"Well; but you know we shall not always think alike or want the same thing." "Then we will talk matters over, and the one that gives the best reasons shall prevail. You and I will be like any other two dear friends who agree to carry on any enterprise together, we shall discuss matters, and sometimes one and sometimes the other will prevail." "But, Harry, this matter puzzles me. Why is there a command in the Bible that wives should always obey? Very many times in domestic affairs, certainly, the woman knows the most and has altogether the best judgment." "It appears to me that it is one of those very general precepts that require to be largely interpreted by common sense. Taking the whole race of man together, for all stages of society and all degrees of development, I suppose it is the safest general direction for the weaker party. In low stages of society where brute force rules, man has woman wholly in his power, and she can win peace and protection only by submission. But where society rises into those higher forms where husbands and wives are intelligent companions and equals, the direction does no harm because it confers a prerogative that no cultivated man would think of asserting any more than he would think of using his superior physical strength to enforce it." "I suppose," said Eva, "it is just like the command that children should obey parents. When children are grown up and married and settled, parents never think of it." "Precisely," said I, "and you and I are the grown-up children of the Christian era--all that talk of obedience is the old calyx of the perfect flower of love--'when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.'" "So, then, it appears you and I shall have a free field of discussion, Harry, and may be I shall croquet your ball off the ground sometimes, as I did once before, you know." "I dare say you will. There was an incipient spice of matrimonial virulence, my fair Eva, in the way you played that game! In fact, I began to hope I was not indifferent to you from the zeal with which you pursued and routed me on that occasion." "I must confess it did my heart good to set your ball spinning,--and that puts me in mind. I have the greatest piece of news to tell you. If you'll believe me, _Sydney and Sophie are engaged already!_ She came here this morning with her present, this lovely amethyst cross--and it seems funny to me, but she is just as dead in love with Sydney as she can be, and do you know he is so delighted with the compliment, that he has informed her that he has made the discovery that he _never was in love before_." "The scamp! what does he mean?" said I. "Oh, he said that little witch Eva Van Arsdel had dazzled him--and he had really supposed himself in love, but that she never had 'excited the profound,' etc., etc., he feels for Sophie." "So 'all's well that ends well,'" said I.