the refinements and tastes and points of view of those classes. The
mistress thus gathers charm, and what has begun as a sordid sale of
amiability not uncommonly ends with formal marriage. The
number of such marriages is enormously greater than appears
superficially, for both parties obviously make every effort to
conceal the facts. Within the circle of my necessarily limited
personal acquaintance I know of scores of men, some of them of
wealth and position, who have made such marriages, and who do
not seem to regret it. It is an old observation, indeed, that a woman
who has previously dispose of her virtue makes a good wife. The
common theory is that this is because she is grateful to her husband
for rescuing her from social outlawry; the truth is that she makes a
good wife because she is a shrewd woman, and has specialized
professionally in masculine weakness, and is thus extra-competent at
the traditional business of her sex. Such a woman often shows a
truly magnificent sagacity. It is very difficult to deceive her
logically, and it is impossible to disarm her emotionally. Her revolt
against the pruderies and sentimentalities of the world was evidence,
to begin with, of her intellectual enterprise and courage, and her
success as a rebel is proof of her extraordinary pertinacity,
resourcefulness and acumen.


Even the most lowly prostitute is better off, in all worldly ways, than
the virtuous woman of her own station in life. She has less
work to do, it is less monotonous and dispiriting, she meets a far
greater variety of men, and they are of classes distinctly beyond her
own. Nor is her occupation hazardous and her ultimate fate tragic.
A dozen or more years ago I observed a some what amusing proof
of this last. At that time certain sentimental busybodies of the