressed hhn every atom of his body seemed 
 to lean toward her, to respond to her, to listen to her. 
 The words I heard were in disjointed sentences, which 
 they, perhaps, thought, w^ith the nsual fatuousness of 
 lovers, were meaningless to outsiders. 
 
 I heard him say: "I have always felt so, too, 
 when the wind blew." He was confessing some won- 
 derful affinity between them, extending even to their 
 common experiences of nature. 
 
 Then I heard her say : '' It seems to me that I did 
 not half see the beauties of the world until now." Thus 
 she showed him how his influence had stimulated all 
 her senses into a new^ activity. 
 
 When they passed me I put up my newspaper so 
 they coujd not see n]y face. I w\as fihed w^ith indigna- 
 tion at Kate, who had once lain in my arms, for now 
 believing herself in love with another. I was doubly 
 angry because I was sure tliat I saw signs of an inten- 
 sity of love, and a perfection of sympathy such as slie 
 had not offered for me. For a few moments I stood 
 w^here they had passed me, but neither of them looked 
 behind. In my wrath I concluded to follow them 
 until they shonld separate, then I would overtake her, 
 and upbraid her with her unfaithfulness. I did not 
 w^ait to meditate what I should say. My breast was al- 
 most bursting with a sense of the outrage I felt had 
 been put upon me. I was only eager for an oppor 
 
164 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 tunity to plead my wrongs, ^o woman could stand 
 against my reproaches. 
 
 At the corner of tlie street they paused. Appa- 
 rently, the man had business calling him away, and 
 here tliey must part. I, of course, paused, too, suppos- 
 ing tlieir adieux would be over in a moment. Why 
 sliould tliey delay ? Had they not been together dur- 
 ing a long walk, with opportunity to say every thing 
 which was of the slightest importance? If he wanted 
 to tell her that he loved her, he surely had had time 
 sufficient. If she wanted to let him know that she re- 
 turned his passion, she certainly had had opportunity. 
 But yet they seemed to find it hard to separate. He 
 would start as if to go, and some unuttered sentiment 
 would occur to him, and he would speak it, as if it 
 were a matter'of life and death to share it with her, 
 and straightway forget that he had been about to leave 
 her. Or she would take his hand in hers for a last 
 caress, the sight of which naturally increased my im- 
 patience, and they would immediately become ob- 
 livious to the passage of time. If I had doubted be- 
 fore that they were'in love, the sight of their lingering 
 parting would have con\^nced me of it. None but 
 lovers ever part so reluctantly, each movement toward 
 separation stimulating more intensely their longing 
 and ability to please each other. 
 
 Finally'^he went his way and I followed Kate. But 
 as long as they were in sight of each other they still 
 kept turning about hoping to see each other's faces. 
 At every one of these tell-tale signs of love my indig- 
 nation at the fickleness of woman grew deeper, until 
 Kate went into her little house, once my home, too. 
 Almost immediately afterward I stood at the door 
 with my face set like a flint. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 It was apparent enough to me, from the first glance 
 at Kate's countenance as she opened the door, that she 
 had hoped to see quite another form than mine. She 
 had been with her new lover for hours, and yet her 
 face was illumined with joy at the thought that she 
 should so soon see him again. But in an instant the 
 beautiful light had faded, and in its face was a disap- 
 pointment she tried in vain to conceal. 
 
 " Good afternoon, Mr. Yinton," she said, as she 
 held out her hand. " I amx glad to see you." And 
 she led the way into what she used as her sitting-room. 
 
 As 1 entered the house where I had been so happy 
 my old life seemed to rush back upon rae irresistibly. 
 In this very room how many hours of sweet inter- 
 change of love's secrets I had passed with this woman. 
 Why was it she sat aloof from me now, with only an 
 expression of cold curiosity on the face where I had so 
 often seen tenderness chase away shame ? It was the 
 very room where I had been sick and so sweetly nursed 
 by her. The bed was removed now, but I knew so 
 well where it had stood. Every square of paper on the 
 wall had been etched on my memory in the hours of 
 semi-consciousness I had lain there. I now sat by the 
 window in the very spot, in the very chair, where, 
 witli her fair head upon my shoulder, I had sat the 
 afternoon of our betrothal. " The memory of all the 
 kisses which she had given me in this room, clinging, 
 burning kisses, of all the eager confessions of passion 
 I had beard from her lips, was with me. She had never 
 
166 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 looked more beautiful than at this moment, when there 
 was a wall of ice between ns. 
 
 " Kate," I began, " once more we are together in 
 this room. It seems impossible to beheve that we are 
 no longer anything to each other." 
 
 But she visibly shrank into herself. This movement, 
 unconscious as it was, was one more proof that she 
 was in love with another man. Words of passion except 
 from the object of her devotion seemed profanation to 
 her. 
 
 "Why," she exclaimed, "all that is as far away as 
 if it had iDeen in another world." 
 
 "But," I insisted, "when I think how we learned 
 the easy lesson of love in this very room, how in this 
 very chair I " 
 
 "Don't say it," she exclaimed, as a warm flush 
 mounted to her forehead. " It is blasphemy to call to 
 mind such scenes when their higher meaning is lost. 
 We thought we loved each other then, and everything 
 w^e did was glorified. But why refer to it now ? " 
 
 I felt as if a spray of ice water had been thrown in 
 my face. " Did you never love me then ? " 
 
 Then her eyes took an expression of reproach into 
 them. 
 
 " Why don't you ask, too, if you never loved me ? 
 For both Cjuestions one answer will sufiice. We thought 
 we loved each other. That belief of ours made sacred 
 all we felt and said and did. Since we have learned 
 that we made a mistake to rehearse now our ex- 
 periences as lovers becomes intolerable." 
 
 " But I love you now," I cried. " Love is eternal." 
 
 " Ko, I do not think that even all love is eternal," she 
 answered, coolly. "I beheve that human natures very 
 often make progress in different directions, unfitting 
 for each other those w4io were at one time well mated. 
 At a certain stage in their lives a man and woman 
 answer perfectly to each other's demands and sym- 
 pathies. They are truly in love then, although one or 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 167 
 
 the other may soon develop faculties which destroy 
 that affinity. I think that onr relation, however, was 
 only a partial attraction. Yet it was nearer love than 
 anything either of us had ever known before." 
 
 " Or will ever know again," I nrged. She hesitated 
 a moment before replying. I began to hope ehe was 
 convinced and would consent to take me to her life 
 again. How beautiful she was, her complexion like a 
 flower, her red gold hair like a crown which was never 
 laid aside, her lips perfect food for kisses. But even 
 while she paused a different train of thought made its 
 rapid transit through my brain. Always prone to 
 analysis and comparison, I tried to compare my feel- 
 ings toward Kate now and as they were at our first 
 betrothal. I was able to discern that it was more re- 
 gret at what was gone than hope of renewing our past 
 relations, that was disturbing me. It was not that I 
 was so much affected now by her physical loveliness, as 
 that I was full of vivid recollection of how it had once 
 moved me. It was not that I was in love with her now, 
 but that I was in love with the vision of our past. But 
 she was speaking again. 
 
 " I do not like to have to remind you of your infatua- 
 tion for Mrs. Gillette." 
 
 " I did not love " 
 
 '•^ No, I do not believe that you had any love for her, 
 but I believe she had an overpowering physical attrac- 
 tion for you. If my physical attraction for you had 
 been complete there would have been no place for her. 
 I am sure you will find true love sometime. As for 
 me, I have found it." 
 
 " It is the man you were walking with ? " 
 
 "How did you know it?" she demanded, quickly. 
 *' I did not suppose any one guessed it." 
 
 I smiled grimly. " Why the very birds of the air 
 can see it," I answered, satirically, " can see, at least, 
 that you think yourself in love." 
 
 "think myself in love?" she smiled. '* Ah, but I 
 
168 An Ex])eriment in Marriage, 
 
 know it. Yon are about to remind me that I have been 
 mistaken before. But for that very reason I am less 
 h'able to error now. If I were a joung maiden listen- 
 ing to the tender nothings of a youth as untried as she, 
 as ignorant of liiraself, as undiscerning of others, you 
 migbt well say that I was liable to mistake for love what 
 were perhaps the flutterings of vanity, or was perhaps 
 the first feverish sense of physical response.' ' Then she 
 gave me a look of liaK apology as she continued : 
 '' You will forgive me for saying it, but it is by com- 
 parison with my feelings for you, who came so near to 
 being my true lover, that I am assured he has come at 
 last. Of course I cannot be as sure that he loves me 
 as I love him, and in Grape Yalley we do not trust 
 in those one-sided love affairs which are so much in 
 vogue in the outside world. If a man does not love a 
 woman as much as she loves him it is so much the worse 
 for both of them. It proves they are not meant for 
 each other. He cannot give or enjoy as he should, and 
 soon her love will fade. Yet I feel that such fulness 
 of feeling as I have can result only from a perfection 
 of harmony between us." 
 
 "I suppose your new lover is as brilliant as a two- 
 edged sword," I said, bitterly, '' as learned as an encyclo- 
 pedia, as handsome as a new Apollo." 
 
 A look of surprise crossed her face. " I should not 
 have expected such a tone from you, but I suppose the 
 feeling of the old world, that a woman is the perpetual 
 slave of the man whom she once loved, clings very 
 strongly. ]Nc, my lover is not an Apollo. I suppose 
 he would not be called nearly as handsome as you. But 
 in my eyes he is beautiful. He is not a scholar nor a 
 literary man. You could overwhelm him with knowl- 
 edge in a fifteen minutes' conversation. But he knows 
 quite enough to make his way to my heart. He is not 
 even as ready a talker as I. He is not quick with his 
 answers nor is he at all witty. But I am interested 
 in every word he drops. Everything he says arouses 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 169 
 
 in me some cmTent of thought and sentiment. I love 
 him, that is all, except that he loves me too." 
 
 The sweetness of this woman's disposition was 
 marvelons. I was conscious I had deserved no such 
 magnanimous treatment as I had received, but yet did 
 not'soften under it. It humiliated me beyond endur- 
 ance that a woman who had been mine could now con- 
 fess herself so wholly another's. As long as she had lived 
 unmarried, I could think of her as still missing me, 
 still longing for me, in spite of her dismissal of me. But 
 that my place not only should be taken by another, 
 but so much more than made good, was very bitter to 
 me. In a few days it w^ould be this interloper who 
 should sit where I sat now, and on his shoulder would 
 bo pillowed her head, which had once lain on mine. 
 For him would she whisper her tender emotions, from 
 him hear the same old words which the lovers of 
 unnumbered centuries have used, and their descendants 
 can find nothing to improve upon. I rose to my feet 
 and my head grew hot and dizzy. 
 
 " So he will kiss your lips as I have done," I cried. 
 " He will stroke your hair, and you will twine your soft 
 arms about his neck as you have done about mine, and 
 give kiss for kiss, caress for caress. Oh, it is 
 shameful." 
 
 Her face grew so white that I was frightened into 
 my senses. How vilely I was insulting her. 
 
 '^ Ob, forgive me," I stammered. *' I did not know 
 what I was saying." 
 
 She had risen to her feet too, and as I murmured 
 my broken excuses, a little of the lost color returned 
 to her cheeks. Her hps moved for a reply, but she 
 she stood with downcast eyes. 
 
 " Yes, I am ashamed," she said, in low even tones. 
 " You make me ashamed that I w^as ever so much to 
 you, who have the heart to taunt me with giving the 
 best a woman has to the man she thinks worthy. But 
 you must remember that then J believed we were true 
 22 
 
170 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 lovers. I believed jou were the desire and satisfaction 
 of mj life. It is for that reason I had not thought it 
 a shame to give the best I had. It made me no poorer. 
 It ought to have made you happier and purer. But 
 that I am ashamed to have given my kisses and 
 embraces to one who remembers them only to despise 
 me, does not make me ashamed to offer them where 
 they will be a real sacrament." 
 
 " I did not know what I was saying," I repeated, in 
 my confusion. ''I know you are the purest woman 
 in the world." 
 
 Slie raised her eyes at last and gave me a sad smile. 
 " If anything was lacking to break the last tie be- 
 tween us, you have supphed it. Yes, I forgive you. 
 Good-bye." I took my hat and went out without 
 once looking back. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 As I walked np the street I met Ward and Gil- 
 lette. The latter tried to avoid meetiniy my eye. With 
 a delicacy peculiarly his own, he wished to avoid seeing 
 sio^ns of emotion which I might not care to betray. 
 Ward, on the other hand, was intent on his lesson in 
 vivisection, and scrutinized my tell-tale face very 
 narrowly. 
 
 ^ ' I see you have convinced yourself that Kate is in 
 love again." 
 
 ** Yes, I have," I answered defiantly. " And she 
 loves this time far more deeply than she ever loved 
 me. I can see that too." 
 
 Gillette took my arm and said in that very winning 
 way of his : 
 
 '' Come, my boy, there is an hour yet before dinner. 
 Let us talk it over." 
 
 Ward stalked along on the other side and only gave 
 me a few seconds' respite. 
 
 " I hope this will be a lesson to you, Yinton, to keep 
 out of further entanglements." 
 
 " For my part," said Gillette, " I hope he will learn 
 quite a different lesson — a lesson of gratitude, that 
 when he makes a mistake he is in a place where it can 
 be rectified without ruining two lives directly, and 
 causing, God knows, how much outside mischief." 
 
 "But how can you expect a man of sensibility to 
 tolerate it," urged Ward, " when his wife informs 
 him that she loves him no more, and is going to marry 
 some other man ? Of course never having been in 
 love myself, I am not able.to go into details as either 
 
172 A?i Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 of you could do. But it would seem to be like snap- 
 ping heart bands and breaking tender associations 
 enough to make a whole life miserable. ' 
 
 " So it would be," answered Gillette, leaving me, 
 very considerately, a silent listener, " so it would be in 
 the old world. But our whole idea of the relation of 
 the sexes is different, and our institutions, manners and 
 customs permit our idea to be carried out without 
 these heartrending effects you mention. There are no 
 children in the home here, to make a division of 
 parents also a division of children. The affectionate 
 parents can always be assured that their children have 
 the best of care, and that they can be with the little 
 ones as much as desired under any circumstances. Then 
 the Grape Yalley wife is not a dependent on her hus- 
 band for support, nor he on her for the comforts and 
 conveniences of a home. They are not shut up to 
 each other during their marriage, nor shut out from 
 the conditions essential to comfort after divorce. Under 
 our system a husband and wife are simply companions, 
 whose continued intimacy depends on their love for 
 each other. "When that love ceases or is discovered to 
 be imperfect, there is nothing to keep them together.'' 
 
 " Why, look at it a minute, Gillette. What kind of 
 a thing is this marriage of yours? It is not deserving 
 the name. I don't see any reason why a man might 
 not marry a different v\'oman every year, or more often 
 still if he chose.'' 
 
 "AVhat we seek," explained Gillette, "is the perfect 
 freedom in the marriage relation, which in the old 
 order of society is impossible. The absolute depend- 
 ence of the woman on the man for support, the ab- 
 solute dependence of the children on their father for 
 means of support, and on their mother for care, made 
 it necessary that marriage ties there should be as near 
 indissoluble as possible. A husband and wife might 
 hate and despise each other; they must ii.till be united. 
 The very existence of^j^our whole organization of 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 173 
 
 society depends upon it. Thousands of years of sucli 
 customs bred a secondary moralit}^, a system of artifi- 
 cial virtues. Hence has come the sentimentality that 
 a woman is sullied by experience of passion, that ig- 
 norance is virtue, that inexperience is innocence, tLit 
 simplicity is honor. The superstition went so far that 
 it was as if the very kisses of a man's lips left physical 
 stains upon the woman lie did not marry. If a girl, 
 yielding to the force of what seemed to her a sacred 
 passion, granted a lover her greatest favor, she was re- 
 garded as physically impure, as having irretrievably lost 
 her honor, henceforth only to be pointed at as an ob- 
 ject of scorn." 
 
 " And how would you regard such a woman in 
 Grape Yalley?" demanded Ward. 
 
 " Why, my dear friend," answered Gillette, " three- 
 quarters of our women have been married to different 
 men for short periods, and divorced for no cause except 
 that they believe they could love some other men 
 more, or that then' husbands have been attracted else- 
 where. ^ They would be regarded as women lost to 
 shame in your old society. Here we have only respect 
 for their devotion to love itself, which we regard as a 
 great influence for good in liuman hfe, if given its full 
 course. We do not believe it defiles a woman's hps to 
 have given the kiss of love to more than one man. We 
 believe she is better fitted from her experience to make 
 the man who is her final choice perfectly happy." 
 
 " And if she does not find her perfect mate ?'" asked 
 A7ard 
 
 " Then she takes to each successive lover some new 
 mental acconjplishment, some richer spiritual experi- 
 ence. For that niatter there are many of us, of both 
 sexes, who are not fortunate enough to find a perfect 
 marriage. Probably this failure is owing to the limited 
 numbers in the colony. We do not meet the person 
 of the opposite sex fitted to make us happy. To such 
 of us is denied the great joy and culmination of life. 
 
174 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 But still, under our system, the experiences of even 
 those perpetuallv mismated are varied, and their pro- 
 gress in education rapid. This 3'ear one of us marries 
 for pure sensualism ; it is at a period which comes in 
 most lives, when the physical seems of disproportionate 
 account. Perhaps one short experience is enough to 
 teach him that there must be a higher sensibility than 
 that of the flesh. His first marriage being to a woman 
 of coarse, animal traits, and thus bringing speedy dis- 
 content, he, perhaps, marries next a more refined epicu- 
 rean. These two experiences passed, the man is likely 
 to marry, the third time, a highly rarified s])iritual na- 
 tare. As long as his curiosity is piqued and his inter- 
 est unappeased, she holds him, but if she cannot attract 
 his whole nature, one of them soon wearies of the other, 
 and he is free to try Again. Now, perhaps, he is at- 
 tracted by the romantic woman, and this marriage only 
 endures until he has learned also somewhat to under- 
 stand her nature. The ed a cation of our example has 
 been nobly carried on, and different faculties and tastes 
 have been pleased and stimulated by these different 
 women. To each one he has carried capacities to im- 
 prove, which he would not have had without his pre- 
 vious experiences. As he leaves each one he has 
 achieved some new advance for himself." 
 
 " But you do not tell me whether you have no sexual 
 frailty here ? " insisted Ward. 
 
 " Yes, there have been cases of men who did not wait 
 for divorce or marriage to pursue their experiences. 
 But such irregularities have so little occasion or excuse 
 here that they are growing to be of rare occurrence. 
 In your society they come when wives love other men 
 than their husbands, husbands other women than their 
 wives, a very common condition. They occur also 
 among those shut out by poverty from the privileges 
 of marriage. Yery frequently, too, they occur when 
 women are forced by want to barter for bread what 
 should be given only for love. But here marriage 
 
An Exjperiment in Marriage. 175 
 
 exists no longer than both parties desire. Here there 
 is no poverty to hinder marriage, and marriage does 
 not increase the responsibiUties or burdens of either 
 husband or wife. Here there is no want to drive suf- 
 fering womanhood to shame and humihation. Yon 
 might expect danger in the perfect freedom of tlie 
 social intercourse of the sexes, married and unmarried, 
 and in the removal of all the restraints to intimacy, to 
 which men and women have been subjected for so 
 many thousand years. Bnit women have with their in- 
 dependence gained a new dignity. They do not regard 
 it as a coQi])liment that a man should profess to be in 
 love with them unless he offers marriage, since mar- 
 riage is free of burden here, and divorce so easy. Men 
 become asliamed to propose an illicit relation to a 
 woman when the public and reputable one is so open 
 to them. Still there are some cases where women give 
 favors to men whom they would not want to marry, 
 some instances when men seek and obtain privileges 
 from women v/hom they would object to marrying. 
 Divorces usually follow exposure in such cases. But 
 no disgrace or dishonor is visited on either of the in- 
 discreet parties, much less are they punished. They 
 are regarded simply as not having been wise, as not 
 having shown a proper appreciation of what the rela- 
 tion of the sexes should be. The woman, too, is as 
 likely to have another lover and one who will desire 
 marriage as is the man." 
 
 ''- But you are letting down the gates to vice," ex- 
 claimed Ward, sternly. 
 
 We had reached the phalanstery door, and I stood 
 waiting to hear Gillette's reply before going to my room 
 and preparing for dinner. 
 
 " You should rather say that we are removing the 
 motive for vice," said Gillette. " The sexual instinct 
 is one of the most destructive forces in your society. 
 We are making it not only the means to an ideally happy 
 state, but the most elevating and educating influence 
 
170 A7i ]ix2)eriment in Marriage. 
 
 ever known. Every man must acknowledge how pure, 
 how strong for right, how wholly unselfish he feels 
 when in love. We are utilizing that force to uplift 
 society and clarify and glorify the character of the in- 
 dividual. Your society has treated men and women 
 as if they were beasts whose appetites must be legis- 
 lated against, and whose passions must be provided 
 against, or society would fall to pieces. We have for- 
 mulated our society on the basis of immunitj^ from 
 physical want and from social restraints. The brute, 
 when restraint is removed, satisfies his animal instinct 
 as he has the opportunity. Man, with his triple nature, 
 seeks a three-fold satisfaction. Mind and spirit have 
 sex as well as has the body, so if under proper con- 
 ditions we only free man from checks and restraints, 
 he will seek the fittest object for love. He may not 
 find it at first, but he will be actuated by the worthiest 
 desire to perfect his nature, and he may be trusted." 
 
 " But " began the indomitable Ward. 
 
 I, however, tarried to hear no more, but drawing 
 my arms from those of my friends, hastened to my 
 rooms and prepared for dinner. I was surprised to 
 find I did not continue miserable over Kate's new be- 
 trothal. A slight sense of humiliation at the ease with 
 which she seemed to have transferred her affections 
 still rankled in me, but I was able now to regard her 
 and her future doings with considerable tranquillity. 
 Perhaps Gillette's talk, while not addressed to me, had 
 in some degree softened my prejudices. Possibly it was 
 only that he had kindly distracted my attention from 
 my bereavement, and, meanwhile, my unreasonable 
 fever of jealousy had had time to cool. I remembered 
 now the appointment with Miss Barden which I had 
 completely forgotten, and while I selected a particu- 
 larly becoming necktie, I racked my brain for some ex- 
 cuse beside the true one for my failure to call upon her. 
 
 I was early in the reception-room, and getting the 
 ear of the chamberlain, suggested that he assign me as 
 
An J^xperimeni in Marriage. 177 
 
 Miss Barden's escort to dinner. This arrangement 
 having been consummated to mj satisfaction, and the 
 dining-i'oom doors being just then thrown open, we 
 walked along without exchanging other than the 
 merest commonplaces. As w^e passed through the 
 doors, however, Miss Barden glanced behind us, and 
 then murmured to me in an undertone : 
 
 " I see your old sweetheart and her new lover behind 
 us. How can you endure it ? " 
 
 I was very well satisfied with my behavior at this 
 moment, since I did not even change color, but re- 
 sponded with ready gallantry: 
 
 " Miss Barden reconciles nie to it." 
 
 Before she could speak again we were at our places 
 at table. But once seated she turned her bright face 
 toward me : 
 
 '' Now, you musn't spoil all my fun by falling in 
 love with me." 
 
 " And why not ? " I demanded, not at all displeased 
 at the obvious admission that she entertained the pos- 
 sibility. 
 
 " I told you that love and I were strangers," she 
 replied, with a smile. 
 
 ''Let me make you acquainted, then," I answered, 
 quickly. At this the lady laughed outright. 
 
 " I acknowledge I like you," she said, " but I want 
 to give you warning in advance that I do not believe I 
 shall ever love any one. An intellectual union would 
 be perfectly to my taste ; but these kisses and em- 
 braces, ball ! " And she shrugged her shoulders. " I 
 don't see how any one can be so gross." 
 
 "But how glorious a thing it is to learn something 
 new," I suggested, as we began our dinner. 
 
 " If you ever urge me to marry you I know I shall 
 hate you," she insisted, with a frankness which had a 
 very piquant effect. "It would simply distress and 
 exasperate me to be asked to do anything more than 
 talk with you." 
 33 
 
178 A7i Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 When the dinner was cleared away the toast-master 
 rose from his chair and looking hard in our direction, 
 said : 
 
 " 1 have warned a certain lady who graces our table 
 that I should call upon her to-night to defend her posi- 
 tion. She has been among us four years, but none of 
 our best favored men has yet found favor in her eyes. 
 She lives in an atmosphere of love and marriage, but 
 will have neither — Miss Barden." 
 
 My companion rose after only a moment's hesitation, 
 and her clear voice thrilled me with a new power. 
 
 " I presume our brilliant toast-master expected me 
 to reply with light repartee and pungent epigram. 
 Bat 1 shall disappoint him by taking his question 
 seriously, and answering him logically. However 
 callous I may have seemed to the urgency of ardent 
 lovers, I have never yet been accused of avoiding the 
 society of men. I prefer, infinitely prefer, to talk with 
 a man above all the women in Christendom. I listen to 
 his ideas with eagerness and feel mine stimulated. 
 Every word he utters suggests new lines of thought to 
 me. I am intensely happy as I reply to him. I am 
 thrilled witli a peculiar delight as I notice his quick re- 
 sponse, his full appreciation. I do not feel this stimulus 
 in talking with women. I do not experience this eug- 
 gestiveness from woman's conversation. [Neither am I 
 conscious of pleasing them as I have been vain enough 
 to imagine I have pleased men in what 1 say. But do 
 not speak of marriage to me. I am, Mr. Toast-master, 
 an intellectual free lover. The sex in mind and spirit 
 I recognize and enjoy to its full. Do not ask me to do 
 more." 
 
 As Miss Barden sat down, I bent toward her and 
 whispered under my breath : 
 
 " You will sometime know what the other love 
 means." 
 
 She gave me an almost insulted look. It was as if 
 her Diana-like instinct svas aroused and put upon the 
 defensive. 
 
All Experiment in Marriage. 179 
 
 "I defy yon to teacli me," she answered. The toast- 
 master rose agaio, as I whispered to her in sudden new 
 excitement : 
 
 " I accept yom- challenge." And as her ear caught 
 my words I saw a delicate flush as of frightened maiden- 
 hood rise from her neck and diffuse itself over her 
 cheeks and brow. But her face was resolutely turned 
 toward the toast-master, who was just speaking again. 
 
