if he's inclined that way, has three times the chance with a woman
that a single man has -- because the married man knows. He is privileged;
he can guess pretty closely what a woman means when she says something else;
he knows just how far he can go; he can go farther in five minutes
towards coming to the point with a woman than an innocent young man dares go
in three weeks. Above all, the married man is more decided with women;
he takes them and things for granted. In short he is --
well, he is a married man. And, when he knows all this,
how much better or happier is he for it? Mark Twain says
that he lost all the beauty of the river when he saw it with a pilot's eye, --
and there you have it.

But it's all new to a young chap, provided he hasn't been a young blackguard.
It's all wonderful, new, and strange to him. He's a different man.
He finds that he never knew anything about women. He sees none of woman's
little ways and tricks in his girl. He is in heaven one day
and down near the other place the next; and that's the sort of thing
that makes life interesting. He takes his new world for granted.
And, when she says she'll be his wife ----!

Make the most of your courting days, you young chaps, for they've got
a lot of influence on your married life afterwards -- a lot more
than you'd think. Make the best of them, for they'll never come any more,
unless we do our courting over again in another world. If we do,
I'll make the most of mine.

But, looking back, I didn't do so badly after all. I never told you
about the days I courted Mary. The more I look back the more I come to think
that I made the most of them, and if I had no more to regret
in married life than I have in my courting days, I wouldn't walk to and fro