with them. When he has thus destroyed his wife's affection for him, in
spite of the fact that at one time she wished for nothing better than
to love him, he goes away and gives up the whole thing. All that is too
easy. One of Meilhac's heroines says to a man, who declares that he is
going to drown himself for her sake, "Oh yes, that is all very fine. You
would be tranquil at the bottom of the water! But what about me? . . ."

In this instance Jacques is tranquil at the bottom of his precipice, but
Fernande is alive and not at all tranquil. Jacques never rises to the
very simple conception of his duty, which was that, having made a woman
the companion of his life's journey, he had no right to desert her on
the way.

Rather than blame himself, though, Jacques prefers incriminating the
institution of marriage. The criticism of this institution is very
plain in the novel we are considering. In her former novels George, Sand
treated all this in a more or less vague way. She now states her theory
clearly. Jacques considers that marriage is a barbarous institution.
"I have not changed my opinion," he says, "and I am not reconciled to
society. I consider marriage one of the most barbarous institutions
ever invented. I have no doubt that it will be abolished when the human
species makes progress in the direction of justice and reason. Some
bond that will be more human and just as sacred will take the place of
marriage and provide for the children born of a woman and a man, without
fettering their liberty for ever. Men are too coarse at present, and
women too cowardly, to ask for a nobler law than the iron one which
governs them. For individuals without conscience and without virtue,
heavy chains are necessary."

We also hear Sylvia's ideas and the plans she proposes to her brother