"Clearly not. Love has nothing whatever to do with marriage, in the statistical--the ordinary--sense of the term. When I say love, I mean love--not domestic affection. Marriage is a practical concern of mankind at large; Love is a personal experience of the very few. Think of our common phrases, such as 'choice of a wife'; think of the perfectly sound advice given by sage elders to the young who are thinking of marriage, implying deliberation, care. What have these things to do with love? You can no more choose to be a lover, than to be a poet. _Nascitur non fit_--oh yes, I know my Latin. Generally, the man or woman born for love is born for nothing else." "A deplorable state of things!" exclaimed Irene, laughing. "Yes--or no. Who knows? Such people ought to die young. But I don't say that it is invariably the case. To be capable of loving, and at the same time to have other faculties, and the will to use them--ah! There's your complete human being." "I think----" Irene began, and stopped, her voice failing. "You think, _belle Irene_?" "Oh, I was going to say that all this seems to me sensible and right. It doesn't disturb me." "Why should it?" "I think I will tell you, Helen, that my motive in marrying is the same as yours was." "I surmised it." "But, you know, there the similarity will end. It is quite certain"--she laughed--"that I shall have no six-months' vacations. At present, I don't think I shall desire them." "No. To speak frankly, I auger well of your marriage." These words affected Irene with a sense of relief. She had imagined that Mrs. Borisoff thought otherwise. A bright smile sunned her countenance; Helen, observing it, smiled too, but more thoughtfully. "You must bring your husband to see me in Paris some time next year. By the bye, you don't think he will disapprove of me?" "Do you imagine Mr. Jacks----" "What were you going to say?" Irene had stopped as if for want of the right word She was reflecting. "It never struck me," she said, "that he would wish to regulate my choice of friends. Yet I suppose it would be within his right?" "Conventionally speaking, undoubtedly." "Don't think I am in uncertainty about this particular instance," said Irene. "No, he has already told me that he liked you. But of the general question, I had never thought." "My dear, who does, or can, think before marriage of all that it involves? After all, the pleasures of life consist so largely in the unexpected." Irene paced a few yards in silence, and when she spoke again it was of quite another subject.