her mind? That the youth should adventure, she could wish; yet his very
hesitancy bespeaks his devotion true. Were he to fall about her neck,
embrace her close, and demand the kiss of love--most like she would
recoil aghast--at first! Yet if he desisted--she would also recoil
aghast.--What should he do, poor awkward youth? what she?--One thing
onlookers will do: smile, and simper, and smile again; but in their
inmost heart of hearts they will envy that awkward youth, that simple
maid. For because, in this the first symptoms of unsolicited and
reciprocal love, they will recognize something of the divine and mystical
nature of Love itself, of Love untrammeled by convention or law; of Love
itself, in its purity, its intensity, its diffidence, its terrifying yet
restraining force.

Ah! Love, not in every conflict art thou victor crowned. (2)

(2) Eros anikate machan.--Sophocles, Antigone, 781

* * *




XIII. On Marriage and Married Life

ariston andri ktaema sympathaes gunae.
--Hippothoon


Marriage laws are framed, not for or by the likes and dislikes of men and
women, but by the exigencies of social, often of political, economy.