take woman's great tasks lightly, as if he did not realise how
serious, how enervating they were.

"They're too pretty," he said.

He began to talk, while he carved the chicken.

"It seemed a bit beastly to go back to work to-day after our good
time. However, I've all the more reason for going back to work now,
haven't I, Mrs. Kerr? You'll keep me up to the scratch, won't you?
Look! I'm carving this bird like an old family man already. They were
all asking me, down there, how I liked my honeymoon, and where we went
and what we saw. A lot of them began talking of the time they'd had.
They all said it never lasts. People are fools, aren't they?"

"Not to make it last?" said Marie. "Yes, dear."

"The attitude of the average man towards married life is sickening,"
said Osborn, "but I'm glad to think _you'll_ never know anything
about that, little girl."

Marie had a great feeling, as she looked under the candle-shades, at
Osborn, that she had found the king of men: lover, protector and
knight.

"The attitude of the average woman towards married life is perfectly
mean, Osborn. But _you'll_ never know anything about that,
either."

He knew, as he returned her look across the flowers, that he alone had