“Pshaw!  How do you know?”

“Because I’ve watched them for years and studied about it.  There is nothing in marriage, Doug.  No, sir!”

“Pshaw!  And you were sitting and quoting love poetry to Peter last night!”

“Yes, I was!  Certainly!  I’m not idiot enough to say there’s no such thing as love.  But I do know that a few years of marriage kills it.  Yes, sir!”

Douglas eyed her wistfully.  She was so vivid.  Yes, vivid, that was the word.  Her eyes glowed as if her brain glowed too, and her lips were so full of meanings, too changing and too subtle for him to read.  If only they could work out this strange enigma of life together!

“They can’t hold out against the years,” Judith repeated dreamily.  “It’s as if love was too delicate for every-day use.  They get over caring.”

“I wonder why?” said Douglas.

“I think people get sick of each other, Doug!  Why, I think a lot more of you, since you’ve been away for a few months.  And I get tired of my own mother, bless her dear old heart, and I love her to death.  But she’s my mother and I can’t stop loving her.  But I certainly couldn’t stand a man around the house, year after year.  No marriage for me!  No, sir!”

“But what will you do about love?” asked Douglas.

Judith’s burning eyes grew soft.  “Cherish it,” she answered in a low voice.  “Keep it forever.  Never murder it by marriage.  It’s the most wonderful thing that comes into human life.”

Douglas smiled sadly.  “You talk as if you were a thousand years old, Judith, on the one hand and like a baby on the other.  What will you do, marry without love?  Somehow the children have got to be cared for by responsible parties.”

“Responsible parties!” Jude was derisive.  “Do you call Dad a responsible party?”

“He’s fed and clothed us.”

“What does that amount to?” said Judith largely.  “An orphan asylum would do that.  The kind of parents kids need are the ones that will answer your questions.  I mean the real questions.  The ones we don’t dare to ask.”

“About life and sex and all those things!” Doug nodded understandingly.  There was silence, then Doug shook his head.  “I don’t know how things would go along without marriage.  Just you wait until you fall in love and see how you feel.  You’ll want to marry just like all the rest of us.”

“Never!  I’m with Inez on that!”

“Inez!”

“Yes, Inez!  She’s got more sense about living than all the women in this valley put together.  And she knows life.”

Douglas sighed.  “What are some of Inez’ ideas about marriage?”

“Well, she just says it won’t do!  She says that the children have got to be taken care of but that it isn’t fair to put the curse of marriage on parents.  And she says her way isn’t the answer, either, but that anyhow it’s honest, which is a darn sight more than a lot of marriages in Lost Chief.”