‘But she hears all around her and all her life long conversations on the subject of matrimony.’ ‘The end and aim of her existence, poor thing!’ said Helena, with a pitying smile. ‘Go on! you have studied the subject almost unconsciously, as every thinking man must.’ ‘If she reaches the age of one-and-twenty, unmarried, she begins to wonder what the reason can be of such a thing, and her friends, too, begin to speculate about it....’ ‘Naturally!’ said Helena, her eyes flashing and her colour rising, while Hugo looked preternaturally solemn, except for a gleam in the depths of his eyes, and Mrs. Mallory’s face wore a puzzled expression. ‘Naturally--she is sold, disposed of before her reasoning powers are developed. It is very deplorable. Well?’ ‘But very generally she is married at or before that age, and then----’ ‘And _then_?’ echoed Helena, waving away the butler’s offer of wine and leaning eagerly towards Sebastian. ‘And then--what is her life afterwards, Mr. Mallory? Tell me that!’ ‘A long course of bondage to husband, children, domestic affairs, and social exactions.’ ‘Hideous!’ murmured Helena. ‘What a sad, sad fate! Did you not burn with indignation every time you witnessed it?’ ‘I--I----’ ‘Ah! you did, I know, or you could not have described it so graphically. And now you will consider the subject, I don’t doubt, and you will see it in its true light. But you said the German women had also a distinct position of their own. How do you account for that?’ ‘They have. The very fact of their bondage gives them a sort of distinguishing rank. They have been accustomed to it for so long, that now they glory in it. If you were to attempt to inspire them with your enlightened notions, they would probably scoff at you; you would appear as dark to them as they to you.’ Helena looked at him with such intense earnestness and expressiveness, that Sebastian began to feel somewhat embarrassed. ‘What an odd girl she is!’ he thought. ‘And how, in Heaven’s name, shall I get out of this mess that I have got into? I can’t let her go without offering some explanation.’ ‘You grieve me,’ said Helena, in a sorrowful voice. ‘I had no idea it was so bad as that.’ Here Mrs. Mallory rose in a dignified though perplexed silence, and they all went into the drawing-room. Arrived there, Sebastian, as in duty bound, asked Helena to play. ‘I don’t play at all,’ said she. ‘I can’t waste my time upon practising.’ ‘_Waste_ your time upon music?’ he asked, wondering whether that were one of the strong-minded female ideas too. ‘I have not the power of interpreting music; it would be vanity and vexation. So I never try. I can just accompany myself in one or two little songs; that is all.’ ‘Then you will gratify us by singing one of the said little songs, I am sure.’