No doubt the woman really loved Mr. Hunks. He, too, had a little regard for her, although they quarrelled. But he was essentially commercial—a man of peace. He had no stomach for a legal battle with his wife’s attorneys, who had taken the case on speculation, and he could not run away. The woman utterly refused to be bought off for a reasonable sum, and she also declined joining the Ballet herself, in spite of De June’s assertions that he could love seventeen as well as sixteen, for in love capacity increases through use. “Try it for a month and you will see that it is Platonic,” said De June. “I’ve no doubt I’d find it so,” said the wife. She still was firm. He must choose between her and the Troupe. If he chose the Troupe he’d have her, like the poor, always with him. If he chose her alone she would still resemble the poverty stricken; but there would come times when vigilance might relax and he could slip a way. But what to do with the Troupe! He could not throw these beautiful, susceptible women on a struggling, seething, wicked world. He could not put them on a farm, for who would look after, correct, discipline and restrain them as he had done? If allowed to scatter they would marry, and marriage according to civilized methods, so-called, was a failure; had he not tried it? But De June was a man of resource (he was from Chicago). They were in Denver and women were scarce. He would select husbands for his ladies, himself. He did so, choosing sixteen strong fine young miners. Calling the men out one side, he made known to them his plan. Each man was to have a wife on payment of the trifling fee of two hundred dollars “matriculation” (_Sic_). The men were delighted—but had the ladies been consulted? No, that was not necessary—there was to be a return to primitive methods, which indeed were ever best: civilization was artificial, unnatural and corrupt. These sixteen ladies were all of fair intelligence, good hearted, able to work, willing to obey. More than that they had great capacity for loving, for had not this excess of love been their misfortune? The love only needed proper direction, like all of our other gifts. The sixteen gentlemen that the philosophic De June selected were of fair intelligence, healthy and good natured, prosperous and all men of fine physique. There was no choice in the men; there was no choice in the women; they were on the same intellectual plane—they were well mated and De June would not defeat the God of Chance by allowing any personal selection. One man offered a thousand dollars for first choice, but Mr. Hunks was a man of honor and could not be bought.