Why Marry? Part 45

John is a practical man. He will prove to you that such a home as we could afford would only be a stumbling-block to Ernest's usefulness, a hollow sphere for mine. You can't fill it with mere happiness, Lucy, not for long, not for long.

JUDGE

[_restrains THEODORE about to reply_]

Oh, let her get it all nicely talked out, then she'll take a nap and wake up feeling better. [_Whispering._] We've driven her to this ourselves, but she really doesn't mean a word of it. Come, dear child, tell us all about this nightmare.

HELEN

[_smiles at the JUDGE_]

Why, think what would happen to an eager intellect like Ernest Hamilton's if he had to come back to a narrow-minded apartment or a dreary suburb every evening and eat morbid meals opposite a housewife regaling him with the social ambitions of the other commuters. Ugh! It has ruined enough brilliant men already. [_JUDGE restrains THEODORE and others who want to interrupt._] Now at the University Club he dines, at slight expense compared with keeping up a home, upon the best food in the city with some of the best scientists in the country.... Marriage would divorce him from all that, would transplant him from an atmosphere of ideas into an atmosphere of worries. We should be forced into the same deadly ruts as the rest of you, uncle. Do you want me to destroy a great career, Theodore?

THEODORE

Do you want to be a blot upon that career?

HELEN

[_lightly_]

I'd rather be a blot than a blight, and that's what I'd be if I became his bride. Ask John.

LUCY

Do you want to be disgraced, despised, ostracized!

HELEN

[_smiles at LUCY_]

A choice of evils, dear; of course, none of those costly well-kept wives on your visiting list will call upon me. But instead of one day at home, instead of making a tired husband work for me, I'll have all my days free to work with him, like the old-fashioned woman you admire! Instead of being an expense, I'll be a help to him; instead of being separated by marriage and divergent interests, we'll be united by love and common peril.... Isn't that the orthodox way to gain character, Theodore?

JOHN

Oh, this is all d.a.m.ned nonsense! Look here, you've either got to marry this fellow now or else go away and never see him again; never, never!

HELEN

Just what I thought, John. I intended never to see him again. That was why I let you send me abroad. But I'll never, never do it again.

[_Smiling like an engaged girl._] It was perfectly dreadful! Ernest couldn't get along without me at all, poor old thing. And I, why, I nearly died.

JOHN

Then you'll have to be married, that's all.

THE OTHERS

Why, of course you'll have to, that's all.

HELEN

[_nodding_]

Oh, I know just how you feel about it. I thought so, too, at first, but I can't marry Ernest Hamilton. I love him.

THEODORE

But if you love him truly--marriage, my dear, brings together those who love each other truly.

HELEN

But those who love each other truly don't need anything to bring them together. The difficulty is to keep apart.

[_A reminiscent shudder._

JOHN

That's all romantic rot! Every one feels that way at first.

HELEN

At first! Then the practical object of marriage is not to bring together those who love each other, but to keep together those who do not? [_To LUCY._] What a dreadful thing marriage must be!

[_JUDGE chokes down a chuckle._

JUDGE

Ah, so you wish to be free to separate. Now we have it.

HELEN