 "A year since two students of social phenomena, as 
 we were informed they were, came here. One of them 
 has so far accepted our institutions as to give us to be- 
 lieve he approves of thetn. The other makes no secret 
 of his criticism. It may be instructive, and it will 
 certainly be pleasant for us to hear from both of these 
 gentlemen before we return to the hall for our evening 
 of dancing. We can take the bitter with the sweet. 
 Let us begin with tlie bitter. Mr. Ward will you tell 
 us what you think of us ? " 
 
 I was very glad it was Ward who was called upon 
 first, as this gave me some opportunity to get my own 
 thoughts in order. I was anxious to make a favorable 
 impression on Miss Barden, whose cool, piercing in- 
 tellect almost terrified me. I have usually been pos- 
 sessed of a more than ordinary degree of self-confi- 
 dence, but I dreaded this girl's judgment as a patient 
 must dread the surgeon's knife. I saw Ward rise and 
 heard him begin by saying: 
 
 "To criticise those whom I esteem so highly, and 
 who have treated me so kindly is a most uno^racious 
 task." 
 
 Then I forgot all about Ward in a feverish attempt 
 to arrange in some sort of order what I had to say. 
 
 " Your friend Is a very pleasant speaker " said Miss 
 Barden, giving me a quick glance which disturbed my 
 train of thought and decided me to abandon all anxiety 
 as to what I should say, and depend on my usual guide, 
 temporary inspiration. Apparently my friend had 
 overcome his verv commendable disinclination to criti- 
 
180 Aji Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 cise. Probably be bad explained it away in bis usual 
 courtly fasbion, for certainly wben I next began to lis- 
 ten to bim be was handling Grape Yalley institutions 
 in anytbing but a gentle manner. 
 
 " You are destroying tbose feminine qualities wbicb 
 bave been most admired. Tbe woman of Grape Val- 
 ley cannot long remain timid, shrinking, ingennons. 
 Sbe mnst lose tbe quality of self-effacement for tbe 
 sake of ber dear ones. Sbe must become self-assertive, 
 forward; shall I say immodest ? In our old world, wbicb 
 yon so despise, tbe maiden is sby, innocent, unsuspect- 
 ing tbe wickedness of tbe world. Tbe wife feels 
 that ber bopes, ber dreams, ber possibilities, are 
 limited to ber own home. Sbe tbinks, struggles and 
 suffers only for ber bnsband, and thus shows tbe 
 full glory of womanbood. Under your system tbe 
 distinctive feminine qualities will soon disappear. 
 Our system intensities and perpetuates tbem. As I 
 close let me say that your industrial system I wbolly 
 approve. By it 3^ou insure to eacb individual satisfac- 
 tion of bis necessities and a certain modicum of ])leas- 
 Tire. Men fight no longer for tbe privilege of domg a 
 piece of work, but are all working together peacefully 
 to perform it for tbe common benefit. If you bad 
 but preserved wbat seems to me tbe natural relations 
 of the sexes, making marriage a permanent bond, and 
 restoring tbe home, I sbould only bave words of ap- 
 proval and good speed for you." 
 
 Tben AVard sat down amid general applause and tbe 
 toast-master rose again, and in well-modulated phrase 
 called upon me. All my diffidence bad vanisbed. 
 Ward bad sbown himself my friend on many occa- 
 sions, but never more tban in his speecb this evening. 
 He had supplied me a text for all I cared to say. After 
 paying tbe customary compliment to tbe toast-master, 
 I spol^ as follows : 
 
 " The gentleman who bas just addressed you bas 
 been my particular friend for many years, yet we have 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 181 
 
 never agreed except on very insigniiicant qnestioiis. 
 Every subject ever mooted between men has been dis- 
 cussed bv us. We differed when we began, we differed 
 at every stage of the discussion, we seemed to differ 
 when we finished. Still, I have often been convinced 
 that my friend's logic had been mortally wounded, al- 
 though he would not lower his sword. I was the 
 more sure of this because I know how often I have 
 hurled back defiance at him when I fe]t that I was en- 
 tirely overcome. Once more we differ, and once more 
 we oppose each other, but I shall not despair of con- 
 verting my friend to what I have learned to regard as 
 the truth. He will hold out to the last, but I have no 
 doubt I shall yet carry his scalp at my belt." 
 
 Just here a little stir ran over the company, and a 
 rustle, that sweetest sound to the ear of the public 
 speaker. I had made a point, and m a second more I 
 heard two hands applauding me at my side. Then a 
 wave of applause swept around the table. The com- 
 pany was wholly in sympathy with me, and was eager 
 to see me demoHsh my friend. 
 
 *'I am the more encouraged to expect his confession 
 because without assistance from me he has reached the 
 point that he wholly approves the industrial system of 
 Grape Yalley. He approves the system which makes 
 all adults equal sharers in the product of their joint 
 labor. He admits that he approves of a system which 
 makes women as materially independent as men. ^^ow, 
 it is this very system which permits and calls for new 
 institutions of marriage. Women may naturally de- 
 cline to be subject to men unless the men have a 
 material basis for the authority they wish to exert. For 
 countless years women have been dependent for their 
 fate on attracting some man's favor, and thus securing 
 a marriage which would relieve fathers or more remote 
 relatives of the burden of their support, or in lack of 
 relatives, would alone secure them against positive 
 want. So, after marriage, cnme the necessity of cling- 
 
182 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 ing to that "husband through good and ill report, of en- 
 during everything at his hands, even although he 
 might be raoralljM-epulsive or physically disgusting. If 
 slie parted from him there came the blasting of the 
 lives of children, the loss of home and comforts, the 
 deprivation of the very food her jDoor body required, 
 and the raiment to protect her from the cold. The 
 whole legal and moral force of society was accordingly 
 exerted to make perpetual the marriage tie, to protect 
 the home as it was called. Poets, noveh'sts, preachers 
 innumerable, have built up a mighty wall of tradition 
 about this marriage. All other considerations are as 
 nothing in the eye of the moral' teacher of civilization 
 compared to the maintenance of the inviolabilitj^ of 
 the marriage bond. That most marriages take place 
 on insufficient acquaintance, and the young and ardent 
 are far more hkely to make a mistake than a judicious 
 choice, is of no account; that accident and not suit- 
 ability are the causes of most marriages, and hence 
 that love wanes with the honeymoon, and the marriage 
 relation becomes, very commonly, a union for con- 
 venience, a mere friendly companionshij), or a daily 
 scourge. Marriage was the ver}^ foundation of the old 
 order, and must be preserved as nominally perpetual 
 long after every good or true element in the relation 
 might have disappeared. At last we are shown 
 a system of society where marriage can be re- 
 garded as a means for the intimacy of the sexes, as a 
 relation which can double each soul's life and joy. 
 Friendship does not enable us to overleap the bars 
 which seclude the individual life. It is only through 
 sex that perfect sympathy becomes possible, only 
 through sex that one being can enter into the life and 
 share the experiences and profit by the knowlege of 
 another. But the forced intimacy of the sexes where 
 the fullest form of love does not exist is the real offense 
 against honor and chastity. The Grape Yalley insti- 
 tutions make it possible for a man and woman to meet 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 183 
 
 and know each other without fear or favor, without 
 diffidence on her side for she has no cause to be ashamed, 
 without patronage on his side, for he has no more to be- 
 stow than she. She is no longer a timid creature first 
 to be captured like a shy bird and then held forever in 
 the toils. Her sex is rehabilitated. Its place in pro- 
 gress and civilization, as a power for the spiritual de- 
 velopment and intellectual culture of the world, is as- 
 sured. The time has forever passed when shyness 
 and shamefacedness must be considered her crowning 
 attributes. Her longings for a union capable of per- 
 fecting her nature need no longer be concealed.'' 
 
 Then I took my seat and was rewarded with more ap- 
 plause than I merited. My friend Ward joined as 
 heartily as the others in the tribute to me, as was al- 
 ways his magnanimous fashion, but I could see no 
 signs in his face of the yielding which I had prophe- 
 sied. 
 
 " You spoke beautifully," said Miss Barden, turning 
 her steel-blue eyes upon me. Then I remembered 
 again that she sat by me, and my interest in her re- 
 vived as she added : '' It was just as I would have 
 spoken if I could." 
 
 Then I called to mind her challenge and my accept- 
 ance. What worthier woman indeed would I be likely 
 to Und iu the world than she ? 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Miss Barden of course accepted my invitation to 
 waltz. With my arm about her waist, and her hand 
 in mine, I tried to hope that she was beginning to feel 
 as a woman does when her nature awakes and recog- 
 nizes all compelling love. She danced gracefully 
 enough, but when we had once made the tour of the 
 hall, she said : 
 
 " This is tiresome. Why waste time in athletics, 
 when we can please each other so much better by 
 talking." 
 
 Without a word of remonstrance I offered her my 
 arm, and we left the floor. She drew me to one side 
 where a winding staircase led to the balcony overlook- 
 ing the hall. 
 
 " Come up here," she said. " We can see everybody, 
 and I will tell you about some of the people. I am not 
 ripe for love myself, but I can analyze the love affairs 
 of others so as to interest you. Try me." 
 
 I did not care to confess my disappointment at the 
 preponderating activity of the intellectual side of my 
 companion, but in fact I was almost discouraged with 
 her, and so nearly out of temper that I was disinclined 
 to talk. I was more than willing that she should take 
 upon herself the chief burden of the conversation. 
 Perhaps she would reveal some weak point in the armor 
 which now appeared invulnerable. 
 
 " Do 3'ou notice the young man with black mous- 
 tache and imperial? Pie stands in the further corner 
 near the musicians' platform," she began. 
 
 " He is talking very earnestly to the girl in black 
 
An Exiyerhnent in Marriage* 185 
 
 /ace," I assented. " What a dazzling white complexion 
 she has." 
 
 " Yes. Now I think I can make a shrewd guess as 
 to what the young man is saying at this moment. Do 
 you see how eagerly he bends over her % He has drawn 
 her a little apart from possible listeners, you see." 
 
 " A love affair, I suppose." 
 
 '' A one-sided one. He is now saying something like 
 this: * Listen to me, Annie, I want you to leave Mr. 
 Bissell. He cannot love you as I do. He is too old 
 for you, too conservative. You married him before 
 you knew me. You admired him, I suppose, but that 
 isn't love.' So much for what he is saying. Now she 
 is answering him." 
 
 I laughed. " She seems to have a reply ready. She 
 must have known what he was going to say. Are 
 you wizzard enough to guess that too ?"" 
 
 She smiled gaily. " This is what she is saying : * It 
 is of no use, Mr. lloliins, for you to tell me thTs. It 
 isn't true that Mr. Bissell is merely kind and good to 
 me. I am sure I love him, though I am not dehrions 
 over him as you would probably insist I should be over 
 3'ou. I aui not of the extreme demonstrative sort. 
 You are mistaken in thinking you want me, that I 
 could make you or that you could make me happy. 
 Now let us finish the waltz.' See how disappointed he 
 looks as he offers her his arm, but I think she is right 
 and has married the man best suited to her." 
 
 ^' This is very instructive,"! said. '' Can't you give 
 me some more of these modern ' imaginary conversa- 
 tions?'" 
 
 Miss Barden gave me a sharp glance. * ' Please under- 
 stand that I know the relations of these people, and 
 although they may not use just the words I quote, yet 
 the sentiment is exact. Do you believe me or not ? I 
 do not prophecy for sceptics." 
 
 " I believe," I assented with an attempt at an humble 
 expression 
 
186 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 "Do you observe the unamiable countenance of the 
 young woman sitting on the rear row just opposite 
 us ? She is next to a middle-aged gentleman, but tliej 
 are not in conversation. She has been married twice 
 since she came here, but both marriages wei'e of very 
 short duration. I doubt if she will have another oppor- 
 tunity. That very man who sits next to her has hud a 
 similar experience in matrimony. She is ill-tempered 
 and narrow-minded. He is stupid and greedy. Under 
 the marriage institutions of civilization each of them 
 would have been able to make some body miserable for 
 life, and, worse still, would have transmitted to future 
 generations the bad qualities which here will die with 
 them." 
 
 " You give sexual selection a fair field here, to be 
 sure," I assented, more seriously. 
 
 "Yes. That great force for human progress and for 
 the development of the species works with us in two 
 ways. The constant necessity is upon every husband 
 and wife here to keep on good behavior and make 
 the best of natural graces or talents in order to hold 
 each other^s affection, or, losing them, to win the love 
 of another. Thus the race is improved and a good 
 heritage of character and attainment for the children 
 is assured. The freedom of divorce here also enlarges 
 the scope of sexual selection since it shuts out from the 
 lists of fathers and mothers the ill-favored of both 
 sexes, whose defects of body, mind or character are 
 thus confined to their own generation." 
 
 *' You are very interesting," I said, after waiting a 
 few moments for her to continue. Her keen eyes 
 flashed hither and thither in search of more material 
 for sketches. 
 
 " Do you see your friend, Mr. Ward ? " she asked 
 suddenly, as she leaned over the edge of the balcony. 
 ^' He stands by the pillar at the other side of the room 
 He is just inviting a woman in black to dance with 
 him. See ! She accepts. I have noticed your friend 
 
An Exjperiment in Marriage, 187 
 
 devoting himself to her quite frequently of late. You 
 do not suppose his heart is at all touched, do you ? JSlie 
 is Lydia Trenk, the wife of one of our board of direct- 
 ors, one of those phlegmatic blondes, cold, slow aiul 
 stupid I should say. But see how her eyes brigliten as 
 Mr. Ward talks to her. Pie must talk well. Do you 
 notice a new sprightliness in her face and figure ? Per- 
 haps he is the one man in Grape Yalley who can stir 
 her nature. His face changes, too. It has lost its 
 mask of impassiveness. A new color comes into it. 
 The very movements of his liands show a new vivacity. 
 Do you know I almost suspect that your friend is in 
 love in spite of himself, and with another man's wife." 
 
 "It is impossible," I exclaimed, while following 
 with ray eye every detail she had called to my atten- 
 tion. '• Ward hates the very thought of your peculiar 
 institution." 
 
 " Oh," she answered, "I do not claim to be infalli- 
 ble. Your eyes are as good as mine, and you know 
 the character and peculiarities of your friend far better 
 ^han I. But see, Mrs. Trenk accepts his invitation. 
 How proudly he bears her away. He is happy to pos- 
 sess her even for so short a time as a dance. Now he 
 puts his arm around her, so tenderly. x\ll he worships 
 on the earth is within that woman's form. I am sure 
 of it now\" 
 
 " But," I said, " my friend "Ward has never cared 
 for women. He has regarded them as petty in their 
 thoughts and narrow in their souls. I have known 
 him intimately for many years, and I have never 
 heard him yet speak ardently of any woman." 
 
 "Because," answered Miss Barden, "he has not 
 seen woman under proper conditions. I almost wonder 
 that men of character and intellect even fall in love 
 under the old state of affairs. The physical attraction 
 of sex, however, exists under all conditions and cir- 
 cumstances. If all women were deaf-mutes it would 
 still exist. But what a poor apology for love is that. 
 
188 An Experiment m Marriage. 
 
 The whole brute creation is subject to that sort of at- 
 traction, but love is not the word to describe it," 
 
 "Men of intellect and character," I suggested, " are 
 famous for their marital infelicity. Perhaps Ward 
 has taken warning." 
 
 " Do you blame thera ? They differ from others 
 in that they know what they want. When, having 
 risked everything to secure it, they find they have it 
 not, and that they are forever shut out from the oppor- 
 tunity to seek for it elsewhere without disgrace, is it a 
 wonder they are out of temper? But, speaking of Mr. 
 Ward, I am not at all surprised that his first experi- 
 ence of woman in the free exercise of her faculties 
 and accomplishments, interests him. In your old 
 world young v/omen are forbidden by your laws of 
 propriety to be free and unrestrained in their de- 
 meanor toward men. They are expected to pretend 
 to be what they are not, or what, if they are, offers at- 
 traction to only the most mediocre o^ men. ■ To show 
 as little individuality as possible is one of their unwrit- 
 ten rules ; so, I suppose, they will be likely to offend 
 no possible suitor. They may not have but a single 
 opportunity to obtain that great end, the necessity of 
 their existence — marriage, and any striking character- 
 istic might not harmonize with that possil)le suitor's 
 taste. The}^ must not show any passion, either. They 
 must behave as if the whole idea of sex was an un- 
 known world to which the husband's expert hand 
 should lead them. All this is a part of the tradition 
 of centuries that marriage is the sole end for woman, 
 and that indissoluble, that she should have no thoughts 
 save for her future home, no feelings except for that 
 man whom, perhaps, nothing but chance association has 
 made her husband. In the old state of society the 
 fascinating young woman is that exceptional and shock- 
 inor creature who thinks her own thoughts, feels as she 
 likes and acts as slie feels. All the young women of 
 Grape Yalley are fascinating, except me." 
 
All Exjperimeixt in Marriage^ 189 
 
 She gave me an arch glance as she corrected herself, 
 which seemed like an invitation to me to say something 
 lover-like. But, jndghig it best not to make any digres- 
 sion at this moment, 1 affected not to have noticed her 
 little rnse, and objected seriously : 
 
 "You have explained why your young women are 
 irresistible here, but not why my friend Ward should 
 be fascinated by a married woman." 
 
 Her eyes flashed as I had so often observed them to 
 do wlieu a bright idea occurred to her. 
 
 "Except in the ultra-fnshionable or literary society 
 of the leading cities of the outside world, a woman 
 ceases to be of any account after marriage, except to 
 her husband and children. And even in the fashion- 
 able circles of society her limitations are comparatively 
 strict. She is hedged in from all directions. To be 
 sure, she enjoys something which might almost be 
 called liberty as compared with the condition of her 
 humbler sisters. Her education, her cultivation, her 
 progress do not entirely stop at marriage. The attract- 
 iveness of the married vv^oman in the old society, who 
 by virtue of outside employment profits by constant 
 attrition with man, and increases in the power to charm 
 by the use and cultivation of her charms, shows what 
 even a small degree of freedom in the relations of mar- 
 ried women with man will do for our sex.' Here we 
 have perfect freedom, not only of the intellect, but of 
 the feelings. Body and soul we are our own mistresses. 
 The result is that our women, charming as they are 
 before marriage, improve with every year, become 
 more interesting with every experience. Her whole 
 nature progresses together, and a man must have a 
 brain of wood and a body of stone who can be indif- 
 ferent to the married woman of Grape Yalley." 
 
 "You are very enthusiastic over the married wo- 
 man," I said. "1 should think j^ou would join her 
 ranks." 
 
 " So I would," she answered, lowering her voice, " if 
 
190 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 I could only have the good fortune to fall in love, or 
 even to imagine myself in love. If I understand my- 
 self aright there is a barrier of reserve about me wliich 
 curbs my spirit and limits my mtellectual advancement. 
 I know it, but nothing except the enthusiasm of love 
 can break down that barrier. Intimacy without love 
 would not do it." 
 
 " Are there many unmarried women in the hall to- 
 night ? " I asked. 
 
 Her bright eyes swept the room. " I think I am the 
 only one here. You will remember our young girls 
 are still at school. It is only at twenty-two that their 
 education is ended and they are introduced into the 
 full light and liberty of Grape Valley. Each one of 
 them is sure to have some admirer almost at once, and 
 a year from her debut it is hard to find one unmarried. 
 Tlie old maid is, I think, an improbability at Grape 
 Yalley, which is not the least of our advantages. That 
 victim of circumstance is, so far at least, unknown 
 here. Every woman is constantly thrown into such 
 free relations with the other sex that it is only a matter 
 of time when she must meet a man who thinks to find 
 w^hat liis nature wants in her." 
 
 Miss Barden's conversation kept my brain fairly 
 aglow with excitement. Every sentence she uttered 
 suggested new and tempting lines of thought. She did 
 not stir my blood nor quicken my pulses. I expe- 
 rienced none of those great weaves of longing I had 
 known with Kate. But was not this a better and 
 more perfect love? She w^as beautiful and gracefuL 
 There would certainly be nothing to desire in the w^ay 
 of physical attraction. We were alone in the balcony 
 so I could touch her hand without attracting notice. 
 She did not draw away and I clasped it in mine. It 
 lay cool and nerveless in my grasp, and she turned her 
 eyes, a little more wdde open than usual, upon my face. 
 
 ''I believe you mast be making love to me," she 
 said, with a little smile. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 191 
 
 " I would like the privilege," I eaid, in a voice as cool 
 as her own. " Will you be my wife ? " 
 
 "Why should I ?" slie asked, looking down in a half- 
 quizzical fashion at her hand as it lay in mine. " Hike 
 yoa as one man, I suppose, may like another. But 
 that is not love. And for that matter, if you love 
 me, then all signs fail." Then she drew her hand away. 
 " This is growing tiresome," she said. " I am sure I 
 can amuse you in better fashion. You see that tall, 
 thin gentleman standing just at the corner of the 
 stage ? " 
 
 " He seems to be w^atching the dancers very intently," 
 I suggested, trying to fall in with her humor. 
 
 " Say, not seems, he is. It is his wife he looks at. 
 You see the woman in brown, with the wavy black 
 hair, dancing with a portly gentleman in a wdiite waist- 
 coat? There they are now, just under the chandelier. 
 She smiles back at her hut^band. See the wonderful 
 light come into his face. If you could look at me like 
 that, just once, I might believe you loved me. Let 
 me tell you something about that man and w^oman. 
 They are both considerably past middle life. Both 
 have been married more than once before, and have 
 been the parents of children. Noav, for the first time, 
 they are happy. They are all in all to each other." 
 
 " What was their attraction for each other, do you 
 suppose?" I asked. 
 
 '^ It would take an unerring psychologist to say why 
 any man and woman should or should not love one an- 
 other," answered Miss Barden. " Certain qualities are 
 in themselves attractive — beauty and grace, sweetness 
 of temper ; and first marriages are contracted most 
 commonly in consequence of these qualities. Awdc- 
 w^ardness, inharmonious features, obstinate or sullen 
 tempers are in themselves repelling. Still, love stays 
 or goes without reference to outward attractions. The 
 plainest women often, most often it seems to me, are 
 the objects of the most passionate devotion. Men with 
 
192 An Exjyeriment in Marriage, 
 
 unattractive features are among the most irresistible 
 with onr sex. Perliaps it is a matter of magnetic cur- 
 rents. Perhaps it is a matter of spiritual insight, the 
 gvo])ing of the soul for that other nature which will 
 enable it to complete itself. Perhaps each nature is 
 dual, as in so many plants, male and female. Its 
 halves are separated, and ever reaching out for the 
 union which is their perfection, a union, spiritual, in- 
 tellectual and physical. This reaching out for comple- 
 tion is called desire. This perfect union, wdien at- 
 tained, is perfect love. The more or less perfect, and 
 more or less lasting unions, give us ^tastes of love. 
 Love, in perfection, comes only with the perfect 
 union." Then she rose. ''It is growing late," she 
 said, " I must bid you good night." 
 
 I rose, too, and we passed through the hall into the 
 corridoi'. '' Will you step out and enjoy the moonlight 
 for a moment r'*' I asked. And without a word she 
 rested her hand on my arm. 
 
 We had passed up the street for a few rods before I 
 spoke. By this time I was sufficiently excited to 
 assure myself that I was in love. I did not know, after 
 repeated failures, how to plirase my declaration so she 
 should listen to me. She liked me, she was interested 
 in me. But her physical nature had not as yet awoke 
 to the existence of mine. I paused and as she turned 
 toward me, I passed my arm about her waist and di-ew 
 her toward me. 
 
 " Are you going to ^valtz out here ? " she murmured 
 in some confusion. 
 
 "No," I said, and my voice trembled, "I am going 
 to kiss you." I bent my face toward hers until 1 felt 
 her breath come faster and warmer on my cheek. My 
 lips touched hers, as soft and sw^eet as the petals of 
 some rare rose. There was an instant of resistance, 
 then she returned my kiss, and gave a beautiful move- 
 ment toward me, while her eyes sank before mine. 
 
 It was surrender. 
 
A71 Experiment in Marriage, 193 
 
 " Is this love ? " she whispered at last, as she lifted 
 her eyes toward mine with a new expression in them. 
 
 How could I answer her, but witli another kiss? 
 
 " Then it is very beautiful," she said. '' I only hope 
 it is forever. I think I have only Jived since you 
 kissed me." 
 
 The next month we were married. 
 25 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 It was a very short honeymoon for Gertrude and me. 
 As I look back upon it now, I can see that I was at no 
 time more than a little in love with her. There was a 
 great deal in common between us. She was interested 
 in the same sort of subjects that interested me, and her 
 mind worked by much the same method as mine. We 
 agreed in our judgment of men and tilings as I have 
 never agreed with man or woman before or since. I 
 would, of course, have been a very unappreciative man 
 if the possession of such a beautiful woman was not 
 very pleasing to me ; and the imitation of love I offered 
 her I believe I could have kept up for an indefinite 
 period if she had continued as ardent and enthusiastic 
 as during the first few weeks of our married life. As 
 I think of it now I am inclined to believe that it was 
 her very fear lest her passion should not last that made 
 her at first so breathless in her devotion. She could 
 not bear to awake from her dream of love and find it a 
 delusion, and, so to speak, willfully drugged herself. 
 
 It was before our brief honeymoon was far advanced 
 that I discovered my friend Ward was avoiding me. 
 I determined to have an explanation with him at 
 once, and seeing him start, one afternoon, on what I 
 thought one of his long walks, I excused myself to my 
 wife and started in pursuit. I kept at such a distance 
 as to make his immediate discovery of me improbable, 
 as I did not want him to see me until well up the val- 
 le}^ When Ward was very obstinate it sometimes re- 
 quired considerable time to bring him to reason, and I 
 was anxious to overtake him where he could not get 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 195 
 
 awaj from me until I had said all I had to saj. I fol- 
 lowed him lip one street and down another in what I 
 was sure was not the direct course to either tlie moun- 
 tains or the country. Could it be he had discovered I 
 was following him and was bent on giving me a wild 
 goose chase ? When he finally turned up a short 
 street that had no opening at the other end I became 
 sure he was tricking me. So instead of plunging 
 blindly on I waited at some distance from the corner 
 for him to come back. 
 
