Why Marry? Part 66

HELEN

[_smiles_]

He thinks so, too. Only he has a quaint, mannish notion that he must "protect me." [_To ERNEST, patting his arm._] Haven't you, dear!

[_Again she has raised the shield of flippancy._

JUDGE

What did I tell you, Theodore? The old marriage doesn't fit the New Woman. A self-supporting girl like Helen objects to obeying a mere man--like Ernest.

HELEN

[_patting the JUDGE'S arm affectionately, too_]

Uncle Everett, you know nothing about it! You think you understand the new generation. The only generation you understand is the one which clamored for "Woman's Rights." [_To ERNEST._] I obey you already--every day of my life, do I not, dear? [_Looking up into his face._] You're my "boss," aren't you, Ernest? [_To JUDGE._] But I do object to contracting by law for what is better done by love.

JUDGE

[_laughs fondly_]

But suppose the promise to obey were left out?

HELEN

But the contract to love--[_To THEODORE._] that's so much worse, it seems to me. Obedience is a mere matter of will, is it not? But when a man promises to love until death----

THEODORE

Are you so cold, so scientific, so _uns.e.xed_, that you cannot trust the man you love?

HELEN

Why, Theodore, if I didn't trust him I'd _marry_ him! Contracts are not for those who trust--they're for those who don't.

LUCY

[_takes HELEN apart_]

Now, I may be old-fashioned, Helen, but I'm a married woman, and I know men. You never can tell, my dear, you never can tell.

HELEN

Do you think I'd live with a man who did not love me? Do you think I'd live _on_ a man I did not love? [_LUCY blinks._] Why, what kind of a woman should I be then! The name wife--would that change it? Calling it holy--would that hallow it?... Every woman, married or not, knows the truth about this! In her soul woman has always known. But until to-day has never dared to tell.

ERNEST

[_approaching HELEN_]

Oh, come now--those vows--they aren't intended in a literal sense. Ask Theodore. Why, no sane person means half of that gibberish. "With all my worldly goods I thee endow"--millions of men have said it--how many ever did it? How many clergymen ever expect them to!... It's all a polite fiction in beautiful, sonorous English.

HELEN

The most sacred relationship in life! Ernest, shall you and I enter it unadvisedly, lightly, and with LIES on our lips?... Simply because others do?

ERNEST

[_a little impatient_]

But the whole world stands for this. And the world won't stand for that.

HELEN

Is that reverently, soberly, and in the fear of G.o.d? No, cynically, selfishly, and in the fear of man. I don't want to be obstinate, I don't like to set myself up as "holier than thou," but, Ernest, unless we begin honestly, we'll end dishonestly. Somehow marriage seems wicked to me.

JUDGE

[_nudging THEODORE_]

How do you like that?

THEODORE

John is right--they've gone mad.

ERNEST

All the same, you've got to marry me--you've simply _got_ to.

HELEN

You are mistaken. I do _not_ have to marry _any one_. I can support myself.