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 FLAMING

YOUTH

15]

have trial marriages, and commonly;

or trial alliances,

which is the same thing without the same name.

If the

truth were known I suppose that most men who marry the second time, marry their mistresses. How many other experiments may previously have gone into the discard as having proved unsuitable, is another question. Selection of the fittest. The notion that men never marry the women who give themselves is fictional cant, one of those many falsities which society propagates under the silly delusion that they are safeguards of virtue. “What an experiment it would be to bring up a young girl in an atmosphere clear of all the common lies and illusions! You had begun to do it with Pat, I think. I wish that I could carry on. But it-is too blind a venture for a worn and uncertain bachelor like myself. Nevertheless, when Pat does put questions to me I give her the truth. And she has a flair for truth. An enquiring’ and Pioneering sort of mind, too, which would be a fine equipment if only it were trained and disciplined. As it is, it is a danger.

She will explore, and exploration, with

her temperament—Pat ought to marry some man much older than herself; a man of thirty at least, clever enough to understand her, patient enough to bear with her caprices, and strong enough to compel her respect. He could make something real of her, for there is essential character in Pat. Or is it only the charm of her person-

ality that makes one think so?

I could wish that Cary

Scott were not married. Though, of course, he is too old for her. He takes a great deal of interest in her and has much influence over her mind; but his interest is not that kind of interest, naturally. He has been talking to me about her; very shrewdly, too.

dangerously inflammable type.

making a confidant of him.

He thinks her of the

I fancy that she has been

He thinks that I should talk