 In vain I waited. Seconds had become minutes, 
 when it suddenly occurred to me tliat there might be 
 some path, unknown to me, leading from the other end 
 of what I had thought a blind street. If so, he had 
 escaped^ me, unless I made up in speed what I had 
 lacked in brains. So I walked rapidly up to the cor- 
 ner, and when, glancing up the street, I saw no one, I 
 exchanged my walk for a run. Suddenly the door in 
 one of the houses just beyond me opened, and a man 
 and woman came out. The woman was Mrs. Trenk, 
 and the man no other than Ward himself.' He had a 
 light wrap of hers over his arm, and she carried a sort 
 of alpinstock in her hand. It was apparent enough 
 they were just setting out for a mountain ramble. 
 AU that Gertrude had said about Ward and this 
 woman recurred to njy mind. There could be no 
 doubt of the correctness of my wife's conclusion. He 
 was in love, and expounder and upholder of old world 
 traditions that he was, in love with another man's 
 wife. 
 
 My position had now become a very embarrassing 
 one. Looking ahead I could see no outlet from the 
 street, and even if there had been one I could not have 
 escaped through it without passing Ward and his com- 
 panion, which would, of course, strike them as a very 
 suspicious performance. It only remained for me to 
 turn about and hurry back the way I had come, trust- 
 ing, through )Si^^ friend's absorption in his sweetheart, 
 
196 An Experimeni in Mamage, ' 
 
 to be unnoticed. I heard their steps behind me and 
 would have given a great deal if I could have known 
 their eyes were not fixed on my back, as I seemed to 
 feel they were. I think that length of sidewalk to the 
 corner was the most uncomfortable stretch I ever trav- 
 eled. Every instant I expected to hear Ward's voice 
 hailing me, and wlien it came at last I actually think it 
 gave me a certain sensation of relief. My suspense 
 was over at all events. 
 
 *' Is that you, Yinton ? " 
 
 Of course, all I could do was to stop, turn and af- 
 fect as much surprise as I could reconcile with my 
 dread of appearing ridiculous. 
 
 " Isn't this an unusual direction for your walk ? " he 
 asked, in a very satirical tone. '' Or were you looking 
 for something ? Mrs. Trenk, permit me to present 
 my friend and well-wisher, Mr. Yinton." 
 
 It was, of course, as I had feared. He beheved I 
 was prying into his love affairs. Between my surprise 
 at what I had discovered and my anxiety to have it 
 known that I had not come in search of that knowl- 
 edge, I was taken completely at a disadvantage. My 
 confusion seemed like confession, which of course 
 heightened my discomfort, and to cap the climax, the 
 lady began to blush furiously, which intensified Ward's 
 indignation. 
 
 "I will tell you this evening all which you appear 
 to want to know," he exclaimed, nearer hating me, I 
 could see, than ever before in his life. They passed me 
 without another word. 
 
 Of course I confided my miser}^ to my wife, but I 
 have doubted whether one ever gets consolation by con- 
 fiding his humiliating experiences to any one. He is 
 conscious of having humiliated himself once more, and 
 unnecessarily, and he is inclined to believe that his con- 
 fidant either pities or despises him. But Gertrude car- 
 ried it off very well. She laughed heartily at my pre- 
 dicament, thus relieving me of the more trying sus- 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 197 
 
 picion that she wanted to laugh at me, but restrained 
 her merrhnent out of regard for my feelings. Then 
 she told me that Mr. Ward had no cause for such sen- 
 sitiveness, except it was supplied by his own conscience. 
 A hundred people could and must have seen him take 
 Mrs. Trenk on the mountain walk, and there was noth- 
 ing startling in the affair according to Gra23e Yalley 
 ideas, either, except that he seemed to look on it as 
 such himself. She was inclined to think that my 
 fi'iend was on the eve of yielding his traditions, and 
 conforming to the customs of the colony. She told me 
 that she could hardly wait until evening to learn the 
 truth. 
 
 Although Ward entered the general hall after din- 
 ner, looking very stern, Gertrude urged me to go to 
 him at once. He received me very stiffly, and proposed 
 that I come to his room. Once there he even so far 
 forgot himself as to neglect to take or offer a cigar. 
 Ko sooner were we seated than he exclaimed ; 
 
 " I suppose you imagine I am going to break the 
 law of the land and the traditions of civilization, be- 
 cause you do it so easily. But you are as absolutely 
 wrong in what you imagine I am about to do, as in 
 what you are doing yourself." 
 
 ''What do you think I imagine about you?" I de- 
 manded. 
 
 ''You imagine that because I take pleasure in the 
 society of one woman in Grape Yalley that I am in 
 love with her. It is false," he fairly shouted. " I don't 
 know what the word love means."' 
 
 " Before we go any farther. Ward," I began, anxious 
 to show him I had not been spying upon him, " let me 
 assure you " 
 
 " I want you to hear me now," he said, almost fiercely, 
 "and I only wish all Grape Valley had one ear that 
 all could hear it at once. . I would sooner cut off my 
 right hand than fall in with the practices of these 
 people. Can't I talk to a woman without schemino-to 
 
198 A7i ExjpeTiment in Marriage. 
 
 win lier heart ? Can't a woman enjoy the conversation 
 of a man who has thought and studied and traveled, 
 without being anxious to leave her husband for 
 him \ " 
 
 " I don't know that any one suspects you of being 
 in love," I answered, mendaciously. But 1 was begin- 
 ning to become indignant at his manner and corrected 
 myself rather significantly, " or at least that anybody 
 would suspect you of being in love if you did not do 
 so much protesting." 
 
 He gave me an indignant look and then rose and 
 paced the floor without replying. I made use of the 
 opportunity to offer the true explanation of my pursuit 
 of him, and he said, more mildly : 
 
 *' Well, well, I did not think you meant anything 
 cowardly or underhanded, my boy. I only thought 
 you were trying to make sure of my being a fool so you 
 could try to advise me. Everybody advises a man in 
 love. 1 have, as you remember, attempted to advise 
 you. But I am "not in love. Don't you suppose I 
 know myself? Do you suppose I have lived to be 
 forty-eight and have met the most beautiful and fasci- 
 nating women of America without a heart pang, now to 
 fall a victim to the tender passion here ? Here of all 
 places I should most avoid it." 
 
 " She is a pretty woman," I remarked, rather incon- 
 sequently. 
 
 *' Pretty ? " he repeated, stopping in his walk just 
 opposite me. " That is a cheap word to apply to such 
 a woman as that. I am ashamed of you. Why the 
 woman has a face an artist would go wild over. That 
 divine calm, that serenity, that expression of assured 
 power. Pretty, indeed ! Did you ever see such eyes, 
 black, brown, almost bronze, by turns ? But her beauty 
 is the least of her charms. She seems to understand 
 what one means almost by intuition, all that one means, 
 not a tithe of it, as most of the sex do. And her 
 answers show how much more deeply she feels one's 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 199 
 
 thoughts than he can do himself. Any man might well 
 love her." 
 
 " Does her husband ? " I asked, significantly. 
 
 " Her husband ? Don't mention him," exclaimed 
 Ward, throwing himself into his chair. " How such a 
 woman came to mai-ry such a man is one of the mys- 
 teries. To liim she is, apparent]}^, nothing more than 
 other women. He sees her beauty; none but a blind 
 man could help doing so much; her gentle spirit, her 
 sweetness of disposition give him no cause of offense. 
 But her marvelous sympathies, her rare responsiveness, 
 he cannot appreciate." 
 
 "Perhaps," I suggested, "she does not have them 
 for hmi." 
 
 " Sometimes I think so," continued my friend, un- 
 conscious how his manner was giving the lie to his as- 
 sertion that he did not love Lydia Trenk. " It has 
 often occurred to me that it might be because I called 
 out these qualities that I see them; that they were not 
 there for others; that she herself, perhaps, did not once 
 suspect she had them." 
 
 " Tell me who she is and where she came from," I 
 said, " if you know. Did she marry this unappreciative 
 husband in Grape Yalley ? " 
 
 " No," answered Ward lover-like eagerly accepting 
 the opportunity^ to talk about her. " They were mar- 
 ried three years before the Grape Yalley experiment 
 was inaugurated. She was a poor girl working in this 
 Trenk' s shop, reduced to poverty by the loss of her 
 father. This man offered her marriage, and, although 
 she tells me she did not know what love meant, she ac- 
 cepted him. He gave her comfort where she suffered 
 hardship before, a home instead of the wretched tene- 
 ment in which she and her invalid mother had lived. 
 He enabled her to surround her mother again with 
 the elegancies of life, and make the few months which 
 the poor widow had to live, happy ones. Mr. Trenk 
 was very much interested in industrial reform, and an 
 
200 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 extreme radical in his ideas, so lie came with his wife 
 to Grape Valley. Here thej have lived ever since. 
 Although other men have sought to win her love she 
 has been faithful to her husband. She enjoys the free- 
 dom of social intercourse afforded here, and which, she 
 says, makes women far brighter, something beside 
 household drudges and nurses for children." 
 
 " Has she any children % " 
 
 " Yes, two. She spends most of her afternoons with 
 theni at the nursery. I think for that matter," con- 
 tinued Ward, " I never saw mothers more tender 
 toward their children, or more happy with them than 
 the women here. The little ones are no longer burdens 
 or cares. The mothers do not dread their advent, or 
 bewail their number." 
 
 Yerily my friend Ward's eyes were being opened. 
 
 '' But I was telling you," he continued, " how true 
 she has been to her husband, in spite of all tempta- 
 tions." 
 
 " Possibly she has had no temptations," I suggested; 
 ^•' a woman not in love is not like a man — uneasy until 
 she is." 
 
 ''I do not believe she would do a wrong thing under 
 any circumstances," said Ward, very decidedly. 
 
 " Then you think it would be wrong, do you, if she 
 fell in love with some other man ? If love is a matter 
 of mutual attraction and sympathy, she ought not to be 
 blamed if it befall her." 
 
 " Her offense would not be in loving another man, 
 but in yielding herself to the dictates of her passion ; 
 that I am sure she would not do," insisted Ward. 
 
 " Aren't you in error there?" I demanded. " Does 
 a wife remain faithful to her husband when she loves 
 another, instead of him ? Is it not the withdrawal of 
 the love which really breaks the marriage relation and 
 commits the unfaithfulness, instead of the withdrawal 
 of the wife's presence merely ? " 
 
 Ward was apparently preparing himself for a reply 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 201 
 
 wliicli should take to task the whole sexual relation of 
 the valley. But before giving him an opportunity to 
 reply, I said : 
 
 " By the way, why is it you have been avoiding nie 
 lately ? You and I have not been friends for ten years 
 to be separated by any trilie now. Have I trodden on 
 your toes without knowing it ? What have I said or 
 done ? " 
 
 I might have suspected that Ward could have but 
 one reason for his altered manner, and have known 
 that by asking for it I was inviting him to open fire 
 with all the arguments in his logical armory. 
 
 " I should not have presumed so far on our friend- 
 ship as to have volunteered what you now invite me 
 to say. I felt shocked by your remarrying. You were 
 not at fault because Kate deserted yon, but wdien you 
 married your second wife, you destroyed my confi- 
 dence in you — almost my respect for you. You are 
 breaking laws which have prevailed in society since the 
 dawn of history. I would not have expected such 
 recklessness of you." 
 
 I straightened myself in my chair, and prepared 
 for the battle. I w^as determined that my friend 
 should not believe that I had transgressed what he 
 called eternal laws through weakness. *' I am glad 
 you have spoken frankly," I said. *' I will speak just 
 as frankly. So far as the transgression of laws goes 
 you must not forget that I am acting in accordance 
 with the laws of the settlement where we live. This 
 is a State within a State, making its own laws touch- 
 ing all matters, without reference to the constitution 
 or statute book of any central authority whatever. 
 You may consider, if you please, this settlement as 
 in a state of rebellion against some central authority 
 claiming but not enfoi'cing jurisdiction over it. Grape 
 Yalley pays no taxes to other governments, votes for 
 no representatives or governors, and recognizes no 
 courts or codes except its own. This is an inde- 
 26 
 
202 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 pendent State, and laws passed by it are of as much 
 force upon the inhabitants of this State, as laws passed 
 by the law-making authorities of any other State else- 
 where. As other States have a right to regulate the 
 marriage and divorce laws for their people, so the con- 
 stitutional authorities here have the same right over the 
 people of Grape Yalley. In some States divorce is 
 granted only for adultery or cruelty, desertion, intoxi- 
 cation or failure to support. In others divorce isso 
 easy to obtain that it is little more than an unpleasant 
 process, merely leaving a stigma on those availing them- 
 selves of it. The State of Grape Valley being de facto 
 independent has the same right to. regulate marriage 
 and divorce for its people as the government of any 
 other States." 
 
 I could see my friend was somewhat surprised at my 
 line of defense. He had apparently expected nothing 
 of the sort. I resumed : 
 
 "If I regulate my life by the institutions and law^s 
 of the de facto independent State I abide in, what 
 more can be asked? You may still insist that if those 
 laws are inexpedient or wicked ones, thej^ provide no 
 excuse for the moral being. You ^vill claim that, as 
 it has often been a duty in the course of history to 
 disobey wicked laws, so laws, unless justified by our 
 own conscience and reason, do not justify us in wdiat 
 w^e may do. As to the religious aspect of this ques- 
 tion I will merely say that the eternal principle of 
 Christianity is universal brotherly love. So far as 
 specific social injunctions in the gospel go, they may 
 be regarded as intended for application to the state of 
 society existing when promulgated. Under the condi- 
 tions of society existing wlien the gospel was promul- 
 gated, and, indeed, under the conditions of society 
 existing in the outside world to-day, divorce is most 
 dangerous and destructive. Here we have done away 
 with those conditions, and through freedom of divorce 
 we are able to fulfill the essential doctrines of Christ 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 203 
 
 infinitely better than without it. If you still insist on 
 confining society to what is known as scriptural di- 
 vorce, I must send you to the law-making powers of 
 the so-called Christian States and nations, many of 
 which have a State church, but most of which have 
 laws on their statute books contrary to this very 
 scriptural limit to divorce. At the courts of those 
 Christian governments which nullify the injunctions 
 of the head of their church, you may serve as a 
 prophet to turn them from their heresy. But here we 
 have carried the Christian principle so infinitely be- 
 yond the example of the rest of society, that, as the 
 greater includes the less, so the spirit overrules the 
 Tetter." 
 
 Ward was prepared, as I paused to catch my breath, 
 with an objection on the general ground of morality 
 and reason. 
 
 " But you are violating the practice of civilized peo- 
 ple since the Christian era," he said. ''That practice 
 was not founded on laws nor religion alone, but on 
 the general sense of what was best and most expe- 
 dient. The laws permitting divorce have been onlj'- 
 to a very limited extent availed of, and the stigma of 
 shame and obloquy has rested in a great degree upon 
 those who have taken advantage of them." 
 
 "Most certainly," I continued. "But do you not 
 see you are supplying an argument for me instead of 
 presenting one against me ? If I appeared in the out- 
 side world as an advocate of free divorce you might 
 well cj^uote the unwritten law against me and my dan- 
 gerous doctrines. You might say that the feeling of 
 all virtuous people was sufficient proof that I was 
 wrong. I might, if on such a mission, well be regarded 
 as a social incendiary, as a corrupter of society, an enemy 
 of the family and of the home. But please remember 
 the feeling of the best people of a communit}^ against a 
 course of behavior is an argument against that course 
 only in that community. It is not among the old social 
 
204 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 institutions, wliich are so much like a pile of children's 
 blocks, that if jou removed one at the base all would 
 topple to the ground, that I would urge a system of 
 free divorce. I agree with you that the family is the 
 sub-stratum of the old social order, and that sub-stratum 
 is only protected by preserving marriage as practically 
 indissoluble. The violations of morality are innumer- 
 able, but better those than worse which would follow 
 the license of free divorce. Marriage is called a failure 
 because in so many families husband and wife are little 
 more than business partners at best, and love, which 
 liopeth all things, believeth all things, understandeth 
 all things, only a vague dream of the past, or a mad- 
 dening possibility with some other man or v/oman as 
 its object. But better that, than that society should 
 crumble and social anarchy set in ; better that than that 
 infinite suffering be brought on innocent children, that 
 women be kft without means of livelihood and men 
 without home influences or social restraints. The old 
 civilization is doing wisely in fighting for an indissolu- 
 ble marriage tie. If I were in its bounds now, no one 
 would fight harder for it than I. But here everything 
 is changed. The woman is equal to the man in her 
 capacity for self-support. Children are taken care of 
 by the State, full privilege to enjoy them being allowed 
 their parents. All the members of tliis society, married 
 or unmarried, have homes, comforts and entertainment. 
 So it is here for the first time in history that the mar- 
 riage relation may be regarded as temporary, if the 
 inclinations of the parties are temporary. For the first 
 time love is admitted to its full scope and power as a 
 cliief agent for happiness, for education, for progress. 
 For the first time women are relieved of the domestic 
 burdens and motherly cares which in the world at large 
 shut them in as w4th a black veil so soon after the white 
 veil of bridal. For the first time their education and 
 enjoyment of life in its broader scope, and their influence 
 upon society continue ^er marriage. For the first 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 205 
 
 time are men always kept under the stimulating in- 
 fluence of love. As is so seldom the case m the outside 
 world, children are bronght forth here under conditions 
 most conducive to intellect and elevation of soul ; off- 
 sprino- of an affectionate father, and of a mother m a 
 state ''of mental culture and activity, such as only the 
 favored mothers of all the centuries past have possessed. 
 All the conditions which exist in the old world are 
 chancred here. What would have been and what would 
 be mischievous, even fatal under those economicalcon- 
 ditions, becomes useful and progressive here. What 
 would have been wrong there becomes ^ght here. 
 
 I glanced at my watch. It was 10 : 30, the hour at 
 which the reception in the hall below closed. I rose, 
 bade my friend a hasty good-bye, and went down to 
 join Gertrude. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 After Gertrude and I had returned to our own home 
 that night, and she had laid off her hat, she seated her- 
 self by my side and turned her bright face toward me. 
 
 "Now tell me all about it," she said, as she took my 
 hand in both of hers and leaned toward me. 
 
 My mental attitude toward her was all admiration. 
 Her delicate features illumined with splendid life, her 
 lithe but well-proportioned figure pleased my eye as 
 nothing I had ever seen before. That I should have 
 won her love, that 1 should be the object of her new 
 born passion, was very delightful to me. Every faculty 
 in me responded to the flattery, and there are few 
 emotions more agreeable than those engendered by 
 flattery. I was not filled with a worship for her, I was 
 not agonized with that longing to be nearer to her, to 
 bathe my soul in hers, which is at once the pain, the 
 proof and the purpose of love. 1 could coolly observe 
 her varied beauties, her intellectual graces, her spirit- 
 ual charms, and say they were good. I could study 
 each symptom of her novel experience of love, and 
 analyze each manifestation of the rising and subsiding 
 movement of her emotions, as no rapt lover could do. 
 
 Her hands that clasped mine and fondled them 
 caressingly were as soft as silk, as pliant, as full of 
 vitality as if they had a life and soul of their own. 
 How delicately the fingers tapered ; the pink tipped 
 crescents at their ends were more like shells than nails. 
 Her wrist, slight, but perfectly rounded, was a model 
 of delicacy and strength, and as her lace sleeve fell 
 back, now and then was revealed the blue-white gleam 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 207 
 
 of lier exquisite forearm. Then the proud arch of her 
 neck expanded at its base into the perfect curves of the 
 ideal woman's shoulders and bosom; her hair coiled 
 low on the back of iier queenly head, was as black as 
 night and as smooth as a southern sea before a hur- 
 ricane; her forehead broad between the temples, was 
 unruffled by line or wrinkle, like the front of Jove, I 
 thought. Then I looked calmly into her eyes, a dark 
 hazel in color, with capacity to show the slightest shade 
 of feeling, to burn with unutterable passion, to soften 
 in pity, to dilate in sympathy, to brighten with in- 
 terest, to repose in intense thought, to leap in conver- 
 sation like the dancing rivulet over its bed of gray- 
 brown pebbles. She was mine in all her perfections, 
 the most complete example of womanhood I had ever 
 seen. She had lacked but one thing before, the en- 
 thusiasm of love. Now that had come and I was the 
 object of it. 
 
 I think her love for me was that night at its culmi- 
 nation. We were nearer to each other than ever before. 
 She was happy in her passion for me. I was so de- 
 lighted and proud that it was almost like love. 
 
 For a long time we sat there while 1 told her all I 
 had learned from my friend Ward, and all I had said 
 to him, and we talked of him and his future, and then 
 passed on to other themes. She had never impressed me 
 as so marvelous a woman before. She seemed to under- 
 stand everything before I had half expressed it. She 
 seemed to guess my meaning before I spoke. It was 
 as if our minds had thrown away the weak intermedi- 
 ary of words and dealt directly with each other. 
 
 But from that night I began to notice a change. It 
 was a slow change. The average infatuated lover 
 might not have noticed it. But my judgment was not 
 touched nor my blood overheated so I should be un- 
 able to compare, discriminate and determine. 
 
 One afternoon, not many weeks later, as we met at 
 our house, after returning from the forenoon's work, I 
 
208 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 reached out mj arm to draw her to me for a custom- 
 ary kiss. But instead of answering to my touch, like 
 an intricate mechanism whose controUing spring is 
 pressed, she gave a movement of repulsion. I released 
 her with a sense of injury. Had she recovered so soon 
 from her dream of love ? 
 
 ^ ' What does this mean \ " I asked, gravely. 
 
 Her eyes trembled before mine and then sank to the 
 floor. "1 do not believe you love me," she said. 
 " As I think it over, it seems to me that I am the 
 lover and you the patient recipient. It was you who 
 tempted me from my unemotional heights or depths, 
 whichever they were. But I feel now as if you had 
 deserted me." 
 
 I had not dreamed but that I was in love until that 
 moment. A sudden revelation broke upon my soul 
 and so clearly that I was only anxious not to let my face 
 express it. With the instinct of self-protection I tried 
 to recall some of the gibberish of initiates. For cen- 
 turies men and women had been reproached by each 
 other for lack of love, and a whole cyclopedia of catch 
 phrases and evasions have been invented. 
 
 " You are not yourself this noon," I ventured. But 
 it seemed to me that I had used the poorest phrase of 
 all. Gertrude's was quite too frank and clear-sighted 
 a nature for any sort of imposition. Her face flushed, 
 but it was not with the glow of reviving confidence. 
 
 " You are confessing everything," she cried, her 
 slim fingers clinching at her side as she spoke. *' There 
 was but one answer to my reproach, to have disregarded 
 it and only have drawn me to you the closer. Ton 
 should have stifled my doubts with kisses and answered 
 my misgivings with a more tender embrace. But in- 
 stead you release me at my first syllable of complaint; 
 at my first movement of shrinking you look at me not 
 in amazement, not in misery and sorrow, but in cold, 
 self-conscious displeasure, and say ^ You are not your- 
 self.' " 
 
An Exjperiment in Marriage. 209 
 
 She stood, flnsliing, trembling, in her awakened dis- 
 trust, in the first agony of doubt of what she had 
 thought the perfecting of her life. There was yet 
 time for me to have healed the breach between us, if 
 1 had loved her as she craved. She had leaped upon 
 the outgoing boat. I stood upon the dock watching 
 the gap between us grow wider and wider. There was 
 but one power could reverse those mighty engines of 
 character, the power of love. Alas, I had not sus- 
 pected how bare my heart was until now. To her 
 reahties I could only answer combinations of words, to 
 her passion only cool common sense, to her disappointed 
 love only conventional excuses. 
 
 " I did not want to force you," I said weakly, and 
 despised myself as I said it. It seemed as if she read 
 me like an open book. She turned and rushing to the 
 sofa threw herself upon it, face downward, and burst 
 into tears. For nearly a minute I stood looking at her 
 there. Her weeping disturbed but did not fill me with 
 misery. Her emotion made me uncomfortable, but did 
 not touch my heart. I wished myself a thousand miles 
 away. I regretted I had ever seen her. Then I seemed 
 to separate from my own individuality, and to look 
 back upon myself and despise myself. What con- 
 temptible specimen of manhood, or what poor order of 
 creature was this standing here and looking coldly upon 
 the agonies of the woman who loved him ? Shamed 
 by my own self-consciousness, I went to her side, and, 
 with new awkwardness, laid my hand upon her bowed 
 head. She ceased sobbing, as if to study how much of 
 love there was in that touch. Then she brushed away 
 my hand and sat up. 
 
 " Oh, you have nothing for me,'' she cried with 
 streaming eyes. " I knew it. I knew it. Leave me to 
 get used to it." 
 
 What could I say that could dry her tears, that would 
 still those wild heart throbs ? If I had loved her I 
 should not have needed to think. But I felt conscious 
 27 
 
210 An Exjperiment in Marriage. 
 
 of a terrible hollow where love should be. I admired 
 her, I enjoyed her, but that was all. One empty form 
 of words after another came to my tongue's end, only 
 to be rejected as too uttei'ly shallow and impotent. At 
 last I said, forcing myself to look into her piteous 
 eyes: 
 
 " I am sorry you are so miserable." 
 
 " But you can do nothing for me," she answered with 
 lii^htning readiness. "No need to tell me that. You 
 do not love me. Oh, why did yoii tempt me to give 
 you all when 3'ou had nothing for me % No, do not 
 distress yourself to say more. I am not weeping to 
 induce you to utter lies to me, but only in regret 
 for what I have lost. Yet how can I have lost what I 
 never had ? " 
 
 Then she sank upon the sofa once more, and I once 
 more leaned over her. I was ashamed that my heart 
 did not yearn for her, disgusted at myself that I had 
 to study for some way to comfort her. I tried to take 
 her hand, but she caught it quickly from my clasp, 
 moaning from the cushions : 
 
 " Leave me." 
 
 Then she raised her face for an instant and cried : 
 
 " Do you not understand ? It is not that I want 
 you to pet me. It is because I am in agony for the 
 love I have missed, for the joy never guessed before, 
 which I feel now as if I could not live without. Leave 
 me with my sorrow." 
 
 So I left her, and for that afternoon I was only sorry 
 I could not get away from myself too. 
 
