Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/70

 with your views, let us at least respect the prejudices of our  fellows. Nor have I gone so far yet as to deny the existence of a ruling power. There must be some guiding hand which controls the vast machine we call the universe.”

“Good, George!” exclaimed Maurice. “Good! It is the first time I ever heard you admit even that much.”

And in truth it was a night which would have made most men chary of denying the existence of their God.

“,” said the Rev. Miles Philpot, “it's a snare and a delusion. The world were better off without it. Better with such easy matrimonial relations as obtain among these people and other Eastern nations. That is my firm conviction, based upon an experience which, believe me, has been by no means small.”

We were still seated around the fire in the old stone tower and as the storm without was raging with unabated fury, it seemed altogether probable that we should be forced to continue there for the remainder of the night.

Really I cannot say how our conversation came to drift into this channel. I have no doubt, however, that Philpot himself started it. Maurice had been defending the marriage relation when it reached this point, while for my own part, finding the subject entirely distasteful, I had thus far kept quietly to my pipe and made no remark.

“I don’t agree with you all,” replied Maurice. “It is a well known fact that the nations most advanced in civilization are those among whom the marriage relation is held to be sacred. Am I not right, George?”

“Of course you are,” I replied. “A happy conjugal union is”

“Slavery,” interrupted Philpot, “mere slavery. A wife tied down by pinafores and household cares is in much the same situation as an enterprising oyster, who can’t get off its bed no matter how hard it tries. As for the husband, ask any