Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/248

 they will both find and confer more happiness in filling their natural positions as wives and mothers than by consuming their lives in the endeavor to add a mite to the already unmanageable accumulations of human knowledge. It has, besides, been shown, that more has been contributed to that stock of knowledge by married women than by all the zerata. It must be remembered, however, that the former outnumbered the latter a thousand-fold."

"Do they remain there for life?" inquired I, further, thinking of the deplorable waste involved in the immuring of such grace and beauty as Reva's amid musty books and noisome laboratories. Yet such is the innate selfishness of the male heart in such matters, that I am not sure that I did not derive a sort of gloomy satisfaction from the thought of her becoming inaccessible to others should I fail to win her.

"By no means," replied Utis. "Twice every year they are required to spend a week at home, resuming the ordinary habit and duties of the cioran. On reaching their thirtieth year, they return home for a full year. At the end of that time, should they still remain heart-free, they are regarded as having a real vocation, and attain the privilege of going and coming from their cloister at will."

"Does Hulmar fear any such intention on the part of Reva?"

"Not so much from any thing she has said, as from her persistent rejection of all attentions on the part of even the most eligible suitors. Perhaps, however, it may simply mean that the right one has not yet appeared. It is with that probability I re-assure my friend when he expresses his apprehensions to me."