 There was no doubt in my mind now. I was sure 
 that I did not love her. I had not for her what she 
 wanted. She had read me aright. But why was it ? 
 Was she not everything a man might love ? Where 
 was there a more beautiful, a more responsive, a more 
 amiable woman? Men love beauty. Why did I not 
 love her? Men love grace, delicacy, refinement Why 
 did I not love her? Men love intellect, brilhancy, 
 
An JExperiment in Marriage. 211 
 
 sympathy ; men love to be loved, passionately, enthu- 
 siastically. I bad all these in Gertrude, but was con- 
 scious I did not and could not give her what she was 
 weeping for. She had seemed to be every thing I 
 could desire in a wife, so I had done my best to evoke 
 her love. Apparently perfection was not enough for me. 
 
 I was out of temper with myself and with human 
 nature, so I made my way to the mountain side and 
 lay there in gloomy reverie for hours. I made no pro- 
 gress in my meditations. I began with the fact that 
 perfection in womanhood had been given me, and ended 
 with the admission that 1 was a most unreasonable crea- 
 ture not to be overwhelmingly in love with my wife. 
 But what could I do about it ? I could resolve to be 
 tender and considerate. But I had been that and she 
 was unsatisfied. She demanded an ardor of passion 
 which, with all her lovableness, she could not inspire 
 in me. It was not enough to make me love her madly, 
 that I wished to do so. I could not lash myself into 
 the lasting enthusiasm which a lover has for his mis- 
 tress. A great passion cannot be made by main force. 
 
 It was just before the time for going to dinner, that 
 I again entered the little house which had been assigned 
 to Gertrude for our home. It was with very pro- 
 nounced uneasiness that I opened the door and stepped 
 into the little sitting-room. But if my wife per- 
 sisted in her cross-examination, what could I rejDly? 
 If she continued to reproach me, how could I offer new 
 proofs of a love I was conscious I did not have for her. 
 Gertrude had apparently been watching for me. For 
 how many hours? I guiltily wondered. Women have 
 miinite capacities for these long watches. As I entered 
 the room she rose quickly and came toward me with 
 something like the old light in her eyes. I opened my 
 arms and she threw herself into them. 
 
 '' Forgive me," she said, with a new gentleness born 
 of her suffering. " I must have been tired and sick to 
 have spoken as I did." 
 
212 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 I kissed her foreliead and stroked back her hair. 
 
 "I know you love me," she added in a moment. 
 " Tell me so once more," she raised her beautiful eyes 
 to mine, ''and I will not doubt it again. Oh," and she 
 sighed, "I cannot, I dare not doubt it." 
 
 This Y^^as the hardest of all to bear. Her faith, to 
 which I knew I was not entitled, had risen triumphant 
 after its trial. I do not wonder that the faithful of 
 all rehgions are women. Then I murmured some 
 commonplaces, which, in her new forgiving and 
 trusting mood, sounded to her like words of devotion. 
 
 For a week Gertrude's manner to me was very 
 pathetic. She seemed so anxious that I should forget 
 that she had doubted me, so eager that I should not 
 suspect for an instant but that I was making her 
 happy. I tried to be loverlike but was conscious I 
 was only kind. I tried to be tender but could feel 
 that I only succeeded in being awkward. The hours 
 when we were alone together and when she would 
 most naturally expect an interchange of endearments, 
 a renewal of vows, I endeavored as much as possible 
 to abridge, and to avoid when T could invent any sem- 
 blance of an excuse. Not that the most cold-hearted 
 of men could regard as disagreeable the moments passed 
 in affectionate relations with a beautiful woman like 
 Gertrude, if there were no after consideration. To be 
 kissed by sweet lips, caressed by soft hands, to be told 
 of 'one's engaging qualities, reminded of one's virtues 
 and graces, cannot but be delightful if implying no 
 responsibilities and incurring no reciprocal obligations. 
 But I felt sure that my wife would look for a depth of 
 devotion which I did not have, that she would seek for 
 the presence in me of the absorbing passion which she 
 craved. It was more intolerable, too, than open 
 reproaches when I saw her face grow strained with 
 the disappointment slie tried to conceal, when an ex- 
 pression of agonized doubt was quickly followed by a 
 forced smile. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 213 
 
 It was a hard week, but there was no succeeding one 
 like it. After that she helped me to avoid these sug- 
 gestive hours. She would make excuses to go home 
 earlier than I from entertainments, and then would 
 feign to be asleep when I returned. I knew it was 
 only feigning, for I could see the color come to her 
 cheeks as I looked at her, and her eyelids flutter be- 
 neath my scrutiny. I noticed that while she con- 
 tinued to offer me a welcoming and parting kiss, she 
 now drew quickly away as if to spare me the ti'ouble of 
 caressing her further. I could not but be oppressed 
 by the change I saw in her, nor could I rid myself of 
 a consciousness of guilt. But the one thing needful 
 for her happiness I could not give her. It was my 
 misfortune, I believed, as much as hers, for Gertrude's 
 nature was one to reward a lover most munificently. 
 
 Ward called frequently on us and in his presence 
 Gertrude was more than her old self. I could see 
 Ward was amazed at her intellect, but the instant he 
 had left us Gertrude's vivacious mood had passed like 
 the energy of a spent spring. If I tried to make 
 further conversation with her the responses were such 
 as to make short shrift of it, and as soon as possible 
 she would make some excuse to leave me alone. On 
 one occasion I asked my friend what he thought of her. 
 
 " She is the most brilliant woman i ever knew," he 
 answered, enthusiastically. " You have a prize, how- 
 ever wickedly you may have won it." 
 
 " But don't you think her manner toward me is 
 changed \ " I asked. 
 
 " Why no, I should think she was a model of wifely 
 consideration. She neither exposes your mistakes, nor 
 points her jokes with your foibles." 
 
 But I felt that Ward was more to be pitied, at this 
 stage of his own experience, than I in my trouble. I 
 had every reason to l>elieve that he was falling deeper 
 in love with Mrs. Trenk every day, and with his rigid 
 condemnation of Grape Yalley divorce and marriage, I 
 
214 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 could see no future for him except a broken heart. If 
 Gillette had been home I should have gone to him with 
 my perplexity, but as my own judgment seemed in- 
 capable of working on the subject, I had simply to let 
 my relations with Gertrude drift. Then came the end 
 of it all. 
 
 One noon as I entered the liouse I found a note in 
 Gertrude's handwriting addressed to me. I opened it 
 and this is what I read : 
 
 " Dear Mr. Vinton — I think we have proved our- 
 selves unfitted to make each other happy, and when 
 you read this I shall be at the clerk's office fifing my 
 record for a divorce. You know I did not befieve that 
 love was for me. For a few weeks you made me feel 
 that I had been mistaken, and they were the happiest 
 weeks I have ever known. Do not forget that. But I 
 have since found I was the subject of a delusion, an 
 ennoblhig delusion, but once detected it could enter- 
 tain me no longer. I do not blame you for not ador- 
 ing me, as I was foolish enough once to believe you 
 did. After my little dream was over I became as in- 
 capable of love as you. It was only a matter of time 
 when I should awake, and if so, the sooner the better. 
 Don't you think so ? Gertrude." 
 
 That night I slept once more at the phalanstery, the 
 little I slept. Much of the night I sat by the window 
 in loneliness of soul. I felt that something bright and 
 beautiful and very dear had been taken from me ; some- 
 ' thing that I ought to have been able to keep. I tried 
 to strain my vision so as to embrace the little house 
 away to the east, where she who had been my wife 
 was alone. Was she sleepless and miserable too \ To 
 be sure we had seemed incapable of inspiring each 
 other with that compelling ardor of mind, soul and 
 body, known as love, but had we not enough for each 
 other to make it cruel to part ? 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 One afternoon of the following month I stood on 
 the steps of the phalanstery watching my wife of yes- 
 terday walk toward what was once our home and 
 alone. She had given me a smile as she passed me. 
 Why should I not follow her and offer her my heart 
 anew. My loneliness was surely an indication of love. 
 Perhaps it needed but a shadow to make me conscious 
 of the light. Certainly I was earnest enough now in 
 my longing to be with her. To kiss her agaiii, to clasp 
 her in my arms while we told each other that this little 
 trial was all that was necessary to make our mutual 
 love what it should be, would be a glorious experience 
 indeed. 
 
 I had resolved to follow her and had even taken my 
 first step in the direction she had taken when I no- 
 ticed that I had been anticipated. I recognized a very 
 familiar form. It must be Gillette, who, suddenly re- 
 turning from a trip east and coming up the street, met 
 her. He stopped to exchange salutations, and then 
 doubtless asked her for me. Now she was answering 
 him. He seems astonished. He gesticulates. Probably 
 he is expostulating with her, telKng her that she has 
 been hasty, that if she had given me a longer trial I 
 would have proved to be the man most ableto give her 
 the complete response she desired. Now they pass 
 out of sight together. I will go to my room. Gillette 
 will ?09n return and seek me there. iPerhaps he will 
 be the bearer of the good news I so much desired. 
 
 But once in my room, I began to recover my senses. 
 I recalled the memory of the change in Gertrude since 
 
216 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 she had assured herself that I was only her friend, not 
 her lover. Wise woman that she was she had not 
 soiiglit a divorce until, from constant association with 
 me, she had forced herself to see tliat I did not love 
 her, and had cured her own temporary infatuation. I 
 might as w^ell try to melt once more the solid lava from 
 volcanoes extinct centuries since. 
 
 It was more than an hour later that the expected 
 knock came at my door, and I welcomed, with a warm 
 clasp of the hand, my friend Gillette. 
 
 As soon as the first customary questions and answers 
 had been disposed of, and our cigars lighted, Gillette 
 began with some hesitation : 
 
 " Your second marriage has not proved a permanent 
 one, I see." 
 
 " I saw you talking with Gertrude," 1 said. " I sup- 
 pose she gave you the explanation." 
 
 I thought he colored. "Your eyesight is good. 
 Yes," he continued, "Gertrude talked very sweetly 
 about the whole affair. I am very sorry for you both. 
 Ward, she tells me, too, is in the toils. Do you see any 
 way out for him ? " 
 
 "I cannot," I answered. "But he will not even 
 admit that lie is in love," I added. " He thinks his 
 feeling for Mrs. Trenk is mere friendship, an inversion 
 of the mistake Gertrude and I made, you see." 
 
 " It does not seem as if such a mistake were possL 
 ble," remarked Gillette. " A friend is actuated in what 
 he does by a sense of fealty, of obligation ; a lover con- 
 siders the favor is his if permitted to do anything for 
 his mistress. The friend likes because in accordance with 
 his ideas. The lover adores because he can do no less. 
 The lover thrills at the sight of his mistress's dress, at 
 the perfume of her gloves. He expands in her presence, 
 even if she be unconscious of him. The sound *of her 
 voice makes him as full of joy as a robin when the sun 
 breaks from the clouds. Her words seem to eclipse all 
 other language. Her breath intoxicates him like an 
 
An Exj^eriment in Marriage. 217 
 
 oriental drug, the touch of her hand sends the most 
 mighty of all magnetic influences through his body. 
 When he is with her, hours seem as minutes; to look 
 at her face, merely to be conscious of her presence, Alls 
 the time witli occupation. When she leaves him, it is 
 as if sweet music suddenly ceased, or as if a curtain had 
 dropped between him and his own soul. When he 
 goes to her, his ver}^ feet seem instinct with an eager- 
 ness of their own to make good speed, and he feels 
 strong enough to tear up mountains by their very roots 
 if they be in his way.' ' 
 
 1 had never known my friend so eloquent before. 
 " I believe you must be in love, you describe the pas- 
 sion in such detail," 
 
 " Did vou love Gertrude like that ?" almost demanded 
 Gillette. " 
 
 " Ah, no, but that is the sort of love she wanted." 
 
 " Well," he broke out, impetuously, ''I have loved 
 her in just that way since I first met her. Even my 
 brief infatuation for Mrs. Blakesley hardly made me, 
 for a minute, less Gertrude's adorer." 
 
 I looked at him in astonishment. " And you never 
 told her % " 
 
 *' Indeed, I have told her scores of times, but she 
 only answered me as she did all the others before you. 
 You, doubtless, wooed her more boldly than we, her 
 real worshippers, and hence you won. But I shall yet 
 win her." And he rose excitedly and paced the floor. 
 " Such passion as mine must mean that sometime it 
 will meet full return from her. Her dream of love 
 shall be realized and mine, at once." 
 
 I could not wont myself to Gillette's anouncement. 
 
 '' Your friendship for me must have been severely 
 tried when I married her." 
 
 " No," he answered, calmly. " I was simply amazed 
 at a man who could not be happy in paradise. Mar- 
 riage is not here the hopeless dead wall which shuts 
 away the true lover, that it is in the outside world. 
 28 
 
218 A7i Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 If we are conscious of the reality of our own love, 
 lovers never despair in Grape Yalley. He is sure that 
 the woman he sincerely and continually longs for will 
 some time % to her home in his heart." 
 
 Then came another knock at the door, and I admit- 
 ted Ward. Gillette and I glanced at each other sig- 
 nificantly. There had certainly been a marked change 
 in Ward's face. It w^as not that it showed illness, but 
 a new sensitiveness. The eyes had a new gentleness 
 in them ; a new light. The lips once so firm had at- 
 tained a certain mobility, and when in thought showed 
 a slight curve downward at the corners. The impres- 
 sion of repose he once gave had" forever disappeared. 
 His face was more interesting, yet I could not but feel 
 sad as I looked at him, for I was sure I knew what 
 had made the change. I felt that ray friend must ex- 
 perience all the wild unrest, the agonizing longing, the 
 loneliness of love, but without hope of that glorious 
 fruition which vindicates all the labor and anguish it 
 has caused. After a few minutes of general conver- 
 sation Gillette asked Ward a most extraordinary ques- 
 tion : 
 
 " Why don't you marry one of the bright particular 
 specimens of womanhood we cultivate in Grape Yal- 
 ley, and become one of us? " 
 
 Ward almost gasped to be so roughly handled. It 
 was as if Gillette had reached out with harsh hand 
 and was tearing all his finer sensibilities. For a mo- 
 ment Ward did not reply. Then it seemed to occur 
 to him that after all Gillette could not see his heart, 
 and he finally replied in nearly his ordinary mannei'. 
 
 " When my two years' probation has expired, I shall 
 leave Grape Yalley forever." 
 
 " That will be in two months," I broke in. " You 
 don't mean to say you will leave us in two months?" 
 
 ^' You say ^ us,' " re}>eated Ward. ''Am I to un- 
 derstand tliat you expect to remain here ? I should 
 think, of all men, you would be the most willing to 
 
A71 Exjperiment in Marriage. 219 
 
 leave a state of society whose marriage institutions 
 Lave left yon twice bereft." 
 
 Gillette glanced at me with interest. 
 
 " My marriages did not bring love with them," I an- 
 swered, without hesitation, " so I ought to count it a 
 blessing that I am not held for life to an unnatural 
 bond. If I had made either of these marriages in the 
 outside world I should have made some woman miser- 
 able, and deprived my own life of the attainment it 
 most craves." 
 
 " You should not have made such mistakes," said 
 Ward. 
 
 •' Nor would I if I had been infallible," I replied. 
 " But human nature is prone to err. Temporary feel- 
 ing is taken for lasting passion, interest for sympathy, 
 liking for love. To prevent the misery and perversion 
 of the best portions of our lives which result from 
 mistaken marriao^es it is not enouo^li to warn men and 
 women to be all knowing. What is needed is an op- 
 portunity to correct their mistakes." 
 
 Then Gillette found an opening. 
 
 ''Try it yourself. Ward." 
 
 " Not I," answered he, with some excitement. 
 " When I marry, I marry for life." 
 
 " Let us hope, then, that your first choice will be the 
 woman to whom you can be everything, and who can 
 be everything to you," remarked Gillette. " But if it 
 happened you found you made your wife miserable in- 
 stead of happy, if she found you were eating your heart 
 out for another woman, would not the eternity of such a 
 relation be a curse % I tell you human beings ought not to 
 be held forever to the consequences of a decision which 
 according to the laws of probabilities in human affairs, is 
 extremely likely to be erroneous. You know it is es- 
 timated that ninety-nine out of a hundred business 
 ventures fail, hence the necessity for courts of liqui- 
 dation. Why then should a man be expected to be in- 
 fallible in his choice of a wife, a choice usually made 
 
220 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 at a time of life when his judgment is untrained, and 
 alwa^^s under more or less excitement ?" 
 
 " There is no use for you to urge me," exclaimed 
 Ward, in what might have seemed to a casual specta- 
 tor to be uncalled for temper. " If all the houris of 
 paradise tempted me I would not marry here. When I 
 marry I want to feel that my wife is mine forever, 
 that nothing but death can take her from me." 
 
 Then he rose and hurried from the room without 
 the formality of a good-bye. 
 
 " His prejudices will ruin his life," commented Gil- 
 lette. Then after a pause he changed the subject. '* I 
 have something to propose to you, my friend. Your 
 two years' probation does not expire for two months, 
 but I know there is no man in Grape Yalley more de- 
 voted to our institutions than yon." 
 
 I said nothing, and he continued : " I^ext week I 
 start for the East once more. You have just passed 
 through an experience that must have been very trying 
 to you. No man can separate his life from that of a 
 woman with whom he has been on intimate relations 
 without suffering something of a shock. Time and 
 subjection to different influences are the best pallia- 
 tives. A month's trip east with me will benefit you 
 and our cause at the same time." 
 
 "What can I do for the cause ? " I inquired. 
 
 " I will tell you," he answered. " This is a proselyt- 
 ing trip of mine to New York. There are several men 
 and women whom I believe are ripe for conversion. 
 Between us both we ought not to return to Grape Yal- 
 ley empty handed. Will you go? " 
 
 The proposal was a complete surprise, but it has always 
 been a habit of my mind to come to a quick decision. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 A trip to New York would at least provide me with 
 an opportunity to send my record of the Grape Yalley 
 experiment in marriage to the editor who had promised 
 to publish whatever I wxote. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 The night before my departure east had come, and I 
 went into'the general hall, a little late, to find a debate 
 in progress. Those who took the leading parts sat on 
 the platform, though, after they had been heard from, 
 it was the custom for people in the audience to join 
 issue on one side or the other. In these discussions 
 women had as much to say as men. With equal leisure 
 for study and all the stimulating influence of unre- 
 strained social intercourse, the women of Grape Valley 
 were as active in their mental processes, as logical in 
 their reasoning as the men. 
 
 It was the custom first for an essayist to lay down 
 the general features of the subject to be discussed, to 
 state the question broadly, fully, and without bias. 
 Then one disputant took the affirmative and another 
 the negative, before the general voice was called out. 
 The essayist of this evening, no other than Gertrude 
 herself, had nearly finished her contribution when I 
 entered. I would not on any account have been late 
 if 1 had known she was to take part. As I entered the 
 hall the clear and hell-like tones of her voice met my 
 ear, and gave me a very strange impression, strange and 
 yet familiar. It was a voice out of my past, the forever 
 past. Every inflection at once reminded me of my 
 intimacy with her and that she was henceforth eternally 
 cut ofl from me. I seated myself on the first convenient 
 chair, without noticing who was next to me, just in 
 time to hear her concluding words. 
 
 " Men are often attracted toward women by other 
 qualities than those which are sufficient to constitute a 
 
222 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 basis for lasting attachment. Women are drawn 
 toward men who can answer to but one small and in- 
 significant trait in tlieir cliaracters. Tliese inclinations 
 are undeniable. In the outside world a large propor- 
 tion of the marriages are founded on these partial at- 
 tractions, only to be found wanting, at a later period, 
 in the essentials. In Grape Yalley the same human 
 nature exists, with the same susceptibility to attractions 
 which are insufficient to support a true and lasting 
 love. Love is the nearest approximation to a complete 
 harmony between a given man and won^an, but it is 
 alwa)^s probable that some other individual may excel 
 either one of this ideal pair in some single attractive 
 quality. Sometimes this partial attraction is merely 
 sensual. Sometimes it lies in purely physical attributes, 
 expressive features, perhaps a graceful carriage, or an 
 artistic form. More often it lies in some peculiar in- 
 tellectual or spiritual individuality, some piquancy of 
 disposition, some unusual development of a w^inning 
 trait, perhaps in the possession of a certain exceptional 
 potency which appeals to the one affected and to 
 that one alone. What shall we say of these incom- 
 plete love relations, these partial passions, these tem- 
 porary attractions which crave closer association and 
 more intimate relations, but still are not enough to 
 make a basis for lasting marriage relations ? Are they 
 unmixed evils or not ? '^ 
 
 The first speaker was Mr. Harvey, the mining expert 
 who had visited the placer mine the year previous with 
 Gillette, Ward and me. He had certainly had an ex- 
 perience of a most significant kind with Mrs. Blakes- 
 ley. Had he learned any thing valuable from it ? 
 
 Mr. Harvey said much more than I can attempt to 
 reproduce here. But I will give a few of his more 
 noticeable utterances. 
 
 " I believe these partial attractions are an unfortu- 
 nate inheritance from the ill-assorted marriages and 
 the unsatisfactory love affairs of our ancestors. They 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 223 
 
 had to make the hest of partial attractions. Their 
 love affairs were almost always incomplete, and we are 
 the offspring of them. The women for thonsauds of 
 years have had to make the best of the few agreeable 
 qualities in their husbands, husbands to do then* best 
 to exaggerate the pleasant characteristics their wives 
 might happen to exliibit. So we are born amenable, 
 in a most mischievous degree, to these partial attrac- 
 tions. They break up the most harmonious marriages 
 by drawing husband and wife after some ignis fatuus. 
 Tliey can give nothing lasting, nothing satisfying, but 
 they fire the fancy, excite the passions, make permanent 
 rehitions nnlikely, and are the most destructive forces 
 of the sexual world." 
 
 The speaker proceeded to quote illustrations : 
 ^' The man of intellect and soul meets and marries 
 a wouian w^ho is worthy of his fullest love. She en- 
 joys him and he her. They are devoted to each other. 
 A woman crosses his path who is attracted by an ele- 
 vation of character she cannot understand, and which 
 merely piques her curiosity. She smiles upon him, 
 and he is attracted in turn by the luxuriance of her 
 physical nature, an aspect of personality to wdiich he 
 is not accustomed. Being deficient in his sensual na- 
 ture he is peculiarly interested in the new connection 
 of such a nature with his. His relations with his wife, 
 whom he can love with his whole being, are disturbed 
 and perhaps destroyed by a transient attraction for a 
 w^oman whose nature touches his but at one point. 
 Often the wife of an ascetic disposition, whose hus- 
 band ]-eturns her love, is overwhelmed by the animal- 
 ism of a man whose soul is as far removed from 
 harmony with hers as the antipodes. Often it is one 
 phase of a character which attracts an individual of 
 the opposite sex who is entirely out of sympathy with 
 it otherwise. The serious man is attracted by a witty 
 woman ; the poetic woman by the dull realism of 
 some male acquaintance ; the man of sensibility is in- 
 
224 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 fatnated with the cold woman ; the woman of versa- 
 tility by the man of one idea, and that a probably 
 wroncr one. Sometimes totally unsympathetic men 
 and women are attracted by some peculiarity of face 
 or of voice which in some way appeals to an occult 
 inclination. Quite frequently the pure are drawn to 
 the impure, the sober to the riotous, the good to the 
 wicked." 
 
 When he concluded it was with these words : -'I 
 see no good effect these partial and counter attractions 
 can have. They must be regarded, as far as I can see, 
 as among the everlasting curses of our human nature. 
 In the society of the old world they are the provoking 
 causes of the large proportion of unliappy marriages, 
 and of most of the unfaithfulness of husband and wife 
 which in that society yields such plentiful harvests of 
 ruined homes, accursed children and misery untold. 
 Even in Grape Valley this eternal susceptibility of 
 our nature is very mischievous. To be sure, we can 
 correct mistakes in marriage relations caused by it, but 
 it is the fatal peril ever threatening the true marriage 
 when attained, which, with all its moral beauty and 
 its possibilities for the happiness and development of 
 husband and wife, breaks like a dead branch under the 
 destructive force of some partial attraction." 
 
 Mr. Harvey had suggested a line of thought I had 
 not taken before, and'l was very much impressed by 
 what he said. But I had noticed a tall, spare gentle- 
 man with uneasy black eyes and a narrow forehead 
 sitting on the platform, and it was he who arose to pre- 
 sent the other side of the case. 
 
 *' Who is he ? " 1 said, turning for information to the 
 woman who sat next to me. 
 
 " It is Mr. Trenk," she answered, and, as she ^irned 
 her face toward me, I discovered that my neighbor 
 was Mrs. Trenk. Doubtless she had saved for Ward 
 the seat which I had hurriedly taken. I cast a quick 
 glance around to see if he were near. 
 
A71 Experivient in Marriage. 225 
 
 " You are looking for your friend," she remarked 
 with ready apprehension. " 1 do not think he is here." 
 Then before I could think of a suitable rejoinder, she 
 continued : " I know you are Mr. Ward's best friend. 
 I must talk with you." 
 
 " Certainly," 1 answered in some mystification, " I 
 am at your service whenever you suggest." 
 
 " Thank you," she said, simply. But, as she made 
 no movement to go out, I concluded I should have the 
 privilege of hearing what Mr. Trenk might have to say. 
 
