PHILOSOPHIC MATRIMONY.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 327, 18 June 1874, Page 3

PHILOSOPHIC MATRIMONY.

IN TWO CHAPTERS.— CHAPTKB I. Everybody has an idea to attaiu which would be perfect bliss ; it may be swinging on a gate and eating bacon ; or going into a third edition in two months ; or averaging six tramps at whist ; or rising to the premiership, and having your speedy death toasted at adverse political dinners- Henry Collinson's great desire was for domestic happiness ; not, indeed, as most men understand it — marriage with a good-natured, even-tempered woman, who will study her husband's comforts, put up cheerfully with his whims, eke out his income, and provide a pleasant home for him when wearied with business or pleasure out of doors ; but the perfect sympathy j of two souls, having one will, one interest, one home, and one purse in common. His courtship consisted principally of the expounding of these views, which seemed to Lucy very commendable. The main principle appeared to her to be, that she was to have her own way in everything ; and that suited her. To tell the truth, she had been rather spoiled already ; her aunt, who had had charge of her since she was nine years old, was no disciplinarian. If she liked people, she could not see their faults ; if she disliked them, she did not believe that they had any merits; and she was fond of her neice. She was a clever woman to a certain extent, and had given Lucy a better education than girls often get,£so as to convert her 'into a reasonable being, who could understand the why and the wherefore of things, and was not frightened at hearing that which she was accustomed to take for granted called in iquestion ; instead of being merely an accomplished child. That was why Miss Faversham had the reputation of being an advocate of woman's rights. ' My dear, she reads Euclid, and teaches it to that unfortunate girl ! ' said the gossips to one another. And they ' had no patience with such newfangled nonsense ;' and dubbed the offender a member of the discontented female brigade. But, in truth, Miss Faversham was not qualified for that corps ; she had no particular faith in the abstract advantages of the suffrage. For example, she knew that mankind was selfish, and that no particular class could be trusted to rule without some check or supervision from the other classes, or el?e it would get all the oysters, and leave its fellow-citizens the shells, and she therefore thought the system good which distributed the power of electing lawmakers as equally as possible. But she could not understand in what particulars the interests of English women were antagonistic to those of English men ; neither did she believe that there was any lack of honest desire in either House to promote the welfare of the wives, sweethearts, mothers, sisters, and daughters of the members. She thought, perhaps erroneously, that if women are at any disadvantage, it is socially, not politically ; and that the unwritten laws which some ladies think so irksome and galling, are promulgated and maintained by their own sex. So that Lucy had not learned the humiliating misery of her position as a British female from her aunt, and it was from her lover's lips that she knew that men are tyrants and women slaves, and that a new order of chivalry had arisen for the emancipation of the oppressed ones. She entered very readily into his views, and soon became convinced that she really was a most perse2uted individual. The books he recommended her to read were some of them rather dry, but as she was a talented skipper, that did not matter so much. Besides, it is worth while to be bored a little in the nursing of a grievance; it spurs the indignation. But Henry Gollinson was a lover as well as a philosopher, and pressed for an early date to be named for their marriage. Lucy said that she would be guided by her aunt, who made no attempt to delay it unreasonably. 'She is no companion for me any longer,' aaid the out-spoken lady ; ' perhaps when she is married che will recover her senses.' One thing she was obstinate about, and that was a religious ceremony, which the young man wanted to omit. It was odious, be said, that one human being should vow to honour and obey another. ' If Lucy thinks that, she had better not marry you at all,' said Miss Faversham ; ' that is my opinion ; and so you must be tied up in the usual manner, by a clergyman of the Church of England, or she shall have neither the five thousand pounds nor a breakfast.' Principle is a very fine thing, but money is — money. So the pair were amalgamated, and toasted, and caked, and white-favoured, and packed abroad for a month, just like ordinary couples in the same station of life. When they came back, they fixed their home in & cottage near a wood, within half an hour's omuibusride from Charing Cross. They soon had plenty of society ; Henry Collinson's clique was not a large one, but all the members of it called on his bride, who presently became absorbed in a pursuit which rivals gambling for fascination : the hatching of a revolution. A mere social revolution, it was true, lacking the excitement and danger appertaining to the endeavour to upset the established government of a country ; but by no means deficient in elements calculated to set the outer world by the ears, and consequently to fill the breast of adepts with a most voluptuous feeling of superiority. The young Mrs Collinson had a * superior' mind, as the cant phrase runs ; I mean that she was not content to vegetate like a cabbage ; her intellectual half required to be fed, just like the corporeal ; so that she could appreciate the leaders of the set in which she now found herself, and perceive that they undoubtedly were very clever women. And not only clever, but with a great deal of 'go' in them ; a quality without which ardent disciples are seldom made. Lucy soon became an ardent disciple ; she knew, without vanity, that she was a more reasonable being than the majority of girls she had become intimate with up and down the world ; she also knew, without false modesty, that her own mental calibre was far inferior to that of Mrs Noble, Miss Franks, or Priscilla Skeps, and the influence which those ladies exercised over her was therefore well nigh unlimited. And on their part they were proud of their recruit : too many of the ladies who flocked to their standard had only discovered the rotten state of society alter they had fallen under its ban, and their conversion was consequently rather suspicious ; but Lucy was a genuine convert. They also liked her; no man or woman was yet proof against the flattery of a genuine admiration ; besides which, she was active and useful, and was soon admitted into their most secret counsels. Henry Collinson was delighted.