"Of course, of course! That's the reward a man gets for loving his wife, treating you as I have. Well, we're not the first to face a situation of just this kind. Things travel swifter now than they did when we were children, or when we were married. What did then will not do to-day. Why blame ourselves for that?--blame the time, the way of the world, the way things go to-day. This country has changed--it goes faster every year. We've got to keep the pace, I tell you, when we get into it. Those who can't must drop out, and that's all there is about it. I was born for the front, and that's all about that. Don't blame me. I've never blamed you!" "Then, what _do_ you blame, John?" "Nothing, I say. It's the way life runs. We're married, why? Because we thought we were to have some property to protect. There is much to be said in favor of the marriage institution. It holds property safe under its contract. _Property_--that's the sign of power! _Property_ is the only reason for marriage; or for government, when it comes to that. _Property_ is the token of power. I've got that! But something else goes with it! Why, Laura, when I look at us both I wonder that I've been patient so long, held back as I have been by your own narrow ideas. If you'd had your way, you'd have set up Kelly Row right where we are now!" VI "I'm old-fashioned, John," said she, her head high, though her tears fell free, "I'm just an old-fashioned, worn-out wife, that's all. I'm not so very much, John, and I never thought I was very much. I just did the best I could, all the time. I couldn't seem to do any more, John. I don't know how. I did my best!" "We all do!" said John Rawn philosophically. "We all do our best. But when our best isn't good enough to keep us up, we go down!" He spoke generously, gravely, judicially. He was arbiter, in his own belief, not husband. The country had changed since they two had married. "Yes, there's much to be said for the institution of marriage, Laura," he repeated after a time. "In fact, it is a necessity, as society is organized. But divorce is a natural corollary of marriage. There are contracts, and broken contracts. That's all!" "What is a--a corollary, John?" she asked. "It's a consequence; it is something that follows. I meant to say, that if it is right for two people to be married, it is right for them to be divorced when the time comes. It's _property_, and the consequences to property, which sometimes determine that!" "But we said, John, when we were married--I swore it with all my heart--'Till death do us part!' It isn't death. I wish it were!" "No, it's property," said John Rawn. VII "But all this serves no purpose," he continued. "I don't want to have you make this hard for me!" "Ah, God! How you've changed, John, since the old times! How you've changed!"