I ought to have left her
there and then; but, as I think I've told you before, the fact of having
shouted her away from the edge of a precipice seemed somehow to have
engaged my responsibility as to this other leap. And so we had still an
intimate subject between us to lend more weight and more uneasiness to
our silence. The subject of marriage. I use the word not so much in
reference to the ceremony itself (I had no doubt of this, Captain Anthony
being a decent fellow) or in view of the social institution in general,
as to which I have no opinion, but in regard to the human relation. The
first two views are not particularly interesting. The ceremony, I
suppose, is adequate; the institution, I dare say, is useful or it would
not have endured. But the human relation thus recognized is a mysterious
thing in its origins, character and consequences. Unfortunately you
can't buttonhole familiarly a young girl as you would a young fellow. I
don't think that even another woman could really do it. She would not be
trusted. There is not between women that fund of at least conditional
loyalty which men may depend on in their dealings with each other.
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