 " There may come a time," he said, " when each 
 nature shall be so broad in its scope, so rich in its de- 
 velopment, that the fancy of husband or wife shall 
 not flit from its first object. That will be, however, 
 when human nature is far more fully cultivated and 
 educated than now. If each of us does his best to 
 select for the object of his love that person who is best 
 endowed, as our institution of free divorce and our 
 custom of unrestrained social intercourse permit and 
 encourage, thus we are each of us doing our utmost to 
 bring about that completeness of character in our chil- 
 dren or at least in our descendants. Meanwhile these 
 partial attractions will continue to cause divisions in 
 families, followed by less satisfactory remarriages. Men 
 and women who have enjoyed as nearly harmonious 
 relations as possible at this' stage of the evolution of 
 character will be often drawn ajpartby influences which 
 are in their nature temporary. Neither can I so bitterly 
 deplore these partial attractions, in their influences ou 
 men and women. I regard them as educating and 
 broadening. Only through the close intimacy which 
 marriage gives the two sexes, can a man understand the 
 quality or attainment in a woman which attracted 
 him. " Only through marriage to a sensual woman 
 can a man of partially awakened senses enter into 
 his full physical state. Only by marriage to a man 
 of refinement can a woman disposed to grossness obtain 
 the education she most needs. We are attracted in these 
 29 
 
226 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 side directions because we there find something our 
 characters need for their complete equipment. I could 
 wish that each man and woman might pass through the 
 experience of the more potent of these side attractions 
 before making the marriage which approaches to the 
 ideal, before meeting the one who shall inspire the 
 deepest and most stimnlating love. If these partial 
 attractions have their sway in succession no damage is 
 done, the education of the man and woman is com- 
 pleted, and their culture attained ; not only without 
 risk to their future and lasting happiness, but eminently 
 assisting, assuring and enhancino^ the ideal marriage 
 when it comes. So, instead of regretting the frequency 
 of divorce and the large number of successive mar- 
 riages under our institutions I have only to complain 
 that their number is so small. These brief sexual in- 
 timacies are the semesters of school life for the sym- 
 pathies, the passions, the understanding. Sometimes 
 the ideal man and w^oman meet, understand and re- 
 cognize each other at once. But generally it is in pro- 
 portion to the completion of the education attained 
 through the preceding marriage relations that the ideal 
 marriage becomes probable for the man and woman. 
 To be sure it is not seldom that a man and woman, 
 ideally united to each other, are separated by an in- 
 fluence brought to bear on one or the other which 
 previous experiences have not educated the unfortunate 
 to withstand. But even in this instance I fail to see 
 anything fatally disastrous. If the attraction which 
 has drawn one of the married pair away — let us say 
 it is the. husband — is a partial one, it must be tem- 
 porary. The deserted one may grieve for a while, but 
 she may be sure to have her o*wn back again if his 
 place is there, all the safer and better for his wander- 
 ing. Their second marriage will be more perfect than 
 their first." 
 
 "Shall we go now?" whispered Mrs. Trenk. "I 
 will not keep you away long." 
 
A71 Expei'iment in Marriage, 227 
 
 I was very sorry not to hear more of wliat the 
 speaker was saying, but I also feh. curious to learn 
 what possible confidences Mrs. Trenk could have with 
 me. 
 
 " I want to speak to you about Mr. Ward," she be- 
 gan, turning toward me her face, which looked wan in 
 the light of the full moon. " I have learned that you 
 are going away to-morrow, and 1 felt that you, as his 
 friend, were the only one I could come to." 
 
 How did I ever think her face dull in its beauty ? 
 " Is there is any way I can help you ? " I asked. 
 
 " I don't know whether you can help me or not. I 
 am afraid not." And she clasped her white hands 
 unconsciously. " I believe Mr. Ward loves me, but 
 he will not say so. He looks upon me as forever sealed 
 to another man, and I think he would die before he 
 spoke." 
 
 She paused, expecting me, perhaps, to reveal to her 
 some tender secret my friend might have imparted to 
 me. But I could only listen in silence. Then she con- 
 tinued : 
 
 "I think he would rather that I died, too, than that 
 I should confess to him what he believes would be a 
 shame to us both. But he should not have been with 
 me so much ; he should not have talked with me as no 
 other man could. He might have known I should 
 love him, he is so wise, so good, so kind, so true. I am 
 a different woman since I knew him. He has awakened 
 my whole soul. It is all for him, but he will not ask 
 for it ; he will not take it." 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Trenk," I began. 
 
 "Ah," she interrupted, " I know by your tone that 
 you have no comfort to bestow. He must have talked 
 to you then, of his prejudices against the divorce law 
 which might make me his. Of course I know he has 
 done 60. Probably you have heard liim say he would 
 not marr}^ a woman here even if he loved her l You 
 do not deny it ? " 
 
228 An Experiment m Ilarriage, 
 
 " I cannot deny it, but I hope " 
 
 "Don't say 4iope' as if you meant ^fear.' lean 
 see you believe as I do, that he can never be anything 
 to me." 
 
 " If there is anything I can do, Mrs. Trenk, I shall 
 be most happy," I said earnestly. I wondered less 
 every minute that Ward had fallen madly in love with 
 her, especially if she had blossomed out for him into 
 this splendid flower of womanhood. " Wouldn't you 
 hke to have me tell him how much he is to you ? It 
 might melt even his iron resolution. He is human." 
 
 " Oh, not for worlds," she cried. " If he were to 
 be told, it is I who should tell him, or he would de- 
 spise me doubly. I did not come to you for that. You 
 wiU promise not to tell him. Do not even let him 
 know we ever had this conversation," 
 
 I promised, and she continued : " I only wanted to 
 learn from you whether he has ever told you, whether 
 he has ever — ^^ou are his best friend I know, he has 
 told me so many times — ever said to you that he — 
 that he loved me. I know now he will never tell me, 
 never ask me to make him as happy as I could make 
 him, as I would die to make him. But I think it 
 would be a sweet consolation to me, after he has gone 
 away, to kifow — to know from his own words to you, 
 that he loved me." 
 
 I was silent. 
 
 " You have nothing to tell me ? " she asked, faintly. 
 
 " You forget what a reserved man my friend and 
 yours is. You forget, too, how peculiarly delicate he 
 would feel in talking, even to me, about a woman he 
 thought he could not marry. Eut I have believed 
 from his changed manner that he was deeply in love, 
 more so than I have ever seen a man before." 
 
 The woman fairly laughed in delight. 
 
 " Oh, you are sure of tliat ? How happy you make 
 me. * Deeply in love,' you sa}', ' more than you have 
 ever seen a man before.' I surely ought to be satis- 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 229 
 
 fied. As you say, lie could not have put it in words to 
 you, if he could not to me. I must go now." And 
 she took a step or two down the street. " No, you 
 need not come with me. I am going home, where I 
 can be alone, alone with my joy. If he comes late 
 to the hall he will be sure to look for me. You will 
 see him. But he will not know how happy I shall be, 
 and in spite of him. You could not be mistaken — 
 oh, of course not. ' Deeply in love,' you said." And 
 she passed rapidly up the street. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The next morning Gillette and I set out for the 
 East. It is unimportant for me to go into details as to 
 our exit from Grape Yalley. It will be sufficient to say 
 that as soon as we had reached the i-ailroad line we came 
 East as fast as the latest modern appliances for killing 
 time and annihilating space could bring us. My im- 
 pressions as I alighted from our train were most pecu- 
 liar. It was as if I w^ere Avalking in a dream. The 
 tliought that this terrific bustle, this stupendous activ- 
 itj^, had been going on for the nearly two years w^hich 
 I had passed in the peaceful valley, w^as inconceivable. 
 It seemed to me it must have commenced just as I set 
 foot in Kew York. 
 
 " Hello, old fellow," a sharp voice sounded in my 
 ear. I turned to find my hand clasped by one of my 
 old companions at the club. Many were the dozens of 
 champagne we had broken together over late suppers 
 and dinners to celebrate occasions. It was as if a hand 
 was stretched out from another life, as if the voice w^as 
 from another world, which exclaimed : 
 
 " Where have you been for this age ? " 
 
 Men in 'Ne^Y York do not wait for answers unless 
 returned very speedily, and be continued : " But you 
 shall tell me all that later. Dine with me at seven to- 
 night. In the old corner, you know." 
 
 I muttered some excuse. 
 
 " Well, come around to the ofRce when you have 
 time and we will talk it over." And he w^as off. 
 
 " I am glad you sent him away," said Gillette, as we 
 mounted the stairs to the elevated railroad station. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 231 
 
 " The less you see of your old friends, just at present, 
 the less liability there is to enibarrassnieut." 
 
 We passed through the station and took our seats on 
 the train. 
 
 " It is just four O'clock," he said, looking at his watch. 
 *' Now let us lay out our j^lans between here and 
 Third avenue. 1 have an errand up town, but will 
 meet yoa at the "Fifth Avenue" at seven o'clock. 
 We will dine, and then I must take you with me to- 
 night to a party of advanced thinkers. Don't fail to 
 be on time." 
 
 Gillette liad hardly finished his directions when the 
 train reached the avenue, and my companion left me. 
 For a few minutes I stood on the platform at a loss 
 what to do. The strands of my destiny were being woven 
 very rapidly then. One train after another passed down 
 town, but tlie cries of the conductors did not move me. 
 "South Ferry" had no special attraction for me. 
 "City Hall" suggested no motive for me to step 
 aboard the succeeding train. Then something within 
 me said : " Why wait longer ? " And as the next 
 train swept up to the platform I boarded it, careless 
 whither it took me. I had, then, more than two hours 
 to dispose of. It made little difference, I thought, what 
 I did with them. But who will say there was no hid- 
 den force drawing me toward this very train ? Who 
 can pretend that my destiny hung in the balances of 
 chance, and was decided by the merest whim ? I 
 entered the middle car and took a seat between a man 
 much the worse for licpior and a plainly-dressed young 
 woman. I had been so long removed from the stimu- 
 lating influences of metropolitan life that the mere 
 sight of so many strangers, each on his own errand, 
 each oblivious to the rest of mankind, each an epitome 
 of life's history and tragedy, was cpiite exciting to me. 
 I remarked peculiarities which I had not observed in 
 the days when I was a constant patron of these trains. 
 I was especially impressed, at first, by the complete ab- 
 
232 An Ex^teriment in Marriage, 
 
 sorption of every passenger in liis own interests, Lis 
 total indifference to the sorrows and joys of others. 
 Then I undertook to study the nearer passengers in 
 detaih Directly opposite me was a man of middle age, 
 ruddy, alert and prosperous. He was probably a 
 business man going dow^n town to buy or sell some- 
 thing. He had no thought except how he should 
 manage to drive a sharp bargain with the other busi- 
 ness man who awaited him. His wdiole life was taken 
 up wdth these sharp bargains. He reckoned his day's 
 work each night by the number of victories over less 
 shrewd competitors which he had won, and every day 
 his heart grew less generous and his soul dwindled. 
 Beside him was a woman on a shopping expedition. 
 She was generously powdered and extravagantly bedi- 
 zened with jewelry. She was busy calculating the 
 number of yards it would positively require for a sum- 
 mer silk dress, and trying to make up her mind whether 
 she should spend for the dress all of the money she 
 had wheedled from her husband, or, buying something 
 cheaper, save the difference for her private account. 
 How miserable the man who was her husband. At 
 my right w^as the drunken man, a mechanic, to judge 
 from his dress and hands. His eyes were set and 
 glassy, his head sunk forward on his breast. Some 
 good genius would doubtless see him home ; one al- 
 ways attends on such drunken men. I examined him 
 closely. He was in his shirt sleeves and still wore the 
 paper cap donned while at work. His hands were 
 black ancl oily and had left their mark upon his face. 
 It was clear enough that he had left his work to pay a 
 visit to some saloon. There he had met some boon 
 companions and had drunk so many healths that he 
 was advised by the friends which a drunken man al- 
 W'ays makes not to attempt to return to work, but to 
 make the best of his way home. So home he was 
 going, to a sorry welcome from his w^ife, I feared. 
 At my left was thejlainly-dressed young woman, 
 
An Exjperiment in Marriage. 233 
 
 and my sensibilities were so far uncalloiised by New- 
 York associations that I was immediately touched by 
 what 1, alone of all the carfull, seemed to notice. She 
 looked intensely miserable. I have always observed 
 that the faces of people in great cities are more expres- 
 sive of the mind than in small communities. It is the 
 very multitude of spectators which relieves the con- 
 sciousness of being observed. They think no one 
 notices, that no one interests himself, and so do not 
 take the trouble to smile when they feel sad, or to affect 
 gaiety when suffering misery. Perhaps I would not 
 have been so impressed by the evident unhappiness of 
 this woman, if her face had not been singularly attractive 
 to me. It was very dai^, and the features were strong 
 in the profile, but the mouth, red and perfect in its bow 
 shape, was all womanly in its beauty and its sensitive- 
 ness. She was a large woman, almost as tall as I, and 
 with arms and shoulders in full proportion, a rare 
 specimen of a type of womanhood which always ap- 
 pealed to my taste. But her attitude now was one of com- 
 plete dejection, and the sadness in her eyes, looking in 
 dull hopelessness straight before them, touched me ex- 
 quisitely. 
 
 I immediately forgot every one else in the car, and 
 only busied myself in devising some excuse for address- 
 ing her. Surely it was not decent that I should sit 
 there, cold and indifferent, while she suffered. As it 
 happened, if there is such a thing as chance, every one 
 except us two and the drunken man, had left the car 
 before we reached Thirty-second street. Then in a 
 sudden inspiration, I turned to her. 
 
 "You are very unhappy. Can you trust me suffi- 
 ciently to tell me why % " 
 
 As she turned her face toward me, I was astonished 
 at my own temerity in inviting the scorn of a woman 
 of such force and dignity. She seemed to study my 
 face for an instant before replying. 
 
 " I suppose/' she answered slowly, in a sweet contralto 
 30 
 
234 An Experiment m Marriage. 
 
 voice, *' that I ought to refuse to answer you. Yet I 
 see nothing but kindliness in your face, and I do not 
 know why I should not satisfy your interest." Hers 
 was the voice and speech of a woman of education, 
 "I am wretchedly and liopelessly poor. Isn't that 
 enough to make me miserable ? " 
 
 She paused for me to speak. But I was wise enough 
 to observe the silence which is golden, and she con- 
 tinued : " I don't know that I could choose a safer 
 confidant than a stranger, and it may relieve my misery 
 a little if I put a part of it into words. Certainly your 
 audacity in addressing me ought to have some reward." 
 And she tried to smile. 
 
 By this time the car was half full again, and she bent 
 a little toward me as she spoke in a lower tone. " My 
 father was that most hapless of men, an inventor. He 
 came to New York from a little Massachusetts village, 
 where he had enjoyed a good position and a fair in- 
 come, hoping to make his millions. He managed to 
 get rid of his patent, poor, dear man, but he was paid 
 only in promises, and, when he fell sick and died, ev^en 
 the promises were denied to mother and me. We found 
 some poor employment for a while, and then I lost her 
 too. I am now supposed to be supporting myself on 
 three dollars and a half a week." 
 
 '^ That is terrible," I ejaculated, hastily. " The man 
 who pays you such a pittance ought to be drawn and 
 quartered.' ' 
 
 "Oh, no," she answered, bitterly. "The man who 
 gives me that pittance, saves me from starvation. You 
 asked me why 1 am so unhappy. I think I have given 
 you sufficient reason." 
 
 This conclusion to her sentence was plainly intended 
 as a dismissal of the subject and of me. 
 
 " I am going to ask you to dine with me," I said 
 hurriedly, trying to look unconscious of her surprised 
 look. Then I hurried on : *' To be sure we have 
 not been formally introduced, but I do not know as 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 235 
 
 that is a reason why I should sit down to my dinner 
 alone." 
 
 A sudden rush of color made her face positively 
 brilliant for an instant. Warned by the signal, I made 
 haste to drop my unwisely frivolous manner and to add, 
 more seriously : " What you tell ihe of yourself and of 
 your life interests me extremely. I shall regard it as 
 a kindness if by accepting my invitation to dinner you 
 prolong our interview for a few minutes more." 
 
 She made no reply, which of itself was a favorable 
 sign. Pool" girl, doubtless the gnawings of hunger were 
 pleading more powerfully than any words of mine could 
 do. Prompt to make the most of my, temporary ad- 
 vantage. I rose as the guard opened the door and called 
 the number of the street. 
 
 "Here is our station," I said in a matter-of-fact tone. 
 As she stood, I noticed what a faultlessly powerful 
 tignre she had. We descended the station steps and, 
 without further attempt at conversation, I conducted 
 her to the nearest restaurant and ordered dinner. As 
 the plates containing the soup were set before us, she 
 gave me a pitiful, appeahng glance, as if in apology for 
 the uncontrollable expression of hunger which was on 
 her face. My eyes moistened and my food choked me. 
 If I had not offered this poor gift of a dinner, she would 
 at this moment have been suffering as it is worse than 
 heartless to permit a creature of the shambles to suffer. 
 
 I did not attempt to talk with her, except in the most 
 desultory way, until dessert was served. Then she said : 
 " I do not quite understand why you make the peculiar 
 impression which you do on me. You seem familiar 
 with New York and yet there is an air of strangeness 
 about you." 
 
 " You are very discerning," I replied.. '* I feel just 
 as I look, familiar and yet strange. I am an old Sew 
 Yorker, but have been away for two years." 
 
 " Are you going to stay in New York, now that you 
 have returned T' 
 
236 An Exi)eriment in Marriage, 
 
 " Only for a short time," I answered. " New York 
 lias too much unhappiDess. I think it would break ray 
 heart to live here." 
 
 Then there came a pause, after which she said : " I 
 am afraid I am not entertaining you. You forget your 
 excuse for asking me to dinner." Her eyes were down- 
 cast as she added, in a new and softer tone: ''But I 
 now know it was only a pretense. You saw I was 
 hungry and it made you miserable." 
 
 " Oh, but I assure you ," I began. 
 
 "Ah, there is no need to apologize for your courtesy." 
 Then she rose from her seat. " But I must detain you 
 no longer. Believe me I appreciate your delicacy as 
 well as your kindness. It is not so often they are 
 united." 
 
 As we reached the sidewalk again she held out her 
 hand to me. " Good-bye," an*d she smiled with a sweet 
 sadness. " You are a fairy prince to work such mira- 
 cles for me, and then disappear forever." 
 
 " Yet I do not propose to disappear just now un- 
 less you command it," I said with sudden r-esolution. 
 My relation with ray new acquaintance was so unusual 
 that it was already stirring my imagination danger- 
 ously. To be a deus ex machina for a lovely woman 
 is indeed a most fascinating position for an}^ man. 
 Thoughts of what hnr life would be when I was once 
 more taken out of it came over me, of the wretch- 
 edness which must be her daily portion with no one to 
 relieve it except at the price of her honor. 
 
 " What then 'i " she asked, without looking me in the 
 face. 
 
 " To begin with," I said, "I want to know where 
 you live." 
 
 " I am ashamed," she began. " But why should I 
 be ashamed? 1 will show you my home, if that is the 
 ])roper name for the place where I sleep and weep. 
 But it is some little distance from here." Then she 
 turned her face toward me with a new, bright expres- 
 
Afi Experiment in Marriage. 237 
 
 sion in it. *' But you haven't even asked mj name yet. 
 It is Kuth." 
 
 " And mine is Harry Yinton, at your service," I 
 said, as we slowly walked along together. 
 
 '' Have you written a novel ? " she asked w^ith new 
 excitement. 
 
 *' Four of them, if I remember aright," I an- 
 swered. 
 
 "Then you are not a stranger to me after all," she 
 exclaimed, with a low, sweet laugh. " Why didn't you 
 tell me before ? " 
 
 This was very gracefully said, and my heart gave a new 
 thrill as she bestowed that last confiding look upon me. 
 
 As we at last reached the narrow hall way she said : 
 " Here is my home. Good-bye." And she reached out 
 her hand. 
 
 " J^ot quite yet," I said with a laugh. "I suppose 
 you must live in some one of the upper rooms here. 
 But I do not know wdiich. I may want to find you 
 again." 
 
 She did not smile nor indeed look at me as she re- 
 plied : " You will not have occasion to see me again. 
 But I shall always remember you. Such kindness, 
 such gentleness and such delicacy, who could ever 
 forget them ? " 
 
 " Doesn't it seem," I said, '' as if some influence be- 
 yond our knowledge, but none the less real, had brought 
 us together just when you needed me most ? " I asked, 
 and she turned her dark face toward me with new in- 
 terest, as I continued : "I had a few hours to spare, 
 and had waited at that station while several trains 
 passed. Finally, at a venture, as I thought, I took the 
 train you were in, entered your car and seated myself 
 by your side." 
 
 '* Yes," she answered, her voice vibrating with feel- 
 ing, " and how strange that I sliould have been on that 
 very train ? There was no work for me in the box 
 factory this afternoon, and I had taken the opportunity 
 
238 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 to apply, in answer to an advertisement, for a position 
 as nurse maid up town. Unsuccessful, and with only 
 a few pennies in my pocket, which was my world, I 
 took the train which you were to board. I was on my 
 way to the poor chamber which now awaits me up 
 stairs. I should liave been weeping there in hopeless, 
 friendless misery during the hour I have spent so 
 happily with you." 
 
 A young woman, slatternly in dress and brazen in 
 aspect, stopped on the sidewalk and stared at us for an 
 instant. Then she brushed against us on her way in- 
 side, and went up stairs. At the tirst landing the woman 
 paused to look at us again, and catching my eye she 
 gave me a significant smile. I knew what was in her 
 mind, and flushed with a sense of insult. But I no- 
 ticed my companion was unconscious of it all. 
 
 '' Is it so impossible," i asked, " that 1 might have 
 felt your need of me before I even knew of your ex- 
 istence, and was drawn by that potent influence to take 
 the train which carried you, to seat myself by you, and 
 then, when I saw the unhappiness on your face, to 
 make so bold as to address 3^ou ? " 
 
 "I should like to beheve it," she said, softly. Then 
 there was a pause, and she added : " But 1 must not 
 detain you longer." 
 
 A sort of impatience with her seized me. " Do you 
 really mean that we shall see each other no more?" 1 
 demanded ; " that I shall go my way, and you go yours 
 to hopeless poverty ? " 
 
 '^ What else can I expect? " she said, in that low tone 
 of hers. " Our lives will never cross each other again. 
 But I shall not be quite as unhappy again, I think." 
 
 A sudden thought struck me. 
 
 "Let us live one day at a time," I said. " Can't you 
 get away from your work to-morrow ? " 
 
 "I shall have nothing to do," she answered, sadly. 
 ^* Work is so dull that I was not to go back until 
 Saturday. " 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 239 
 
 " Then I have it," I exclaimed, laying my hand lightly 
 on hers as I spoke. " What do yon say to a day with 
 me at Coney Island?" 
 
 A iinsli of undeuiable pleasnre suffnsed her olive 
 cheeks and then faded away. 
 
 " I don't think it wonld be well.*' 
 
 " Why not? " I insisted. " You can trust me. You 
 said that since you knew my name it made me an old 
 friend." 
 
 '*I would doubt everything else first," she said, 
 slowly. " Bnt think yourself how much better for me 
 not to have such a happy experience, how much blacker 
 by contrast it would leave my life afterward." 
 
 I was still touching her hand. But now I took it in 
 both mine and pressed it gently. " Do it to please 
 me. Meet me at pier ]N"o. 1 so we can take the half- 
 past eleven o'clock boat. Promise," I said. Then 
 she hurriedly caught her hand away as she answered : 
 '' I promise then." And she left me. 
 
 It was a few minutes after seven o'clock that I en- 
 tered the corridor of the "Fifth Avenue" and saw 
 Gillette walking up and down evidently in some im- 
 patience. He came np to me at once. 
 
 " I was afraid something had detained you," he said. 
 Then taking my arm : " Let us go in to dinner at once. 
 We shall have none too much time afterward to dress 
 and reach where we are expected." 
 
 "I have dined," I remarked. " But I have no ob- 
 jection to watching you follow suit." 
 
 "Dined? Well, that was considerate I must say. 
 But I'll excuse you this time. I suppose you met a 
 friend." 
 
 " Yes," I answered, slowly, as we made our way to 
 a table. "I met a friend." 
 
 Gillette ordered his dinner in a careless style which 
 would have broken the heart of that accomplished 
 student of the menu, my friend Ward. Then turning 
 to me : " L hope, though, that you will try to keep 
 
240 An ExperiTnent in Marriage, 
 
 clear of entangling alliances while in New York this 
 time." 
 
 I smiled at the very apt advice Gillette was iincon- 
 sciouslj giving me, but thought it well enongh to 
 change the course of the conversation. " Where are 
 yon going to take me to-night, by the way ? " 
 
 " To a west side reception. The hostess is a dab- 
 bler in all sorts of radicalism, and radicals of both sexes 
 meet there. I have obtained an invitation for you and 
 for myself, and hope we may be able to drop a little 
 good seed. But let me eat now." 
 
 When at last we were in a carriage and riding 
 rapidly across the city, Gillette found more time to tell 
 me something about the class of people we shonld 
 meet. 
 
 "But," I objected, "don't you think that we could 
 do more good both for our community and for the 
 world by seeking a different line of converts ? Why 
 can't we make a hundred proselytes among the un- 
 fortunate and those suffering from want while we fail 
 often among these advanced thinkers and theorists?" 
 
 " I don't know but there is something in what you 
 say," said Gillette, thoughtfully. " We will talk about 
 it later, but let ns do what we can to-night." 
 
 I imagine Gillette did very little. As for myself I 
 could not induce any one to listen to me long enough 
 to make the attempt of proselyting judicious. After 
 a few ineffective efforts to inculcate my ideas I gave 
 up in despair. Everybody seemed to have a cult to 
 urge, a theory to expound, a scheme of religion, science 
 or philosophy to set forth. It was only out of decency that 
 they listened to others while eagerly waiting an oppor- 
 tunity to discourse each of his own peculiar doctrines. 
 One after the other we were all taken into corners and 
 labored with by this or that radical, and expected to 
 grow enthusiastic as the beautiful points of the dif- 
 ferent theories were brought out. The women indeed 
 were the most inveterate proselytes of all. They argued 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 241 
 
 with their beautiful eyes as well as with their tongues, 
 and a gentleman felt that he was very unchivalrous 
 unless he appeared, at least, to be convinced. There 
 was the spiritualist and the tlieosophist, the material- 
 ist and loudest of all the agnostic, the old-fashioned 
 atheist, too, and the Darwinian, the Swedenborgian, 
 the humanitarian, the positivist. Each one said many 
 true and suggestive things, but all were extravagant 
 in their intolerance, and furious in their confidence 
 that if the world would but open its eyes to the truth, 
 as theorized upon by its expounder, tlie millennium 
 would be at hand. 
 
