It is when the girl chooses for something other than natural quality
that the future is liable to be betrayed. But the point to be insisted
upon is that it is far more worth her while to choose for natural
quality than for any other considerations. The argument of this chapter
is that it will not in the long run be worth the girl's while to be
beguiled by a man's money, his position or his prospects, since all of
these, without the one thing needful, will ultimately fail her.
The truth is that very few girls realize how intimate and urgent and
inevitable and unintermittent are the conditions of married life. It
requires imagination, of course, to understand these things without
experience. A girl observes a friend who has made what is called "a good
marriage"; she goes to the friend's house, and sees her the triumphant
mistress of a large establishment; she sees her friend at the theatre,
meets her escorted by her husband at this place and that; hears of her
holidays abroad, covets her jewelry, and she thinks how delightful it
must be. She knows nothing at all of the realities; she sees only
externals, and she is misled. Whenever thus misled she is beguiled into
marrying a man for any other reason than that his personal qualities
compel her love, it is her seniors who are to blame for not having
enlightened her. Such a girl shall be enlightened if her eyes fall on
these pages.
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