Page:Man's Country (1923).pdf/330

 If you had thought of gathering them, you would not have had time to bring them. You would have sent them back by Blakeley!"

"God!" George Judson cried out sharply, under his breath, and bit his lip.

"A woman isn't just an acquisition, you know," the letter went on. "It isn't all when you've captured her. You can't just drag her home through the jungle to your lair and expect her to stay there like a dove with clipped wings and be content. The wooing has just begun then. I told you once it was the duty of a husband to make his business romantic—that was silly, no doubt—but it is the duty of a husband to remain always a wooer and a lover.

"In those days, George, you didn't want a wife; you wanted a pet sheep that would come when you called her and stay away when you didn't. You wanted a plaything, and I couldn't be merely that—though that was all I knew how to be. Being a husband is not an executive posttion; it's only one side of a partnership, and not merely a partnership in business, but in life.

"But enough of ragging! I had these things to say that would hurt you, but might do you good. I have now something to add that will comfort you and certainly do you good also. You are a great builder, George—a creator. Oh, I get so sick of destruction and destroyers!