 All varieties of social reforms were represented. A 
 man was at my ear at one minute who believed that 
 by a modification of the land tax every inequality 
 would be cured and each one insured his deserts. 
 Then I was taken in hand by the advocate of a sys- 
 tem of profit sharing, as the long-awaited panacea for 
 human ills. Then would come the prophet of woman 
 suffrage claiming that, when women were enfranchised, 
 good laws, and those only, would be passed, and a new 
 moral tone and trustwortlw public opinion would be 
 formed. Another man looked to the regeneration of 
 the world through the universal banishment of alco- 
 holic liquors; another expected it from some new 
 scheme of universal education ; another, from some 
 change in the machinery of government. Each and 
 all had ear for nothing but talk of his own patent. 
 They tired me. They disgusted me with logic itself, 
 which could be made to prove so many inconsistent 
 theories. I had found one unpretending motherly lit- 
 tle woman who was inclined to talk to me about her 
 wonderful children. With her I retired into a peace- 
 ful corner, and was glad to be treated to the smart say- 
 ings of her precocious babies until Gillette came to 
 take me back to the hotel. 
 
 " It is a wasted evening," he said, as we parted for 
 the night. " These men and women are not the sort 
 31 
 
242 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 we could touch if we offered them a paradise ready 
 made. Each one must have reform brought about by 
 his own scheme or be will bave none of it." 
 
 " Surely," I said, '^ it was not from such people as 
 these your colony was first made up ? " 
 
 " No ; we saw to-nigbt only the charlatans of the 
 radical world, those who make a show of their ideas, 
 who j)reacb them only to gratify their personal vanity. 
 I have never tried before to j^roselyte what should be 
 called the society radical. I shall not need to repeat 
 the experiment. There may be a good deal in what 
 you suggest, to seek further additions to our com- 
 munity from those who have come to ideas like ours 
 through experience and suffering." 
 
 " That would be practical philanthropy, too," I 
 answered, " and on the grandest conceivable scale. 
 Let us make Grape Yalley a haven of rest for the suf- 
 fering and the distressed, and when Grape Valley be- 
 comes too small, search out new valleys or isles of the 
 sea, which shall serve as the promised land for the 
 happy multitudes we shall yet lead out of the land of 
 bondage." 
 
 Gillette seemed plunged in thought, but made no 
 reply. 
 
 " ]^J the way," I exclaimed, " what are your plans 
 for to-morrow ? " 
 
 '' I have business which will occupy me all day to- 
 morrow," he answered, "fill out your day to suit your- 
 self. The next day, that will be Saturday, I will call 
 you in again, and I hope to more purpose." 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 At eleven, the next forenoon, I was at Pier I^o. 1. 
 It occurred to me that Euth might be early. Women 
 are divided into two great classes by the standard of 
 promptness. Those of one class are always late at their 
 appointments, those of the other class are ahead of time. 
 There is no third class, I think. The few hours of my 
 acquaintance with Kuth had not been sufficient to 
 classify her, and I went early myself, so that, if it hap- 
 pened that she belonged to tlie class of those who an- 
 ticipate their appointments, she should experience no 
 uneasiness in waiting for me. I walked the full length 
 of the waiting-room, and made sure she was not there. 
 1 took the opportunity to buy tickets, and then souglit 
 a position where I could see her when she entered. 
 How strange our meeting had been. How unusual 
 the interest she had inspired in me. But would it out- 
 last so thorough a test as that to which this day would 
 subject it ? In the forenoon a man is disposed to take 
 rather prosaic views of life, and I now began to be 
 sceptical as to the reality of the charms of my new ac- 
 quaintance. It was very natural that I should have 
 been interested the previous afternoon in my protege. 
 To occupy the attitude of a kind Providence toward a 
 young woman is most pleasing in itself. A man is apt 
 to regard a woman, under such conditions, with feelings 
 of marked complacency, even if she be quite ordinary. 
 But doubtless I had been indiscreet in arranging for so 
 long a time in her society. She would weary me. It 
 would have been far kinder to her if I had insisted 
 upon leaving her some generous present, and then 
 
244 An Ex])eriment in Marriage, 
 
 wished her good evening, and more considerate of my- 
 self, too. In all my previous years in New York, I 
 had not done so injudicious a thing. My experience 
 at Grape Yalley must have increased my susceptibility, 
 or else my common sense had been suffered to run to 
 seed. 
 
 With a yawn I glanced at my watch. It was twenty 
 minutes past eleven. The girl was due now, if she were 
 coming. 1 examined with closer attention the faces of 
 those who entered. I must be careful she did not pass 
 me unrecognized in the crowd. Probably my idea of 
 her and her actual appearance were quite different. I 
 finally took a position on the sidewalk, where I could 
 see up and down the street. But there was no figure 
 like hers in sight. Her sound judgment had reminded 
 her how foolish it would be to pursue my acquaintance 
 further. She must have decided not to come. 
 
 Then I glanced most anxiously at my watch. It was 
 twenty-five minutes past eleven. My indifference was 
 all gone. I looked with painful impatience in all 
 directions. But everybody seemed going from the 
 pier, instead of approaching it. There was no use to 
 look any more. The last bell would ring in a moment. 
 I turned away from the street and stood staring with 
 envious eyes after the men who had ladies with them, 
 as they hurried up the stairs. One fact was clear. I 
 should never see Ruth again. Eutli — I did not even 
 know her last name. I had been thoughtless enough 
 not to insist that she give it to me. I could not find 
 her, of course, without knowing her full name. She 
 was lost out of my life forever. She must suffer all her 
 sorrows, bear all her burdens alone. It was denied me 
 to bring a smile to her lips again or to gladden her eyes. 
 The fate that seemed so kind yesterday shut us apart 
 to-day with an eternal barrier, which it seemed impossi- 
 ble to overleap. But I would find her. I could describe 
 her, and with her first name to help me, I would in- 
 qiiire of every tenant in the block where was her poor 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 245 
 
 room. I would not submit to losing lier. 1 would 
 force myself upon lier. Suddenly a thrill seemed to 
 pass over me. 1 turned to my right and saw almost 
 touching me, but still unconscious of my nearness, 
 Kuth, at last. 
 
 " We have just time to catch the boat," I cried, and 
 taking her hand, I added : " if we run." 
 
 And run we did, and so well that though we were 
 the last ones through the gate before it closed, yet we 
 were aboard the boat when the paddle wheels began 
 their noisy revolutions. 
 
 " That was a close race against time," I said, breath- 
 lessly, as we passed through the cabin on our way to the 
 deck. '' But I felt as if to catch that boat was worth 
 risking onr lives for." 
 
 " It is all my fault. I shouldn't have been so late," 
 she answered, as we took our seats on the shady side, 
 and looked out upon the most beautiful harbor on the 
 Atlantic coast. 
 
 "How did it happen?" I asked. 
 
 '' I am almost ashamed to tell ¥ou," she said, giving 
 me an apologetic look. " Last night I lay for hours 
 thinking, and then dreaming how happy I should be 
 to-day; but when I awoke m the morning, it seemed to 
 me that happiness had no place in my life and I decided 
 not to go." 
 
 The harbor lost its interest for me and I looked into 
 Ruth's dark, sensitive face. 
 
 But I said nothing and she continued : '' I thought, 
 too, that you must have repented of ycur rash invita- 
 tion, and would be only relieved that'll did not come 
 and would say : ' Ah, she was a sensible girl after all.' 
 Wouldn't you have said so?" Her black eyes scruti- 
 nized my face very keenly. 
 
 "I should have been intensely disappointed,'- I an- 
 swered, speaking of course for the latter part of my 
 period of waiting. ^' You know, I concluded you had 
 failed me, and so I can "Deak trom actual exi^erience." 
 
246 An Exjje^'iment in Marriage. 
 
 She smiled with winning sweetness and continued : 
 " Just why I dressed myself for the trip I cannot tell. 
 I kept telling myself that it was only because I was 
 going in search of a new position. But something 
 made me di-ess myself, even to the ruffle at my neck, 
 just as if I were to go with you. But all the time I 
 reminded myself that I had made a firm and unalter- 
 able determination not to come and so not see you again. 
 I sat down to my sewing Avhere I could see the old 
 clock which I had kept when almost everything of ni}^ 
 mother's w^as sold. For two hours I did not appreciate 
 the full measure of the sacrifice I had decided to make, 
 because it was far from the time when I needed to set 
 out for the boat if I were to come. I remember now 
 that once I let my sewing fall in my lap while I 
 nicely calculated that it would take me just half an 
 hour to walk to pier iSTo. 1. It was only half -past nine 
 then. But 1 am tiresome. Excuse me." 
 
 " Tiresome ? " I exclaimed, with one of those great 
 heart throbs which are so full of pain and yet of 
 rapture. '' I cannot tell you how intensely you interest 
 me." 
 
 " "Well, when it was half-past ten o'clock my heart 
 began to sink. The full meaning of what I was sac- 
 rificing came over me. The day was the finest, I 
 thought, I had ever known. I used to so love the 
 sea, but I had never been down New York harbor." 
 Then she lowered her voice, and looked far away over 
 the water as she added : "And I so wanted to see you 
 once more. I felt I had but half thanked you. I 
 wanted to tell you that I should alw^ays think you the 
 grandest, the truest, the best of men. I then threw my 
 sewing upon the floor. I would go after all. A wild, 
 exultant joy filled me. I pitied the whole world be- 
 side. I thought of the hundreds of thousands of girls 
 bending at that instant over their ill-paid tasks, and 
 pitied them because they could have no delight like 
 mine. I pitied rrxyself of a moment a^^o sitting at my 
 
A71 Mcperiment in Marriage. 247 
 
 sewing with tears in mj eyes and an ache in my 
 bosom. I put on my Lat, made the last few adjust- 
 ments in the room where I had passed such miserable 
 liours in the forever past, as for the moment I strangely 
 regarded it. I had even reached the door when I gave 
 a last glance around the room. Then my fancy re- 
 lentlessly pictured my returning there to-night, my 
 only too brief holiday over, my one joyful day past, 
 and I back again to take up my wretched life like 
 that of so many millions more. I could imagine my- 
 self groping for the mantel, and, finding there a match, 
 striking it, and lighting the kerosene lamp which stood 
 on the table. Then I would look about me, at the bare 
 walls, at the carpetless floor, at the poor, torn working 
 dress on which I had been sewing, at the ill-furnished 
 bed where I should soon lie sobbing in uncontrollable 
 desolation, ten tijnes more intolerable after my one day 
 of happiness.'^ 
 
 The tears came to my eyes in spite of myself. What 
 an accursed mechanism was the human heart to be ca- 
 pable of such sickening misery as this of hers. I could 
 not trust my voice, but I took her hand as it lay on 
 the railing, and, unconscious of what I did, carried it 
 to my lips and then released it. I do not think she 
 appreciated w^hat I was doing, as she continued her 
 story without change of voice. 
 
 " I returned to my chair, and bowing my head over 
 my hands, resigned myself to my fate, and bade you 
 good-bye forever. How long I sat thus, I cannot tell, 
 but when I looked at the clock again the hands pointed 
 to quarter-past eleven. It w^as now too late. It re- 
 quired at least a half hour to reach the pier, and there 
 were but fifteen minutes. Even if I changed my mind 
 I could not reach the ooat in time. Then, woman- 
 like, I upbraided myself for my folly. That I must be 
 miserable hereafter was surely no reason why I should 
 refuse a joy for to-day. Would I not be miserable 
 when night should come, a§Jt was, and with a fresh 
 
248 An Exjperiment in Marriage. 
 
 sorrow, a new torment because I had thrown away 
 a cliance for a day whose pure delight would furnish 
 mj memory for a life-time. Something in my throat 
 choked me. A deadly congestion seemed settling 
 about my heart. I wished I might die. I wondered 
 whether it would make a quick end of me to leap from 
 my window. It was at this moment that I heard foot- 
 steps in the hall and a man's voice calling to some 
 questioner up another story. * What do you want ? ' 
 1 heard a shrill voice call down the bannisters : ' The 
 clock has stopped. What time is it ? ' Alas I knew 
 too well the time. My own solemn-faced clock said 
 fifteen minutes past eleven, but the man answered 
 crossly : ^ You always forget to wind it. Well, it is 
 ^\'?. minutes past eleven.' I leaped to my feet in sud- 
 den response. But this was a mockery. The man 
 must be wrong. Then I heard the querulous woman's 
 voice call down once more : 'Are you sure % ' I held 
 my breath. My fate hung on his answer. It came 
 sharp and clear : ' Sure ? Of course I am. I set it at 
 the jeweler's an hour ago.' Then there was yet time to 
 catch the boat, if I ran. And, without stopping even to 
 lock my door, I rushed down stairs. I was so nearly 
 blind in my excitement that T collided with foot pas- 
 sengers right and left, but I did not look behind me, nor 
 stop to make excuses. It had taken me but eight min- 
 utes to reach Broadway, and my heart beat high ^vith 
 hope. But there the street was densely blockaded. 
 Drays, street cars and private carriages were packed so 
 close that they made almost a solid wall. I waited for 
 a few seconds for a passage to be opened, but, seeing 
 none, I started to force my way through. I ran 
 under the heads of snorting horses, dodged the poles 
 of truck wagons, and was half way across the street 
 when an absolutely impenetrable blockade shut me 
 in. I could not go forward, I would not go back. 
 So I took refuge on the platform of a street car, and 
 waited it seemed almost a life-time. At last I could 
 
An Ex^erhnent in Marriage, 249 
 
 see light between me and the farther sidewalk, and 
 hurried through the perilous and uncertain alley, in 
 spite of the warnings of drivers and the gesticulations 
 of policemen. I drew a blessed breath of relief and 
 walked rapidly on my course. It was now that I 
 glanced at a clock in front of a jeweler's store, and 
 read the terrible time. It was twenty-four minutes 
 past eleven. A carriage happened to stand by the 
 curbing, and I cried hastily to the driver : * What will 
 you charge to get me to the Coney Island boat before 
 half-past eleven ? ' The driver took out his watch. 
 * It will be a close call to do it. Well, one dollar.' I 
 drew out my purse and counted out two ten cent pieces 
 and a twenty-five cent piece. ' This is all I have in the 
 world,' I said. ' Will you take me for this % ' He 
 gave me a sharp look, and I think believed me. He 
 reached down and took my money. ^ In with you, 
 quick,' he said, and before the door had fairly closed 
 we were in motion. The awful suspense, the cold ter- 
 ror I felt at the prospect that I should be late after all, 
 were the most agonizing experiences even I had ever 
 had. A score of times, in imagination, I saw the car- 
 riage stop, the driver open the door for me, give a 
 quick glance at the dock, and I seemed to hear him say : 
 ' We are just too late, Miss, but I done my best.' 
 Then a mist seemed to come before my eyes, and a 
 w^oman who looked like me but who was fairly stag- 
 gering with the intoxication of despair, walked slowly 
 back. Surely there could be no worse sufiering in 
 store for me after that. Then came the sight of the 
 masts, and I knew the end was at hand. The 
 carriage stopped. The driver stood at the open door 
 with just that dreaded expression of regret on his 
 face. Then came the very words : ' We are just too 
 late, miss. I am sorry, but I done my best.' Even the 
 bad grammar was what I had anticipated. But as I 
 leaped out I heard the bell ringing. There might be 
 a chance yet. I rushed inside the door, felt your hand 
 33 
 
250 An Exjperiment in Marriage, 
 
 upon my arm, saw your eyes look into mine, and all 
 my misery was turned into joy." 
 
 If ever a man was made that could listen unmoved 
 to such a story from a woman's lips it was not I. Yet 
 I managed to say as she concluded : 
 
 ^' But I would not have missed seeing you again." 
 
 " You didn't know which was my room, or where I 
 worked, or even my last name," she said. ^' But I 
 must tell you my name now. It is Ruth Gordon." 
 
 "But I would have moved heaven and earth to have 
 found you." 
 
 " Would you ? " she asked, loooking in beautiful 
 surprise at me. ''You forget I was almost a stranger 
 to you. All that you knew about me was that you had 
 befriended me. But there are a hundred thousand in 
 New York as poor as I — why is the steamer stop- 
 ping?" 
 
 " This is the iron pier," I said, in a more practical 
 tone of voice. " We are at Coney Island." 
 
 As we made our way from the boat I said to her : 
 "Kow I want to make this the happiest day of your 
 life. Shall we begin by taking a sea bath ? " 
 
 " ITothing would please me more," she answered in 
 a voice that was full of a new excitement, and within 
 a very few minutes we were clad in the ungraceful 
 costumes of the country, and I was teaching her how 
 to make the most of that mighty pla^^mate, the At- 
 lantic. At first the scantiness of our dresses seemed 
 to fill ber with overpowering shame. Her eyes were 
 downcast, her cheeks aflame, and she seemed anxious 
 to release her hand from mine as we walked out to 
 meet the breakers. 
 
 " Oh, let me go back," she murmured. " I shall be 
 ashamed all day to look you in the face." 
 
 • " Why, onl}^ look at all these other bathers," I said. 
 " They none of them are abashed. You will forget it 
 all when the first big wave strikes you." 
 
 And so she did. She became as wild with deli£:ht 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 251 
 
 ' 'S ™".Tw. left in tta ««- 0" ~olleM»n. ot 
 
 but to-day they all pleased B.e ^^^^^^X^^^^^ To 
 flPtPfl as the ffuide and cicerone of Kutti (joraon. xo 
 
 „., 11 »m a mJ food .jmfo.ium; aiimraio <tu<lj. 
 
 |^7^s:?;£i^^et-=?=S 
 
 ^=-:^d£^isS=SS^r^^ 
 
 ^^■?^y^3teTel'',^%aid as she tasted the 
 
 wine, "that there is nothing so rare or delicate but 
 
 you would offer it to me to-day. 
 
 « There is no woman on the earth, iiepueu, ueuu 
 ing toward he.°" with whom I would be so happy to 
 
 dine." 
 
252 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 " Keally ? " she asked, curiously. But she did not 
 redden in self-consciousness as I had .expected. As 
 she continued, I understood how her modesty shut her 
 in from my compliments as with a veil. 
 
 " How chivalrous you are. Do you know," she said 
 in that peculiarly low, thrilling tone of hers, " that I 
 have wondered many times since I first met you yes- 
 terday — it seems ages ago — how I dared to accept 
 such kindness from you % But now that I know you 
 I do not wonder any longer. There was, I think, 
 some unknown finer sense in me w^hich recognized 
 how noble and magnanimons your nature is." 
 
 " You make me ashamed," I said. "If there is any- 
 thing fine in my behavior to you, it is because it is im- 
 possible for me to be with you and show poor or cheap 
 traits. A man is w^iat a woman inspires him to be.'' 
 
 " I am glad I came," she said, simpl}^ I, too,' was 
 glad that she came, intensely glad. As I sat there at 
 the table with this woman whom yesterday at this 
 hour I had not yet met, I felt I was tasting perfect 
 happiness at last. It seemed to me I would ask noth- 
 ing better if I could but have hoped to sit with her 
 before me listening to her sweet voice, drinking in 
 the light from her dark eyes, forever, if the sun would 
 but stand still and time and change be suspended. 
 Even when she was silent I seemed to commune with 
 her. It was as if our spirits had recognized each other 
 and kept whispering their mutual secrets, and answer- 
 ing confidence with confidence. 
 
 But the tables came into great demand as the after- 
 noon boats brought new arrivals from the metropolis, 
 and I said at last : 
 
 " We must make place for other hungry people." I 
 offered her my arm and for a little while w^e walked 
 up and down the broad piazzas. To entertain her I 
 directed her attention to the men and women at the 
 tables, or sitting by the railings listening to the con- 
 cert, and to still others walking as we were, or occupy- 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 253 
 
 ing tlie seats below. I tried to show her how they 
 bore the marks of their characters upon their faces, how 
 their history was much of it written in their features, 
 history for the most part of perverted natures, of dis- 
 torted tastes and of disappointed hopes. 
 
 " You do not think very highly of human nature," 
 she said, looking reproachfully at me. 
 
 '- Ah, yes, I do think very highly of it, but human 
 nature has small chance to show its glorious attributes 
 in modern civilized society, it is our lower capacities 
 which are stimulated into excessive activity by the de- 
 mands upon them. Our higher faculties, our fraternal 
 sentiments, our power to love and all implied in that 
 power, are left nearly dormant." 
 
 *' What a pity that society cannot be changed, then ! 
 Do you think that men and women would grow to be 
 better and nobler if different influences were placed 
 about them ? " 
 
 '' Why not ? It is debasing influences and tempta- 
 tions to do evil which make men and women low and 
 bad. Is it not plain that if these influences were for 
 unselfishness ; if the temptations to overreach our fel- 
 lows, to anticipate them in greediness, were removed, 
 that we should grow to be better ? We are not bad 
 because we want to be, but because we have to be so 
 or go to the wall." 
 
 She sighed deeply. " It is because there is not 
 enough for all, I suppose, and that only by being 
 craftier than others, can one win what he wants." 
 
 I had made a sudden resolution. 
 
 " Let us draw some chairs back into a retired little 
 nook. There we can talk and listen to the music at 
 the same time." 
 
 '' That will be delightful," she answered, both with 
 her voice and with her eyes. 
 
 We found just the corner which I wanted where we 
 could talk without likelihood of being overheard, and 
 I began my story by asking a question. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 " You seem to be a womau without curiosity," I 
 said. ^^ Don't you care to know where I live, or any 
 thing about me more than the fact that I have written 
 a poor novel or two ? " 
 
 " It is only your present in which I have any con- 
 cern," she said. " Your past and your future are 
 equally out of my world." 
 
 Another of those waves of emotion which this girl 
 had power to stir swept through me. 
 
 "You do not know what you are saying," I cried, 
 breathlessly. " Do you think 1 shall let this day be 
 our last together ? " 
 
 She grew pale and her breast heaved magnihcentlyo 
 
 " Don't talk in that way," she murmured, " it is 
 cruelty." 
 
 Did her heart-beats hurt her, too ? Did she fear me 
 and my influence over her, or did love seem to her 
 maiden soul a terrible power whose masterly spirit she 
 dreaded with vague alarms ? I tried to put a curb 
 upon my emotions and to speak in the proper tone of 
 a dispassionate historian, if there is such a thing. 
 
 '' But this is a part of my past, wdiich will, I am 
 sure, interest you. For two years I have been in the 
 far West, a member of a community founded on the 
 brotherhood of man. There no man spends his 
 strength in efforts to deprive his fellow of the good 
 things of life. All work for a common end, the wel- 
 fare and comfort of all. There are no rich men there, 
 and no poor men or women. All alike work, all alike 
 enjoy. The hate and ill-will which have been per- 
 
An Expe7'iment in Marriage, 255 
 
 verting and distorting human nature for so many cen- 
 turies have nothing there to feed upon. Envy, selfisli- 
 ness, covetousness, meanness, and all the soul-destroy- 
 ing influences they breed have no scope in that society. 
 It is a noble thing that the people of that valley are 
 assured all the comforts of life and the leisure for en- 
 joyment. But these luxuries, I and tens of thousands 
 of favored men and women, have enjoyed before. The 
 most glorious achievement of this society is that hnman 
 character is at last given field to fulfill its capacity for 
 good ; men are permitted to look upon each other as 
 friends ; upon loving kindness as a disposition which 
 they are no longer forbidden by the law^s of self -protec- 
 tion to cherish." 
 
 Her eyes, big with wonder, w^ere fixed upon me as 
 she exclaimed : 
 
 " Are you dreaming aloud? Surely there can be no 
 such place in this world as you describe ? " 
 
 ^' Why not ? " I asked. " Man is not selfish because 
 he likes to be, mean because it is a pleasure to him to 
 be mean, cruel because he delights in crudity. To make 
 his way in this state of society he must be so. To draw 
 his income, if he be rich, he must cause the sick and 
 the weary to toil for him, the poor to go hungry, chil- 
 dren to lack the pleasures even the wild beasts give 
 their young. To earn his bread, if he be poor, he must 
 show scant pity to those as needy as he, fight like a 
 wolf and trample on other hungry men to keep his 
 poor place in the industiial ranks ; his heart consumed 
 all the while with bitterness at his lot, his soul burn- 
 ing with hate for those who profit by his ill-paid labor, 
 with envy of the happy and of the prosperous who have 
 their paths made easy and their burdens light w^hile he 
 toils early and late and feels himself unable to bring a 
 smile to his wife's wan cheeks or a laugh to his chil- 
 dren's eyes. In this place I speak of, however, the evil 
 passions, which have killed ont the manifestations of 
 brotherly love for so many centuries, have gone so far 
 
256 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 toward stifling even the wish to be unselfisli and toward 
 throttling generous impulses at their birth, are no longer 
 engendered. Even the seeds of them will soon die out 
 in the human heart. Henceforth men can be all the 
 immortal longings of the soul have drawn them to be." 
 
 She did not speak, but her glowing eyes urged me to 
 continue : 
 
 " In that valley the subjection of women, too, is for- 
 ever past. She works as does the man, and shares alike 
 with him. If she chooses to marry it is not for support, 
 since she continues after marriage to earn her livelihood, 
 nor is it for a home and companionship simply, since 
 each person there is assured a home where all the 
 society which could be desired is offered. If she mar- 
 ries, she marries for love, or what she thinks is love, 
 and if she finds she has made a mistake, her bonds, for 
 such they must have become, are dissolved at will. 
 Her life is not wrecked because of mistaken judgment. 
 The ideal in that valley, between men is fraternity, 
 between each man and some woman, perfect love. If 
 a man really loves a woman she must love him as much. 
 -Their souls and minds cry out for each other as do their 
 lips. If that love ceases to bind them together the true 
 marriage is in fact dissolved. In this valley the law 
 merely records that fact. To deprive them of the enjoy- 
 ment of true love, and its ennobling, inspiring influences, 
 would be to do them intolerable injustice. If men and 
 women were all-wise and incapable of making mistakes, 
 the first marriage would be the best marriage. But since 
 mistakes are more frequent than ideal selections, the 
 laws of that valley permit frequent divorces and re- 
 marriages. Women there are growing into a life their 
 sex never conceived of before. The burdens which for 
 so many centuries have rested upon them have been 
 lifted. Tliey are wives, but only when they love and 
 are beloved as they desire. They are mothers, but the 
 care, nurture and education of their children are taken 
 from their shoulders, while their joy in their little ones 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 257 
 
 is not at all abated. So tlieir progress and develop- 
 ment is not arrested with tlie advent of the first infant ; 
 a book whose first pages only have been turned. They 
 have homes, but not confinement at liard labor. Their 
 life is as free of care as a man's, as open to influences 
 for culture, for education, for that development which 
 we live for, and which we must have ourselves before 
 we can hand them down to our children." 
 
