Page:Ethel Churchill 2.pdf/191

Rh Well, for my part, I should prefer any thing to a perpetual calm." Henrietta only thought how completely she agreed with her. "It is very odd," continued her visitor, "that quarrels, which are so pleasant in love, should be so odious in marriage. I believe it is that, in the first instance, they may have consequences; in the last, they have none: your lover may fear to lose you; your husband can only hope, and hope in vain: the lover dreads that every quarrel may be the last; the husband knows he may go on quarrelling to eternity!" "A pleasant prospect!" exclaimed Lady Marchmont. "Lawgivers were never more mistaken," said Lady Mary, "than when they ordained that the conjugal tie should last through life for better and worse; the last injunction being strictly complied with. There should be septennial marriages, as well as septennial parliaments!"