And even if the long training in cynicism succeeds in silencing the cry of repressed dignity, there will come a day of domestic discord, of duels fought between husband and wife, with the weapon of bitter smiles, cruel compliments, and insinuations full of perfidy and venom, a day when the wife, striking her fan on the arm-chair with little convulsive blows, will cry: _But in short, my good fellow, I keep you_.... If that man, in such a moment does not redden to the roots of his hair, if at that moment his saliva is not changed to gall, nor forms a lump in his throat, if he does not feel his very heart and source of life poisoned, that man is not a man, but an unclean animal who has sold his manhood for a handful of gold; he is a most abject being, a hundred times more despicable than the poor prostitute who sells her body to gain her daily bread. CHAPTER VIII. THE INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS OF MARRIAGE. But even if you have chosen the best of women for your companion, whether it be due to your merit or your good fortune, the great problem of happiness is not yet solved, for there are so many incidents and accidents which disturb it when least we expect them. Your wife is never a meteorite fallen from the sky, but a fruit still attached to the branch, and this branch is taken from a trunk, which is the family to which she belongs. When you marry her you must inevitably marry her relations also; you must enter a _clan_ which may be a garden of roses, but may be also a wasp’s nest—nay, even a nest of vipers. Do not allow yourself any illusions, believing that when once you are legitimate master of your companion you will be able to isolate yourself in the nest of your domestic felicity, chasing away wasps and crushing the vipers, if there should be any. I will suppose that the woman loves you much, and adores you above all creatures in the world, but the _clan_ from which she has been taken will complain of you, protest and conspire against you. Her parents have ceded the government of one of their provinces to you, but still hold the _protectorate_ and place a _resident_ near, and they reserve the right of intervention in many, unfortunately in too many, cases. The idea of a wife, then, would be that she should be an orphan with only the most distant relations or guardians, who are happy to have her well married. But here again there are new complications. To be an orphan at an early age means, since the parents died young, to belong to an unhealthy stock. The decadence of many English families is due to this very fact. The younger sons of the nobility, who bear a noble name, but have an empty purse, seek to equalize blazonry and finance by marrying orphans, or only daughters, and thus they bring into the new family the risk of an infirm state of health and sterility.