"I'm not at all sure that I agree with you," she said restlessly. "The `happy-ever-after' theory has its drawbacks, but it's very sweet while it lasts, and your other seems prosaic from the start. To have to work hard, to `struggle' for one's husband's love!" "Well, why not? Is there _any_ big thing in life which one gains, or keeps without a fight? And this is the biggest of all, and the most fragile and easily lost. Think! among all your friends how many could come to stay in your house for one month, that you wouldn't be thankful to part from at the end? I don't say you stop caring for them, but you've had enough! You say to yourself: `Emmeline is an angel, but that giggle of hers drives me daft. Thank the gods she's leaving to-day!' or `Emmeline's a perfect dear, I'm devoted to her, but _have_ you noticed the way she wriggles her nose? It's got on my nerves to such an extent that I can't bear it an hour longer.' And you stand on the platform and wave your hand, and draw a great big sigh of relief as the train puffs away, and within the railway carriage Emmeline is sighing too, and feeling unutterably relieved to be rid of you! ... You know it's true!" "Oh!" laughed Cassandra, "don't talk of a month. A week is enough for me. Less than a week!" "Then why wonder at the difficulties of marriage? There's no magic in a few words spoken at the altar, to make two people impervious to each other's faults. It's the most wonderful and beautiful of miracles when they manage to live tied together for twenty, thirty, even fifty years, and to be decently civil until the end. It's worth any amount of effort to accomplish. I adore my husband, I adore myself, but we are mortal... we have failings; and as we grow older they'll grow worse. At present we are both blind, but there will come a time when our eyes are opened. I know. I've seen. I've watched. I've taken warning. I'm going to prepare myself in advance." "What, _par exemple_, are you going to do?" "Study the brute! Study his _fads_. Join the golf club, for one thing, and learn to listen intelligently, at the cost of a few miserable afternoons. I detest sports, and sporting clothes, and strong boots, and a red face, and tramping about mile after mile over rough ground. If we'd been intended to walk we should have had four legs; but I shall very soon pick up all that is necessary!" "Why not go a little further, while you are about it, and play with your husband? You might take lessons from the pro. to get up your game, and then you could go to the links together in the afternoons. If you are determined to sacrifice yourself, you may as well do it thoroughly. He'd be so pleased!"