ought to be absolutely and eternally safe--and that is a snub.



VI


And finally, in his reflections as an ill-used man tied for life to a
woman who knows not tact, Mr. Omicron asserted further that Mrs.
Omicron only thought of spending and titivating herself. To assert
that she only thought of spending did not satisfy his spleen; he must
add "titivating herself." He would admit, of course, that she did as a
fact sometimes think of other matters, but still he would uphold the
gravamen of his charge. And yet--excellent Omicron!--you have but to
look the truth in the face--as a plain common-sense man will--and to
use your imagination, in order to perceive that there really is no
gravamen in the charge.

Why did you insist on marrying Mrs. Omicron? She had the reputation of
being a good housekeeper (as girls go); she was a serious girl,
kind-hearted, of irreproachable family, having agreeable financial
expectations, clever, well-educated, good-tempered, pretty. But the
truth is that you married her for none of these attributes. You
married her because you were attracted to her; and what attracted you
was a mysterious, never-to-be-defined quality about her--an effluence,
an emanation, a lurking radiance, an entirely enigmatic charm. In the
end "charm" is the one word that even roughly indicates that element
in her personality which caused you to lose your head about her. A
similar phenomenon is to be observed in all marriages of inclination.
A similar phenomenon is at the bottom of most social movements. Why,