at once. I shall be ready to do whatever is necessary." Then she
went on in a different strain. "But there is one other thing I want
to say now, and that is that I should above all things like to see
you married--don't, by the way, fall in love with dear Jane, who
worships the ground you tread on! I have been observing you, and I
feel little doubt that marriage is what you most need. I don't
expect it has been in your mind at all! Perhaps you have not had
enough to marry on, but I am not sorry for that, for a special
reason; and I think, too, that men who have the care of boys and
young men have their paternal instinct to a large extent satisfied;
but that is only a small part of marriage! It isn't only that I
want this house to be a home--that's merely a sentimental feeling--
but you need to love and be loved, and to have the anxious care of
someone close to you. There is nothing like marriage. It probably
is not quite as transcendental an affair as you think. That's the
mistake which intellectual people so often make--it's a very
natural and obvious thing--and of course it means far more to a
woman than to a man. But life is not complete without it. It is the
biggest fact which happens to us. I only want you just to keep it
in your mind as a possibility. Don't be afraid of it! My husband
was your age when he married me, and though I was very unreasonable
in those days, I am sure it was a happy thing for him, though he
thought he was too old. There, I don't want to press you, in this
or in anything. I do not think you will be happy living here
without a wife, even if you go on with Cambridge. But one can't
mould things to one's wishes. My fault is to want to organise
everything for everybody, and I have made all my worst blunders so.
I hope I have given up all that. But if I live to see it, the day
when you come and tell me that you have won a wife will be the next
happiest day to the day when I found a son of my heart. There, dear