Supreme Court of our contemporary women novelists suggests that justly
celebrated principle of perfect equity: 'What's yours is mine and
what's mine is my own.' Listen," he demanded; "listen (as the author
of 'The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' was wont to introduce his
lectures) to the story of the unfolding of a woman's heart through
marriage, as it is unfolded in the recent book of a novelist whom both
the million-headed crowd and shoals of reviewers, of very uneven
critical equipment, place 'well forward among America's novelists.' A
penniless young woman brought up amid the standards of very common
people marries for money, and comes to face the collapse of her dreams.
She realises that she is tied to a man for whom she cares nothing.
Also he is a brute, a typical bad egg of a husband from the extensive
though rather monotonous stock of this article dealt in by our women
novelists. Is it right for this young woman to throw away the chances
of her whole life for happiness--and so on? It certainly should not
seem so to readers of the book. And it is natural enough, as her
husband has totally failed to hold her, that this young woman's mind,
and heart, too, should convince her that she may make what she regards
as a wiser disposition of her life.

"The inevitable strong man whom she eventually marries seems
unfortunately to have a bit of a flaw in his granite character; at any
rate, something is wrong with him, as the heroine fails to hold him
altogether, and matters even begin to look as though she might lose
him. But with her great happiness had come a new standard of honour,
and a distrust of divorce as the solution of any marital problem.
Would it be right for her to lose a husband who has tired of her? Not
by a long shot! Marriage is the one vow we take before God. It is a
contract. Is it not against all moral law to break a contract? And
all the rest of it. So feminine logic disposes of what is described as