"Not he, Jean. He's too suspicious to trust a confederate."
"Let's go back to camp, anyhow, Sally; mother will be missing us. But you needn't be afraid of Sam again. I Ve settled his hash," she said, as they hurried to the open. "Isn't it a terrible thing to be married?" she added, as soon as she could speak again.
"No, Jean. Marriage under right conditions is the world's greatest blessing. All enlightened men and women prefer to live in pairs, and make each other and their children as happy as possible. I admit that I made a big mistake when I married; but your mother didn't, because your father is one of God's noblemen. The fault isn't in marriage, but in the couple, one or both of whom make the trouble, when there is trouble. But the conditions between husbands and wives are not equal Law and usage make the husband and wife one, and the husband that one. Where both the parties to the compact are better than the law, it doesn't pinch either one; but when a woman finds herself chained for life to a sordid, disagreeable, stingy, domineering man, the advantages of law and custom are all on his side. It is no wonder that trouble ensues in such. cases."
"But, young as I am, I have seen wives that could discount almost any man for meanness," said Jean. " There are women, now and then, who take all the rights in the matrimonial category, and their husbands haven't any rights at all."
"Women sometimes inherit the strongest traits of their fathers; I admit that. And such women can outwit the very best husbands."
"I've read of a woman," said Jean, musingly, "Elizabeth Cady Stanton by name, who went before a legislative assembly in New York a few years ago, and secured the passage of a law enabling a married woman of that State to hold, in her own right, the property bequeathed to her by her father. And then.