 I waited an instant to hear what she should say, but 
 as she did not speak, I said : 
 
 " I will take you there if you desii'e it." 
 
 For a moment she seemed as if she could not believe 
 her ears, then her eyes melted in gratitude. She 
 opened her lips to speak, but it was a moment before 
 she whispered : 
 
 *' What miracle is this ? " 
 
 For the last hour before our boat sailed for New 
 York, we walked along the beach, as happy creatures 
 as the moon shone upon that night. I answered her 
 hundred eager questions, which were like those of a 
 child on the eve of a dehghtful journey. I told her all 
 about myself, too, and my relations with the women of 
 Grape Valley. I had expected some signs of irritation, 
 I had thought to see an expression of displeasure cross 
 her face. But so poor and cheap an emotion as that of 
 jealousy was not possible to this woman. 
 
 " And your love story," I said, at last, as, our return 
 journey over, we stood on the steps of the hallway of 
 the block somewhere on whose upper floors was her 
 room. *' You have not told me of your lover." 
 
 " I have had no love story," she answered, slowly. 
 " I do not know what it is to love." 
 
 Passionate words started to my lips, but I still held 
 them back. 
 
 " Now you are sure you imderstand," I said. " This 
 
 is your last night here. To-morrow morning I will call 
 
 early, and we will breakfast together. Then I will 
 
 take you to some quiet boarding-house, and bring a 
 
 33 
 
258 An Experiment m Marriage. 
 
 friend to see yon. Then wo will arrange our plans 
 for taking yon to Grape Valley." 
 
 " How good yon are," she said, dreamily. "What 
 desert is there in me for such an interference of destiny 
 in my behalf ? What good have I done or thought 
 that I should be singled out of the ranks of the un- 
 happy women of New York for translation to Ely- 
 sium ? " Then she seemed to recover her grasp of the 
 practical present. " But I must go to my room. It 
 is long past midnight." And she held out her hand. 
 
 " I cannot bear that you should stay here even to- 
 night. It is such a horrible place," I exclaimed, with- 
 out releasing her hand. 
 
 '^ Oh," and her smile was more sweet and gentle 
 than ever, I thought, " but you say it is only for one 
 night. Besides it will be so wonderful to go into my 
 room again and compare my happiness, oh my rapture, 
 why was such joy ever given to me ? — with the misery, 
 the despair, which 1 expected would await me at my 
 door when I returned." 
 
 " Just think," she continued, letting her hand stay 
 in mine, " I shall grope through the room to find the 
 mantel piece, and the poor little bonbon box which 
 did duty as a match safe. Then I shall strike a match 
 and crossing to the table light my old lamp. Do you 
 know the shade of that lamp always seemed nearly 
 human to me. When I used to sit in my chair by it 
 and work late at night repairing my old dresses, I used 
 to think it watched me with solemn sympathy. When 
 I cried I used to feel as if it looked a shade more mel- 
 ancholy than before. There I have made a pun. You 
 can see how much in need of rest I must be. Keally 
 you must let me go," and she looked significantly at 
 my hand as it im^^risoned hers. 
 
 " But you were going to tell me how different your 
 feelings would be from those you had dreaded," I in- 
 sisted, wondering whether I was going to be able, after 
 all, to keep back my declaration of love until to- 
 
An ExperiTnent in Marriage, 259 
 
 morrow as I had intended, she was so bewildering 
 to-night. 
 
 " Haven't I told you before ? Well, there on the 
 floor beside my chair, I shall find ni}^ old dress just 
 where I threw it half mended when I decided to come 
 to you. Ah, just there, as I touched it the waves of 
 desolation would have swept over my soul. As I must 
 put on that old dress to-morrow, so, I would have re- 
 membered, I must put on my old life. As I must lay 
 off the dress I have worn to-day so I must put away all 
 the joy from my life. Then I would have heard 
 the terrible tick of the clock sounding e-harp and clear, 
 as it always does when I feel most desperate, and I 
 would have straightway invented some gloomy sentence 
 and imagined that it was what the pendulum was ar- 
 ticulating. Perhaps the sentence would be: Why — did — 
 you — go? Why — did — you — go? in dreadful rythm. 
 Then I would take one more look at the bare walls and 
 a deadly sense of suffocation would come upon me. I 
 would have rushed to the bed, and bur^dng my face in 
 the poor little pillows, sobbed and wept and longed for 
 death." 
 
 "Oh, I cannot endure it," I cried, coming closer to her. 
 
 '* But to-night I will langh that you have cheated 
 giant despair of his prey, my noble knight, san% ])exLr 
 et sans rep'ocKe. Please let me go — you really must 
 let me go." 
 
 " Come into the street first, and show me where 
 your room is,' ' I said, drawing her with me down the 
 steps, " I must know where to come for you in the 
 morning, you remember." 
 
 "Why, to be sure," she answered lightly. "How 
 stupid of me." Then pointing above the hall entrance 
 she said : " Look up to the third story. The window 
 next to the left opens into my room. When you come 
 foi* me you will only have to climb two flights of 
 stairs, and make ready to climb the third flight but 
 stop right there. Turn around, and knock at the door 
 
260 An Experiment in Marriage^ 
 
 which will stare you in the face. As it opens to your 
 knock you will see me ready and waiting, and oh, so 
 happy." Then with a quick movement she released 
 her hand and ran up the steps. 
 
 "Good night," she cried, as she passed into the dimly- 
 lighted hall and up the stairs. 
 
 I was sorry I had let her go. Why should I have 
 permitted this woman who had suddenly filled out the 
 measure of my whole life to stay in this repulsive 
 place even for one more night ? Who could tell what 
 dangers might lurk here % This very night fire might 
 break out in the pawnbroker's shop beneath and Ruth, 
 my sweetheart without knowing it, yield up her life 
 in agony. My plan had been to take her on the mor- 
 row to some private boarding-house and let that be her 
 home while she stayed in New York. If she promised 
 to marry me, she would, of course, want time to make 
 preparations. That is one of the dearest privileges of her 
 sex. I reproached myself now for not taking an earlier 
 boat home which would have given me time to have 
 found a more suitable place for her to sleep to-night. 
 Then I blamed myself for not having taken her to a 
 hotel when we returned ; late as it was I should have 
 sacrificed the proprieties rather than have taken the 
 risk of sacrificing her on the altar of my own f ussiness. 
 
 Then I stepped well into the street so that I could 
 see her window. Ah, it was the one-half way to the 
 roof. She was doubtless at this moment climbing the 
 second flight of stairs. In a minute more she would 
 enter her room, find the match on the mantel and 
 light her lamp. Perhaps it would then occur to her 
 that I might still be watching below and she would 
 step to the open window for a last glance or wave of 
 the hand. Women seldom forget these sweet little 
 bits of sentiment. 
 
 But what should I do to protect her to-night? I 
 might, to be sure, go up to the stairs opposite her door 
 and sit there through the long hours on guard. But 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 261 
 
 that would give her too good an opportunity to laugh 
 at me in the morning when the danger was past, and 
 the sunlight seemed to laugh too at the terrors of the 
 night before. It would provide her with a convenient 
 method of pointing her jokes at my expense all the rest 
 of our lives, if she married me. But would she marry 
 me after all ? One can never be sure of a woman. 
 Gratitude and love are very different things, and the 
 love I wanted from her was the grandest grade of the 
 grand passion. I must not be too hasty with my 
 wooing. Women are always displeased at being thought 
 too easily won. I was convinced that she had not yet 
 thought of me as a lover. She regarded me as a friend, 
 as a benefactor, almost as a worker of miracles. It 
 would really be more magnanimous of me, under the 
 circumstances, if I carefully abstained from' breathing 
 a syllable of love until we were both in Grape Valley. 
 It might seem to her as if I was, in a way, making 
 conditions for rescuing her from her life of misery and 
 unhappiness. But what lover is magnanimous? 
 
 Ah, there was a gleam of light in her bedroom. She 
 had struck a match. I wondered if she were as happy 
 as she thought she would be. Was she thinking of me 
 or was she thinking of Coney Island ; or more likely 
 still, of the tempting picture I had drawn for her of 
 Grape Yalley ? Perhaps, as she crossed the room, she 
 was wondering why I had seemed so fond of holding 
 her hand. Women in their solitude recall our behavior, 
 of which they seemed quite oblivious when with us, 
 and show wonderful analytical powers in dealing with it. 
 
 J^ow the room became somewhat lighter. She had 
 touched the match to the wick. ^N'ow it was brighter 
 still ; she must have placed the chimney on the lamp. 
 In an instant more she would be at the window if she 
 remembered me. There she is. Would it be indiscreet 
 of me to call to her ? 
 
 Then came a muffled scream and she suddenly dis. 
 appeared from the winaow. -►. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 For an instant I seemed incapable of moving, even 
 of thonght. Then tliere came a flash of memory. The 
 smell of the salt air was in my nostrils again. I was 
 sitting with Kuth by the rail of the boat, while she 
 told me of her sudden decision to come. One sentence 
 of them all sounded with new significance in my ears. 
 ' Without stopping to lock my door I rushed down the 
 stairs.' During her absence some creature had en- 
 tered her room, and for hours had crouched there in 
 the darkness for his victim. While we had exchanged 
 gentle words and gentler wishes, he had plotted his 
 treachery and violence. Then a consuming heat filled 
 my breast. My heart was bursting with rage for her 
 assailant were he man or l)east, or both in one. I longed 
 to be at his throat, to tear liis life out for causing the 
 girl I loved so much as one first faint qualm of terror. 
 My stunned will had recovered its power, and driven 
 by an instinct as strong as that of a tigress springing 
 to the defense of her young, I leaped into the doorway 
 and up the stairs. I caught the bannisters to aid me 
 and took four steps at a time. 
 
 For guide to Ruth's room I had only the directions 
 she had given me a few moments before. Little she 
 knew how speedily T should use them. JSTow I stood 
 facing the door of her i-oom as it stood just ajar. She 
 had doubtless waited before she should shut it until 
 her lamp was lighted. Within all was silent, horribly 
 silent. My heart almost stopped beating as I pushed 
 the door open, and saw a man and a woman engaged 
 in a deadly struggle. The man was slight of figure, 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 263 
 
 and bore tlie marks of dissipation upon his face. Tlie 
 woman — my own Ruth — was very pale, and her 
 features were set, as if in rigor mortis, as she knelt 
 upon the chest of the writhing creature. His arms she 
 held flat upon the floor upon either side. She must 
 have thrown him. down in her first spring, and now, 
 with straining muscles and tense nerves, she was striv- 
 ing to hold him there. It was her only hope. The 
 marks of his fingers were yet upon her throat, and her 
 dress was torn open at the neck, revealing beauties 
 which she would rather have died than that this wretch 
 should see. How villainous was his white, sneering 
 face, how devilish the smile of expected triumph which 
 yet lingered about his lips. Well he knew her strength 
 would soon fail her. 
 
 l^either of them had noticed iny entrance, so absorbed 
 were they in their terrific struggle. But before I 
 corad decide how to act, alternate waves of fury for 
 this man, and of admiration for the w^oman, passing 
 over me, her strength began to fail. His arms drew 
 up in spite of her agonizing attempt to hold them. 
 With a pitiful cry she sprang to her feet, for the last 
 and hopeless struggle, and he faced her with a new 
 flush of hateful delight upon his cheeks. 
 
 My tiaie had come, and I leaped upon him like the 
 tigress, whose ferocity would be gentleness compared 
 with miiie, and catching him by the throat strangled 
 him ahnost into unconsciousness. He must have 
 thought it was Nemesis who had flown in at the win- 
 dow. He was like a child in my grasp as I forced him 
 to the door of the room which he had profaned, and 
 to the stairway. Then lifting him over the railing I 
 dropped his vile form far down below, as I hoped, to his 
 death. I hardly waited to hear the crash before I re- 
 turned to the chamber of my beloved. The room 
 seemed strangely familiar to me, until I remembered 
 it was from her description I had been able to jDicture 
 it. The solemn-faced clock was an old acquaintance, 
 
264 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 the round table, with ink-stained cloth, the lamp with 
 its companionable shade, even her working dress as it 
 lay on the floor where she had dropped it in her haste, 
 all attracted me with a pathetic sense of recognition. 
 But oh, the bareness of the walls, and of the floor, the 
 scantiness of the furniture I Poverty, lonehness, misery, 
 were written everywhere. From all these I could save 
 this girl, but who would save the millions of others 
 as unhappy, as innocently ground beneath the pitiless 
 heel of a fatal industrial system? How could men of 
 heart and soul sleep by night, or be at peace by day, 
 while there was one human being whose hourly cup 
 of bitterness is such as millions drain in our Christian 
 civilization % 
 
 Euth sat in a semi-faint upon her bed. It was clear 
 I had not come a moment too soon, but I do not 
 think she yet knew what had saved her. She bad 
 drawn together her dress to conceal the fair vision of 
 her bosom, but more in instinct than in appreciation of 
 my presence, I thought. 
 
 " Don't you know I am here, dear Ruth?" I said, seat- 
 ing myself by her side, and supporting her with my 
 arm. 
 
 I thought she tried to smile. " I have come for you," 
 I went on. " I shall take you away from this place 
 this very night, if j^ou will go." 
 
 Her lips moved to form the word " Yes." 
 
 " Do you know," I said, *' what it is that I want you 
 to do, and this very night ? " 
 
 She opened her eyes at last and gazed at me in won- 
 der. How did I come here, in her chamber? she 
 seemed to query of herself. Then she must have re- 
 called her terrible struggle and her mysterious rescue. 
 She closed her eyes again, and nestled toward me with 
 an unconscious movement which tilled me with wild 
 
 joy. 
 
 *' I am going to take you away with me ; so we must 
 be married, and this very night." 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 265 
 
 The pallor had left her cheeks now. The rich 
 colors painted on the woods in Autumn were dull to 
 the living glow of her cheeks. Her eyes, too, fairly 
 blazed with a new consciousness and beauty. Thea 
 she drew away, and rising, stood facing me. 
 
 " I marry you ? " she asked, in a voice I could not 
 interpret. 
 
 " Not if you do not love me," I answered in sudden 
 wretchedness. " But you must let me ask you again, 
 many months from now, when you know me better." 
 I rose to plead with her more persuasively. A strange 
 look was in her eyes as she listened. 
 
 She said at last : " I dared not dream that you loved 
 me. To be offered life instead of a living death ; to 
 be given hope, instead of despair ; to be assured that I 
 should be an honorable and useful woman, and no 
 longer an enemy even of my own toiling sisterhood, 
 competing with other poor girls for bread ; these were 
 enough. Should I expect your love too? Was there 
 no one in the world to be made happy but me? 
 Should I greedily ask for all the beautiful things I 
 saw?" 
 
 I took her in my arms in the first wonderful em- 
 brace of love, and as she raised her lips to mine for 
 their first kiss, I was filled with amazement that in a 
 world so full of misery, such ecstasy as mine could bo 
 possible. Then, still in my arms, she drew back her 
 head, and, leaning away, looked into my face for a mo- 
 ment as she said, in a voice like one just yielding to 
 the potency of powerful liquor : " And did you think 
 I could love you better bye and bye? That would be 
 impossible. Now^ that I have entertained for a moment 
 the thought of being loved by you, I love you with my 
 whole soul. I think I would die without it." 
 
 '^ We will start for the happy valley to-morrow." 
 As I spoke the clock struck two. " Not to-morrow, 
 but tonday." 
 
 " Where you are, is my paradise," she answered. 
 
 34 
 
266 A7i £xperi?7ie7it in Marriage, 
 
 " We must go at once," I said. And without wait- 
 ing for so much as one parting look behind, she went 
 out from her old dark life forever. 
 
 As we went down the stairs we saw that help had 
 been attracted by the cries of the degraded wretch who 
 had so nearly paid with his life for his attempted vil- 
 lainy. Barely noticing that he was not fatally hurt, I 
 drew Kuth's arm closer to mine, and we hurried out 
 into the air. 
 
 It was a half hour before we found a carriage, an 
 hour more before we secured an audience with the 
 minister we desired, and the blackness of night was 
 giving slow place to the gray of dawn when I could 
 use to her that tenderest of names : '' My wife." 
 
 " Shall we go to the bridge," I suggested, " and see 
 the sun rise ? '' 
 
 The drays had already commenced their slow proces- 
 sion as we entered the bridge, but we were the only 
 foot passengers in sight. The attendant policeman, to 
 whom the welcome hour of release was drawing near, 
 watched us somewhat suspiciously at first, but when 
 lie perceived that we were mere lovers, he yawned 
 contemptuously and gave his thoughts once more to the 
 tempting picture of the soft bed and darkened chamber 
 which would soon be his solace. 
 
 " Let me tell you just what we shall do to-day," I 
 said softly, my voice lingering over that delightful 
 plural. " We must breakfast early, perhaps in Fulton 
 market, that will be convenient. Then we shall have 
 to take an early morning drive through the park to re- 
 fresh us. It will fill the place of the night's rest 
 which we both have missed. It will be nine o'clock 
 when we return, and I must present Mr. Gillette to 
 you. Then you shall go shopping until noon." 
 
 '' And you ? " she murmured, sweetly. 
 
 " I will finish the last few pages of my two years' 
 experience in Grape Yalley. This I must send to a 
 friend, a New York editor. He is to make a book of 
 
A71 Experiment m Marriage, 267 
 
 it. All this must be done before we start for the 
 "West this afternoon." 
 
 " And shall you put me in your history?" 
 
 *' I must, my darling. You it is who give com- 
 pleteness to it." 
 
 *' And if you tell the miracle which has befallen me, 
 all poor girls, too, may hope. Oh, why cannot we come 
 back from our happy valley, now and then, and gather 
 up others whose lives are as black as mine was, and 
 save them for themselves and for happiness ? " 
 
 "We will," I answered, as we reached the highest 
 point of the bridge, and seated ourselves upon ^le 
 same bench where Ward, Gillette and I h:id sat that 
 other night, almost two years ago. 
 
 TLie sun was just gilding the east for his rising, and 
 with my arm about my wife and with her head upon 
 my shoulder I felt that all the beauties of the world 
 would henceforth have a new and fuller meaning for 
 me. The gold, the I'ed and the blue outvied each 
 other in the marvelous monocromes they painted on the 
 clouds, then blending all in one perfect picture, made 
 my eyes fairly tremble with the revelation. Then the 
 sun himself sent his first rays glancing over land and 
 sea and there came the answering gleam from the 
 white sails and from the vanes and domes of glistening 
 gold and shining steel. 
 
 I looked at the three mighty cities with their teem- 
 ing millions of men, women and children, mostly mis- 
 erable, although formed for happiness ; mostly selfish 
 although inclined to fraternity ; mostly wicked although 
 yearning for the good. The poorer of those millions, 
 the ones with their faces crushed nearest to the earth, 
 were already astir. Sleep, the only boon undenied 
 them, has left their eyelids and with sighs, whose 
 united breath would sweep whole navies from the sea, 
 they begin to drink their daily cup of misery. In a 
 few hours more their masters, the well-to-do and the 
 rich, will come forth from their white sheets to another 
 
268 An Ex'periment in Marriage. 
 
 day. But it seemed to me tlie masters were hardly 
 more happy. "Were not both, indeed, slaves together 
 to industrial and social institutions which forbid all real 
 development and progress? The few cannot attain 
 progress unless the many share in it. Happiness lies 
 in the fulfillment of the capacities of our nature for 
 good. Civilization is based on principles of selfishness, 
 and selfishness begets all ignoble and degrading ten- 
 dencies. Who, in civilization, unless he gives all his 
 goods to the jDOor and his life to the service of others, 
 can be happy ? And even if he did that, the still un- 
 flagging revolutions of the wheels of our murderous 
 system of society, must tear the tendons of his sensitive 
 heart. The sop the philanthropist throws to Cerberus 
 is all in vain. 
 
 Could those miserable beings be made happy ? Could 
 the people of thousands of cities and towns besides be 
 led into the higher possibilities of their moral and 
 spiritual natures ? How little a leaven indeed was that 
 community in Grape Yalley to effect this stupendous 
 work. Yet we could search out here and there a few 
 even now, and point them to the promised land which 
 sooner or later awaits all humanity. 
 
 I caressed the white hand that lay in mine but there 
 was no response. I pressed the yielding form closer to 
 me, but there was no answering movement like a re- 
 turned caress. In sudden solicitude, I bent forward to 
 look into the face that rested on my shoulder. 
 
 Ruth's eyes were closed, and the long lashes lay on 
 her cheeks in perfect lines of beauty. Her hps, 
 slightly parted, revealed the tips of her white teeth and 
 her breath, sweet as mountain breezes, came in even and 
 regular respirations. 
 
 My wife was asleep. 
 
 Note From Editor. 
 The foregoing pages, from chapter lY to chapter 
 XXYIII inclusive, were the contents of the packet sent 
 
An Ecjperiment in Marriage. 269 
 
 me through a district messenger by my friend Yinton. 
 The first \hree chapters, it will be remembered, I had 
 prepared myself from the story of Ward and Vinton 
 given me at Delmonico's. I had promised to make a 
 book of the matter, and, it will be seen, was doing my 
 best. The whole twenty-eight chapters had been at the 
 printers for six weeks, when Ward returned to town 
 and called upon me. He was a changed man. His old 
 cheerfulness and ready good humor had disappeared, 
 and he brought gloom into my room when he came. 
 He would not talk about his two years' experience nor 
 let me talk about Vinton's history. When I tried to 
 induce him to help me correct the proofs and decide on 
 a name for the forthcoming volume, he not only flatly 
 refused to do so, but, apparently fearing urgency on my 
 part, he did not call upon me again. 
 
 But it happened that just as I was reading the last 
 proofs of Vinton's history, a district messenger came 
 to my room with a packet, similar in general appearance 
 to that which Vinton had sent me a few weeks before, 
 but very much smaller. I soon found it to be manu- 
 script, but as there was no signature, and as no letter 
 of explanation came with it, I was forced to read it 
 before 1 could assure myself who was its author, and 
 what was his purpose in sending the sheets to me. It 
 was clearly from Ward, as the reader will at once see, 
 and was intended as a supplement to Vinton's history, 
 at least so I gathered from one of the concluding para- 
 graphs. There was no time to lose if Ward's contribu- 
 tion was to go into the same volume as the preceding 
 chapters, so 1 sent it at once to the printers, with direc- 
 tions that it was to be added. It seems to me to have 
 been written in a somewhat injudicious frame of mind, 
 but I have not taken the liberty to so much as alter an 
 adjective or suppress an adverb. The sort of a book I 
 should write is so entirely different from this, that if I 
 began to expunge and revise there would not be enough 
 left of the original to hold the pages together. In the 
 
270 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 succeeding chapter I give it to the reader as it was 
 given to me. 
 
 I hav^e fulfilled my responsibilities to both of my 
 friends, and I hope have incurred no new ones so far 
 as the world at large is concerned. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 PART I. 
 It was the week after the retnm of Harry Vinton 
 with his extremely attractive wifo_ that tlie two years 
 of what might be called my novitiate "^ GXttl S 
 expired. In spite of the persuasions of Gillette, and 
 Notwithstanding the argnments of Vinton I had an- 
 nounced my iwevocable determination to leave the 
 valley and forever. 
 
 The last evening of my stay ^^d come. At dmner- 
 the dinner is always a banquet in Grape Valley-i had 
 been called up and had made my adieux. Of course 
 that was not the place nor was then the tnne for en i- 
 cisms, if indeed I had felt disposed to make them Bu 
 in fact my heart was quite too much touched with 
 senthnents of good- will toward the kind friends I was 
 o leave on the morrow. I felt, as I rose from my 
 chair to address them, as if it were a big family of 
 brothers and sisters which I was about to leave. iJie 
 social intercourse of Grape Valley was so ^".ch n^o ^ 
 free and complete than I had thought possible tlie 
 cultivation of the genial instincts and of the fraternal 
 spirit was so remarkable here, owing I suppose, tot le 
 absence of conflicting interests and of theeyil passions 
 bred of them, that I felt myself upon intimate and 
 tender relations with almost every one at the table. 
 
 I much fear my farewell address was not a success as 
 a forensic effort. My impression is that I repeated a 
 great many of my sentences a quite unnecessary num- 
 ber of times, and that there were fr«l"f"t >°t«'^f ^' 
 when my voice became nearly mandible from my 
 
272 An Exjperiment in Marriage. 
 
 emotion. I remember, too, that I could not keep my 
 eyes from wandering to the place where sat Lydia 
 Trenk, and that, when I saw her ej^es filled with tears 
 and her lips quivering, something seemed to choke me. 
 It w^as only by a very great effort of will that I 
 recovered myself sufficiently to make even a poor show 
 of continuing. 
 
 When dinner was over I felt that I could endure no 
 more leave-taking. It had taken me many years to 
 attain the reputation of a man of seK-poise, and I 
 wanted to leave something besides a maudlin memory 
 behind me. I thought to spend the evening in walk- 
 ing about the little city. The woman whose tearful 
 eyes had met mine at the table least of all could I 
 endure to meet again. Good-byes with women are 
 dangerous things at best, but if one is conscious of 
 being in love with a woman, and at the same time 
 thinks he is bound to leave her, then a farewell scene 
 is worse than dangerous. Although it made my heart 
 ache to come away without a last touch of her hand, 
 and a last whisper of that tender yet cruel word, 
 " good-bye," I was still relieved at feeling that I had 
 escaped without meeting her face to face. 
 
 But as I passed the piazza I heard a voice calling me 
 in her soft, caressing tones. 
 
 " Wait," she said, rising from the bench, " I have 
 been watching for yon." Then as she came down the 
 steps and laid her hand upon my arm, she added : " You 
 see how well I knew yon." 
 
 Instead of being displeased, as I should have been, 
 that she had come, I was unreasonably happy. What 
 I had honestly tj-ied to avoid, a last meeting with 
 Lydia, had come about, yet I was fully content. I 
 drew her arm through mine and we walked slowly 
 down the silent street. 
 
 " This will only make us both more miserable when 
 I am gone," I said. But I did not release her arm. 
 
