Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the passage she quotes from the hero really represents Wells's feeling about the relations between the sexes. He believes that "under existing conditions" there is always danger of love between men and women unless the man has one sole woman intimate, and lets "a superficial friendship toward all other women veil impassable abysses of separation." "M. M." wisely admits the truth of that--in fact, it's the most obvious of truisms. Then the hero--or Wells--goes on to say that this, to him, is an intolerable state of affairs. For this "M. M." calls him "wicked," and "Mr. M. M." accuses him of not being busy enough, and of not working for a living. I wonder if "M. M." stopped to think exactly why the hero considers this an intolerable state of affairs. The statement means nothing more than that the man would like to have intimate friendships with more than one woman. He doesn't say he wants to love more than one woman. Well, it is easily conceivable that a man of active mind and companionability would like to have some degree of intimacy with various women. There doesn't seem to be anything wicked about that, and it's possible that he should feel so even if he was "working for a living." If we confine ourselves to one intimacy, we're likely to lose the full relish of it before many years. The thought of that is certainly intolerable. A man who is close to a good many people is usually better fitted to appreciate his best friend. A woman novelist who has a conspicuously successful marriage put it well the other day. "If you go into a room where there is a bunch of violets," she said, "you are charmed by the odor. If you stay in the room all the time, you forget about the odor--or it bores you. But if you are continually going out and coming in again, it greets you every time, and you learn to appreciate its subtleties." Perhaps "M. M." thinks that reason is begging the question. Well, take the other side. Any human being who is expanding has an insatiable desire for new experience, new knowledge. That is the healthiest instinct in mankind. Such a person would naturally fret at the inability to be intimate with a new acquaintance who interests him. That feeling would not be wicked; it would be right, by any sane standard.