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 CHAPTER XVI

MARIE CORELLI'S VIEWS ON MARRIAGE

Marie Corelli seems to think that the present generation is one in which hypocrisy cumbers the face of the globe. "Never," she says, "was the earth so oppressed with the weight of polite lying, never were there such crowds of evil masqueraders, cultured tricksters, and social humbugs, who, though admirable as tricksters and humbugs, are wholly contemptible as men and women. Truth is at a discount, and if one should utter it the reproachful faces of one's so-called 'friends' show how shocked they are at meeting with anything honest." That is a very sweeping assertion for which Marie Corelli has been abused. If the world had in it more sincerity than sham, the truth of her condemnation of present systems and practices would have been frankly admitted. Because what she says is true to an unhappy degree. The authoress is severe in her criticisms of the marriage "bargains" which are, we think, mainly the possession of what she would call "smart"