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The Lesson of the Master by Henry James
page 63 of 88 (71%)
obligations are immense; so that, if you please, we'll say nothing about
her. My boys--my children are all boys--are straight and strong, thank
God, and have no poverty of growth about them, no penury of needs. I
receive periodically the most satisfactory attestation from Harrow, from
Oxford, from Sandhurst--oh we've done the best for them!--of their
eminence as living thriving consuming organisms."

"It must be delightful to feel that the son of one's loins is at
Sandhurst," Paul remarked enthusiastically.

"It is--it's charming. Oh I'm a patriot!"

The young man then could but have the greater tribute of questions to
pay. "Then what did you mean--the other night at Summersoft--by saying
that children are a curse?"

"My dear youth, on what basis are we talking?" and St. George dropped
upon the sofa at a short distance from him. Sitting a little sideways he
leaned back against the opposite arm with his hands raised and
interlocked behind his head. "On the supposition that a certain
perfection's possible and even desirable--isn't it so? Well, all I say
is that one's children interfere with perfection. One's wife interferes.
Marriage interferes."

"You think then the artist shouldn't marry?"

"He does so at his peril--he does so at his cost."

"Not even when his wife's in sympathy with his work?"

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