Again, her fear of pregnancy may still further retard her coming into a proper condition.  Indeed, this last is the almost common cause for her failing to be in readiness for meeting her husband.  All of which items must be taken into account by both husband and wife, and intelligently, lovingly dealt with, if the best results for both parties are attained.

As regards the item of possible pregnancy, special note will be made of this feature later on.  It is here placed in abeyance for the time being, because its consideration can be better provided for after some other points have been studied.

Now the one easily understood (and as easily practiced as understood) direction as to what to do by way of preparation for the act of coitus is:  do as lovers do when they are “courting." And everybody knows what that is!  And note this—­that nobody ever hurries when they are courting! They delay, they protract, they dilly-dally, they “fool around,” they pet each other in all sorts of possible and impossible ways.  They kiss each other—­“long and passionate kisses, they again and again give and receive”—­they hug each other, nestle into each other’s arms—­in a word, they “play together” in a thousand-and-one ways which the “goody-goods” declare to be wrong, and the cold-blooded call nonsense or foolishness, but which all lovers know is an unspeakable delight ("unspeakable” is the word, for who wants to talk when these blissful experiences are going on!).

Now, these things, and the likes of these things, in limitless supply, should always precede the act of coitus.  It is right there that this part of the first act of this wonderful four-act drama or play should be wrought out, and if they are omitted or disregarded, the play will end in tragedy, with all the leading actors left dead upon the stage!

Now the chief, if not the only, reason why this part of the supreme act of married life is not always preluded in this way is found in the false view of what the marriage ceremony means, and a wrong impression as to what it confers upon the parties who say “yes” to its prescriptions.  That is, the common idea is, that the taking of “marriage vows” bestows certain rights and imposes certain duties upon the new husband and wife.  It is thought that such ceremony makes certain acts right which would otherwise be wrong, and that it establishes the right to engage in such acts, with or without any further consultation or consent in the premises.  It makes love a matter of contract, a something bound by promise and pledge rather than a free and unfettered effusion of the soul.