 " So you are really going to-morrow % " 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 273 
 
 " Yes, to-morrow," I answered. 
 
 " And never will return ? " 
 
 " J^ever will return," I repeated, thickly. 
 
 ** Is there nothing I can say or do which would keep 
 you ? '- 
 
 "Nothing." 
 
 " Then," she hesitated, ^^ then, if I wanted to say 
 something which was very unwise, I need not be timid 
 about it ? You would be in no danger of staying to 
 make me ashamed of it ? " 
 
 "I do not nnderstand what yon can mean," I said 
 in painful excitement, expecting I knew not what, at 
 loss whether I hoped or feared it most. 
 
 '* I mean," and she hung back a httle on my arm, 
 "I mean if I should want to say something which 
 women do not generally have to say to men, something 
 men usually say to women, there" would be no fear 
 of my seeing you to-morrow and thinking you despised 
 me? " 
 
 " I shall never see you after to-night, Lydia." 
 
 " Oh, you have called me Lydia for the first time," 
 she cried. " I have so longed to hear you speak it. I 
 cannot .keep back my secret any longer from you. I 
 have already told it to the moon and to the stars, to 
 the river and to the mountains, oh, so many times." 
 
 I conld not speak. I seemed suffering for breath. 
 
 Then came her voice again : " I love you so. Hove 
 you morning, noon and night. You are my life, but 
 not my hope, my all, but yet you leave me for- 
 ever.' ' 
 
 How I wanted to take her in my arms. I felt as if 
 I would be willing and glad to give my life if I could 
 but press her to my breast for one moment. I could 
 see, too, that she perceived my emotion, that she felt 
 in some mysterious way how much I longed for her. 
 Her eyes dilated, her bosom rose and fell, her form 
 seemed leaning toward me in mute invitation. Sud- 
 denly I recovered myself, remembering how I had re 
 solved that no temptation should ever cause me to givt 
 35 
 
274 An Exjperiment in Marriage, 
 
 the first caress to this woman who was another man's 
 wife. 
 
 ^'Lydia," I said, ^'I must not take you to my heart, 
 though you would not beheve me if I told you now 
 that I do not love you. It is because I love you that 
 I am going away to-morrow, forever." 
 
 She gave me a hurt look like that in the eye of some 
 gentle and tormented creature of the chase. I can 
 never forget it. It was a minute, I think, before she 
 spoke. ^' Is that the way to show your love for me, to 
 break my heart % " 
 
 Then I tried to lash myself into a holy fury. "Duty 
 comes before love. I must be sacrificed and you too, 
 if necessary, to the duty you owe your husband." 
 
 But she then became really angry, and more beautiful 
 than ever. " What duty can I owe him except kind- 
 ness and honesty, unless it be the duty to leave him 
 when I find I do not love him as he deserves to be 
 loved by some one ? I wrong him if I consent to main- 
 tain the hollow form of a marriage after I have ceased 
 to love him, and a hundred times more if I have learned 
 that I love another." 
 
 " But has he no rights ? " 
 
 " Am I his slave, that my body is his when my heart 
 is another's ; that I must submit myself to caresses 
 when I do not return tenderness % That would be 
 pollution indeed." 
 
 " But you should not give your heart to another," I 
 answered brutally, nerving myself to scourge the 
 woman I worshipped. 
 
 Her lips curved magnificently. " Can a man or a 
 woman love by rule or measure? Can I say to myself: 
 ' You must Hke this sort of mind, that sort of intellect 
 must please you; you must be delighted with this 
 spiritual power, that type of physical manliness must 
 thrill you with magnetic force ? ' Can I force myself 
 to long to lay my head on a breast whose touch does 
 not warm me ? Can I make my heart melt in tender- 
 ness at will for a man because he is my husband ? " 
 
An Exjyeriment in Marriage, 275 
 
 As I did not reply at once she continued : " Perhaps 
 I never loved him. Perhaps I married before I was 
 capable of knowing what love is. Perhaps I have 
 grown away from him. All I know is that I do not 
 love him now, but you, with my whole nature ; and to 
 do what you call my duty to him would he to desecrate 
 me as with a mortal sin/to shame me before my better 
 nature, to do violence to my woman's purity and 
 honor." 
 
 " But do you not consider that he may yet love you, ■ 
 and his happiness depend on you 1 " 
 
 '' I think my first obligation is to my own higher 
 woinanhood aiid sense of honor ; to fulfill my capacity 
 for that best development of soul which comes with per- 
 fect love. But even if it were right for me to think 
 first of him, I am still sure that I ought to leave him. 
 Love is not simply desire, although the training of 
 countless generations makes many of us think so, 
 Neither is it admiration, nor yet esteem ; brothers and 
 sisters and friends have these for each other. Physi- 
 cally, it is a magnetic attraction between a man and a 
 woman; mentally, it is responsiveness and^ mutual 
 power to excite and stimulate and refresh ; si^iritually, 
 it is mutual inspiration and inarticulate sympathy ; a 
 harmony of the inner and immortal natures beyond all 
 other joy, beyond all other education. Love is mutual 
 in its 'every essence ; so when a woman ceases to love 
 her husband, or finds she has never loved him, her duty 
 to him, as much as to herself, calls upon her to leave 
 him free to form a new and perfect association. Even 
 if he does not appreciate the fatal lack of a mutual 
 love, it is still her duty to him to dissolve what has be- 
 come a false marriage. So she will bless him in spite 
 of himself." 
 
 '' I only wish I could believe you." 
 She gave a sigh which might have been the flutter- 
 ing of the wings of hope as it left her bosom forever. 
 " I see all I have said is in vain. Your mind is so 
 
276 A7i Exj^eriment in Marriage. 
 
 steeped in prejudice it will not believe your heart, 
 which I know is pleading with me. I shall now go to 
 in J home never to see you again. But before we sepa- 
 rate I must tell you that long since I have revealed 
 to my husband that I love you, and you only. 
 What he said to me and I to him ; how gently, how 
 sacredly, he has treated me since that moment, I shall 
 not betray. He has the heart of a true knight. The 
 only reason why I did not file my notice of divorce be- 
 fore was that I was afraid of shocking yon. But this 
 afternoon I made the record. My husband that was 
 is my husband no longer, even in name. I return now 
 to my home alone." 
 
 Then she walked rapidly up the street away from 
 me and I stood watching her. Once or twice, I thought, 
 she almost stopped. Once I am sure she partly turned 
 as if she imagined that she heard my voice calling to 
 her. But I neither called to her nor followed her. 
 If her heart ached, did not mine ache as much ? If 
 she suffered agony, did it not seem as if a ragged 
 blade of steel were piercing my bosom ? By sheer 
 force of will I rooted myself to the spot. Passion 
 bade me pursue her. Love, touching with immortal 
 flame every faculty of my soul and spirit, bade me call 
 after her. But will held me back, and only when she 
 turned into her door and became lost to my view, did 
 I move, and then it was to walk back to the phalanstery 
 to occupy my room for the last time. 
 
 Next morning I started east. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 I was very unhappy on that journey to New York, 
 and very ill-tempered. With considerable trouble I 
 had secured the title deeds to a miserable remnant of 
 life. I had rejected the love of the only woman 
 who had ever stirred my heart. I had inflicted upon 
 her a sentence as severe as I accepted for myself. I 
 would have preferred the joy of a future with her 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 277 
 
 to all the other delights of a life-time. I would have 
 thought I was attaining the highest ideal of existence 
 in living in her presence and expanding under her 
 brooding love. But I sacrificed that joy, that ideal, 
 and so chose the very refuse of life. I kept telling 
 myself that it was duty which impelled me, a sense 
 of right which enabled me to resist temptation. But 
 never did duty seem so cold and unallnring. Kever 
 did right seem so wholly, so eternally wrong. 
 
 Of course, I was thoroughly out of temper, and dis- 
 posed to see only what encouraged cynical reflections, 
 but as my observations had some fruit it may be 
 well enough to record a few of them. In the seat 
 in front of me, when I took the train from St. Louis, 
 I noticed a young man and a young woman. He 
 was reading a newspaper, she examining her purse, 
 to make sure that the checks and tickets were safe. 
 When she spoke he had only curt replies, which he threw 
 at her without deigning to raise his eyes from his 
 newspaper. I immediately concluded they were mar- 
 ried. She was pleasant-looking, and of graceful figure, 
 deferential and timid in manner, evidently anxious to 
 say what should commend itself to her husband, but 
 nervously conscious of failure. His face bore an ill- 
 tempered expression, his mouth showed impatience, the 
 lines running from the eyes to the chin showed weari- 
 ness. She did not want to tire him, but she could not 
 help it. Poor little woman. She was married to a 
 man she could not make happy, and he retaliated by 
 shutting her out of all possible joys. They had only 
 reached the first station, when, without a word to her, 
 he started to go out, not even looking back to see if 
 his life companion were coming. I watched them as 
 they entered the waiting-room, he striding along as 
 if there were no woman at his heels, she ever watching 
 his face to anticipate his slightest wish or change of 
 mood, hungry for the smallest attention. 
 
 Their place was immediately taken by another hus- 
 
278 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 band and wife. This time, too, the second seat in front 
 was turned so as to accommodate three children of ages 
 from two to seven. The woman was large and sturdy, 
 the man spare, and, perhaps, consumptive. Here it 
 was the woman who was sliarp and impatient, the hus- 
 band who was deprecatory and eager to please. He was 
 blamed for a number of discomforts experienced, as it 
 appeared, since they had left the farm that morning, 
 for things that had been left behind which he should 
 have brought, for things bronght which should have 
 been left behind. The sun was too hot, and he should 
 have taken a covered carriage. It was not going to 
 rain, so there was no use for bringing those big um- 
 brellas. Occasionally she bent forward and jerked 
 some child's hat forward or back, pulled the little ones 
 this way, or pushed them the other way. Her hus- 
 band did not make her happy, and lier children were 
 a burden to her. As for the husband, I was sure that 
 he must look forward to his death as a happy release. 
 But then, there were the children who would be left 
 unprovided for, and without a comforter, if he were 
 to die. 
 
 The next station was a city of consequence, and the 
 same two seats were occupied by a husband and wife, 
 evidently in very prosperous circumstances, if one may 
 judge by the character of their parcels. This man and 
 woman were of a rank which is supposed to be above 
 rudeness of speech, but a more unpleasant connection 
 than theirs I cannot imagine. Both were young, and 
 good-looking. Both were bright and educated. She 
 began by telling him how tlioughtless he was of her 
 wishes and of her tastes. He was taking her to spend 
 the remainder of the summer at a place she detested, 
 and which he knew she detested. It was oidy because 
 there were some men there with whom he could drink 
 and play cards. So it was he always sacrificed her, she 
 said. He was very cool in his replies, and so much 
 more subdued that I heard very little of them. But ] 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 279 
 
 could see there was a barb behind the point of each 
 sentence. Probably tliese bickerifigs were daily episodes 
 of their private married life, and among strangers on 
 a railroad train they saw no reason for restraining them- 
 selves. Finally he asked her, with a mockery of polite- 
 ness, if she would excuse him as he went forward for 
 a smoke. She answered that she knew very well that 
 there would be gambling too; at which he took off his 
 hat to her with a most graceful effect, and went on his 
 way. The woman very hastily opened her bag, and 
 taking out a novel, made a brave pretense of reading, 
 but when, in a few moments, she turned her head 
 toward the window, I saw her eyes were full of tears 
 of vexation. 
 
 I thought there must be something untoward about 
 those particular seats, and I looked about me for a new 
 location. I found it in the rear of a man and woman 
 whose faces seemed fairly shining with amiability. 
 Here at last I would iind my happy married pair. I 
 took my seat quietly, but the man and woman were so 
 much absorbed in each other that they did not notice 
 that the seat behind them was now occupied. I heard 
 the man tell the woman how long he had hoped for this 
 meeting, and her reply by asking what he thought her 
 husband would say if he knew they were together. So 
 it appeared they represented two unhapj^y homes, 
 instead of exemplifjdng, as I had expected, one har- 
 monious family. My heart turned sick. I made such 
 a commotion that, after a frightened look behind from 
 each pair of guilty eyes, they carried on the rest of 
 their conversation in whispers. 
 
 Once arrived in New York I spent my first evening 
 at the club, and fell in at once with several of my 
 old friends. After they had concluded that I had no 
 confidences to impart as to the reason of my long ab- 
 sence they left me to the silent role I preferred, and 
 entertained each other in their own way. Most of them 
 were married men, and nothing of course was said to 
 
280 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 reflect upon the connubial bliss much less upon the 
 sanctity of their particular homes. But the secrets of 
 no other fireside were respected. I heard how Mrs. B. 
 had intercepted a letter written to her husband by a for- 
 mer governess, that for a time there was a loud talk of 
 separation, but everything had been finally smoothed 
 over with a proper regard for appearances. Then I 
 was informed that C. had quarreled with D. for visit- 
 ing his wife so preferably duriug his absence, and had 
 forbidden him the house. At this, it seems, however, 
 C.'s wife showed her fangs, and by certain unpleasant 
 threats induced her husband to swallow his grievances. 
 Another of my companions told of a quarrel between 
 E. and his wife, overheard from the hall where the 
 narrator was left waiting by some servant's mistake. 
 There was no scandal, so far as he heard, but any 
 amoimt of infelicity. She wanted gaiety and show, he 
 did not. She liked the people he hated ; what in- 
 terested him bored her. Neither seemed to care for 
 the other, except as a butt for sarcasm; a target for 
 slings and slurs. 
 
 I could endure no more of this depressing conversa- 
 tion from representative men of the higher society, and 
 I went out into the street. It was too early for bed, 
 and I took a walk along the Bowery and side streets. 
 The evening being very warm, families had moved out 
 in full force upon the steps and sidewalks. The chil- 
 dren barefooted, and clad in dirty garments, played or 
 fought, it was hard to tell which, in the gutter. Fathers 
 in soiled shirt- sleeves and stocking feet, with strong- 
 smelling pipes in their mouths, mothers in flowing and 
 shapeless wrappers of what were once prints, but now 
 masses of indistinguishable and faded colors, and older 
 daughters with frowzy hair and cross faces, occupied 
 the upper steps. The husbands and wives did not sit 
 together, or appear to have the slightest common con- 
 cern. They looked everywhere except at each other, 
 and seemed to think of everything except of eacli other. 
 
An Experiment in Marriage. 281 
 
 At first all these sidewalk groups looked alike to me. 
 Each one was an epitome of human misery, an example 
 of the wretchedness of the poor man's home, an illus- 
 tration of how separate are husbands and wives, fathers 
 and mothers, who are harassed by daily want, how cut 
 off from tender and joyful relations to each other or 
 to their children. 
 
 But, as I passed along, I became able to discriminate 
 among the examples of misery in the family relations. 
 In some cases the woman had grown coarse and corpu- 
 lent ; her femininity had been worn away. She was 
 no longer a wife, but a rude companion, a partner with 
 as strong an arm, as rough a soul as the man's. In 
 others the man showed marks of alcoholic deterioration. 
 His hard fate had driven him to seek the false sense of 
 power which liquor gives, and in his cups what wife 
 and children could not be to a poor man. In other 
 cases the husband showed maudlin fondness for female 
 acquaintances sitting near him, giving them the inter- 
 est his wife should have claimed, which the neighbors 
 seem to take quite for granted, and to which the neg- 
 lected wives were as indifferent as the neighbors. I saw 
 no case where the wife was enjoying the attention of 
 any man, her husband or another. The married women 
 had too generally lost their attractiveness through the 
 terrible plague of poverty to be able to tempt men to 
 do them honor. Their voices had lost all the gentle 
 cadences which lovers like to hear. Their lips had for- 
 gotten how to smile, far more to kiss. Their hands, 
 hard and callous, would have felt any thing but pleas- 
 ant to the touch of a manly gallant. 
 
 Sometimes a father would hold one of his smaller 
 children on his knee for a few minutes, or a wearied 
 mother would be seen tossing a wizen-faced baby to 
 and fro to still its moans, or exposing her shapeless 
 breasts without a trace oi modesty, seeking to soothe 
 the baby moans with such poor nourishment as could 
 be found there. But for the most part, the parents 
 3G 
 
282 An Experiment in Marriage, 
 
 seemed as indifferent to their children as to each 
 other. 
 
 -^hen I crossed Broadway and walked up Canal 
 street, full of painted women and wretched girls eager 
 to sell themselves to the lowest of men for money or for 
 food, and then to Sixth avenne, and np to Haymarket. 
 I looked iuto the faces of what shonld have been pure 
 and happy womanhood, with eyes still beautiful, which 
 should have stirred the heart of some lover, with cheeks, 
 pale and wan for all their disguise, which should have 
 been pihowed on the shoulder of affection. Then I 
 dared to wonder how much less shameful, how mnch 
 more honorable and happy would have been their lot 
 if niarried, as the women in the poor tenement region, 
 with such homes as those/ 
 
 I slept very little that night, and the next morning 
 made my way to the Tombs police court, and listened 
 to the charges against the men and women of the poorer 
 classes. A wife had complained of her husband for 
 beating her ; he urged as extenuation that the home 
 she made for him was no better than a pig-pen. There 
 were half a dozen cases of women, most of them mar- 
 ried, who were sent to the work-house as common 
 drunkards, curses of some men's lives. Then a wife 
 asked that her husband be forced to support her and 
 their child. She told me her story very graphically 
 afterward. Two years ago he had married her, prom- 
 ising that they would be the happiest pair in New 
 York. She had not known him very long before mar- 
 riage. A few picnics, a dance or two, and three even- 
 ings at the theater, had furnished all their courtship. 
 He was always well dressed when she saw him then, 
 and very gentlemanly in his manners. She had thought 
 he was the grandest man in the world. When they 
 were married, she left the store where she was sales- 
 woman ; he bought some furniture on the installment 
 plan, and everything looked well. But it cost a good 
 deal to buy food, and there were no more entertain- 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 283 
 
 ments for them. He had no money to spend for cigars 
 and beer, as long as he kept np his comfortable style of 
 living, and was obliged to spend his evenings at home, 
 soon afterward beginning to sulk and m'>pe. Then he 
 began to let his bills go unpaid, and to spend his time 
 and money on his own amusement. When the baby 
 came he was better for a few days, but the new care 
 only made his demeanor more disagreeable and his 
 habits more dissolute than ever. At last the furniture 
 was taken away, and then the rent being unpaid, they, 
 had to move to a cheaper tenement. Now he was not 
 even buying her enough to eat. She loved him no 
 longer. If "she could but get along imtil the baby was 
 old enough to leave, she would go to work again. 
 Women who wanted marriage could have it. Every 
 poor married woman in the tenement where she lived 
 was miserable, and so were their husbands. Marriage 
 might be well enough for the rich, but it was not meant 
 for poor folks. 
 
 For a week I hunted up old friends who had married, 
 and I accepted invitations to their homes. I did my 
 best to worm the secrets of their matrimonial successes 
 or failures from them. Some I appealed to as a bachelor 
 who wanted advice. Others I accused of looking care- 
 worn, and thus induced them, to tell me more than they 
 would like their wives to have known. All began with 
 " Of course I am very happily married." So much out 
 of chivalry for their wives, but with this proviso they 
 spoke very freely. The common course of feeling on 
 the marriage question was intensely cynical. Even 
 those who I believed were still in love with their wives 
 had so much to say about the ill success of their neigh- 
 bors, that they contributed more to my prejudice against 
 modern marriage, than did those who were living warn- 
 ings. Aside from lack of what they had thought love 
 would give, the loss of liberty, the deprivation of for- 
 mer companionship, the increase of care, were the gen- 
 eral objections. Then for particular instances, there was 
 
284: An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 the man who had pleased his taste at nineteen and had 
 been repenting since twenty -five, and the man who had 
 married because he thought a girl overwhelmingly in 
 love with him, and found her sentiment wearing out 
 faster than her trousseau. There were the husbands 
 whose wives had been so bound up in the care of children 
 and under household burdens that they have been shut 
 as much away from their husbands, as if the heads of 
 the famihes were nothing but agents to pay the rent and 
 buy meat and groceries. The verdict seemed to be that 
 the sentiment of love as exhibited in courtship did not 
 usually long outlast the marriage ceremony. Some- 
 times it was the husband's fault ; sometimes the wife's. 
 More common were the cases of men and women simply 
 mismated, or who had lost all adaptability to each other. 
 In the instances where the material for a love match 
 seemed to exist it usually happened that family or 
 financial cares, and deprivation of social pleasures, pre- 
 vented enjoyment of each other. There were of course 
 husbands and wives whose relations were ideal, but even 
 their happiness was clouded by the misery they could 
 not but see all about them. They must needs weep for 
 others between their smiles for each other. They could 
 not but feel that joy was almost out of place in a state 
 of society where selfishness was the rule of life. 
 
 Exactly at what point I experienced a change of will 
 I cannot tell. All that I can say is that one morning 
 I awoke with the conviction that if, by any labors of 
 Hercules I could make my way back to Grape Yalley, 
 and to Lydia, I would shake from my feet the dust of a 
 civilization which has made a failure both of the indus- 
 trial and social relations. Unfortunately, however, I 
 was in possession of no data which could enable me to 
 reach Grape Yalley unassisted. My only chance lay in 
 meeting Gillette. He made frequent business trips to 
 New York and was accustomed to stop at the Fifth 
 Avenue hotel. So much I knew. I calmly resolved 
 to go to that hotel and stay until the fortunate day 
 
An Experiment in Marriage, 285 
 
 when I should see his name on the register, whether 
 it should be this summer or in the fall, or in another 
 winter. When I had found him I determined to beg 
 him to take me back with him to Grape Valley and 
 to happiness. He could not resist such arguments as 
 I should use. He might remind me that a man wlio, 
 having his choice between good and evil, chose the 
 latter, deserved to suffer. But the tide of my elo- 
 quence would overwhelm him. 
 
 As soon as I had eaten my breakfast I began packing 
 my trunks. In a few minutes they were on their way 
 to the " Fifth Avenue." Then I visited my lawyer and 
 arranged my business affairs, leaving strict orders to 
 convert all my property into cash and to send all the 
 proceeds to my address at St. Louis. I had determined 
 to devote all my property to increasing the number of 
 colonists at Grape Valley. I was not content in 
 achieving happiness for myseK, while millions were 
 suffering in ignorance from the ills of a civilization 
 wholly barbarous. As soon as I reached the hotel I 
 seated myself in the reading-room and began to write 
 this little sketch of my recent experiences. My long 
 fight against the light and my final conversion to the 
 truth may not be without good effect if published to 
 the world. I only hope that my friend the editor will 
 deign to look at it when put into his hands and 
 
 It is decided. Fate is with me. I had just written 
 the lines above when a hand was laid upon my arm. 
 Looking up impatiently — a man is always provoked at 
 being interrupted just as he is rounding a sentence — I 
 saw Gillette himself. 
 
 " I hope you are not sorry to see me," he said with a 
 surprised air. Then I recovered my senses and, leap- 
 ing to my feet, I wrung his hand with fervor enough 
 to more than satisfy him. 
 
 " Sorry ? " I exclaimed. " I am the happiest man in 
 the world." 
 
 " So anxious to bid me good-bye ? It was a mere 
 
286 An Experiment in Marriage. 
 
 chance that I saw you at all. I had j3assed through 
 the room and was just at the door when I happened to 
 look back and saw you writmg here." 
 
 " You are going back this morning — back to Grape 
 Yalley?"! cried. 
 
 " Yes ; Yinton has been gone a month you know, 
 and I had my work to do^ besides what I had laid out 
 for liim." 
 
 " And may I go with you VI asked, and waited in 
 an agony of suspense for his reply. 
 
 ^' For another visit ? " he smiled. 
 
 "No, for life. I am a convert. Don't refuse me." 
 
 "Kefuse you indeed," he replied. "I am only too 
 happy to accept you. How long will it take you to 
 get ready ? " 
 
 " My trunks are in the baggage-room now. My af- 
 fairs are all settled," I answered with wild gaiety. " I 
 only want to finish this letter and despatch it by a 
 messenger. Then I am ready." 
 
 THE END. 
 
HUDSON IIIYM SMIBS, No. 2. 
 
 ^he f^rineess ^ 
 
 ^OF^ 
 
 ^ . T^ontserrat. 
 
 A STRANGE NARRATIVE OF ADVENTURE AND 
 PERIL ON LAND AND SEA, 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM DRYSDALE, 
 
 Author of "In Sunny Lands," Etc., Etc. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. My Adventures Begin, 
 Stranded in London. 
 A Voyage to the West Indies?. 
 A Night in a Hurricane. 
 I Find a Shipwrecked Family. 
 A Ten-Day Courtship. 
 Alone Again. 
 A Girl Worth Having. 
 The Brig Returns. 
 My Boy Joe. 
 
 11. The French Schooner, 
 
 12. A Mysterious Crew. 
 
 13. The Captain Falls into a Trap. 
 
 14. Landed on a Desolate Island. 
 
 15. Kidnapped and Marooned. 
 
 CH.\P. 
 
 16. 
 17. 
 18. 
 
 19- 
 
 22. 
 
 23- 
 24. 
 
 25. 
 
 26. 
 
 a 
 
 29. 
 30- 
 
 The Hermit of Tuesday Island. 
 
 What Joe Found in the Closet. 
 
 Plans for Escape. 
 
 The Congo Uance. 
 
 The Hermit's Ruined House. 
 
 Von Diemen's Strange Banquet. 
 
 Signals by Fire and Water. 
 
 A Pair of Martinique Earrings. 
 
 The Fire- Boat 
 
 Preparing the Signals. 
 
 The Fire on the Mountain-Top. 
 
 Marie Comes to the Rescue. 
 
 The Story of the Search. 
 
 We quit Tuesday Island. 
 
 Lime-Groves and Happine.ss. 
 
 vO EADERS of Mr. Drysdale's descriptions in the New York Times, 
 xl a^d elsewhere, of the West Indies and West Indian Life, need not 
 ^ be told that this book is more than usually entertaining. 
 For sale by Newsdealers and Booksellers generally or sent postpaid to 
 any address on receipt of the price, 50 cents paper, (or $1 cloth), by the 
 publishers, 
 
 ALBAKY BOO)C COAVFAKY. 
 
 36 STATe ST.. 4*#- ALBANY. N. Y.