"Well, you terrestrials have such queer notions on all subjects, that it is not to be wondered that your ideas about marriage are as perverse as the rest. You must remember that it was you yourself who first declared to me that you were in love with me, and your woe-begone appearance when I announced to you my marriage with Phoebus convinced me that your disappointment was great. I was filled with the liveliest pity for you, and one of your own poets says, 'Pity is akin to love.' I should rather say, it often leads to love. I did not love Phoebus, and I knew he did not love me; we only liked one another, and married in order to see if we could love. I might have loved you had I seen that you retained your affection for me; but now that I see you have lost all caring for me, nothing prevents me giving my whole heart to Phoebus, and I dare say we shall make a most exemplary and happy couple."
I saw it was in vain to impress on this fascinating creature the notions respecting marriage which prevail in England. She could not have understood how we insist on love being a condition precedent to the formation of a matrimonial alliance. On this subject she one day said:—
"As you terrestrials know little or nothing of one another's bodies physically or mentally, you must marry your ideals, and what if the reality does not correspond with your ideal, and you are tied for life to one another? How you must hate one another! And how dreadfully immoral to compel persons who detest one another to live together! I could kill any man I hated were I tied to him for life! If Phoebus finds he cannot really love me, or if I find I cannot really love him, after an honest trial we should
