“What you have got to do is to put a lot of stupid, conventional ideas out of your mind, and not worry about other people, and the drivel they talk, or the idiotic things they say.  We weren’t conventional last year, so why the dickens should we be this?  I’m awfully keen about you, Sabina, and awfully keen about the child too; but let us be sane and be lovers and not a wretched married couple.

“If you will come and be my housekeeper, I shall welcome you with rejoicings, and we can go house-hunting again and find something worthier of us and take bigger views.

“Don’t let this bowl you over and make you savage.  It is simply a question of what will keep us the best friends, and wear best.  I am perfectly certain that in the long run we shall be happier so, than chained together by a lot of cursed laws, that will put our future relations on a footing that denies freedom of action to us both.  Let’s be pioneers and set a good example to people and help to knock on the head the imbecile marriage laws.

“I am, of course, going to put you all right from a worldly point of view and settle a good income upon you, which you will enjoy independently of me; and I also recognise the responsibility of our child.  He or she will be my heir, and nothing will be spared for the youngster.

“I do hope, my dearest girl, you will see what a sensible idea this is.  It means liberty, and you can’t have real love without liberty.  If we married, I am certain that in a year or two we should hate each other like the devil, and I believe you know that as well as I do.  Marriage is out-grown—­it’s a barbaric survival and has a most damnable effect on character.  If we are to be close chums and preserve our self-respect, we must steer clear of it.

“I am very sure I am right.  I’ve thought a lot about it and heard some very shrewd men in London speak about it.  We are up against a sort of battle nowadays.  The idea of marriage is the welfare of the community, and the idea of freedom is the welfare of the individual; and I, for one, don’t see in the least why the individual should go down for the community.  What has the community done for us, that we should become slaves for it?

“Wealth—­at any rate, ample means—­does several things for a man.  It opens his eyes to the meaning of power.  Power is a fine thing if it’s coupled with sense.  Already I see what a poor creature I was—­owing to the accident of poverty.  Now you’ll find what a huge difference power makes.  It changes everything and turns a child into a man.  At any rate, I’ve been a child till now.  You’ve got to be childlike if you’re poor.

“So I hope you’ll take this in the spirit I write, Sabina, and trust me, for I’m straight as a line, and my first thought is to make you a happy woman.  That I certainly can do, if you’ll let me.

“I shall be coming home presently; but, for the moment, I must stop here.  There is a gigantic deal of work waiting for me; but working for myself and somebody else are two very different things.  I don’t grudge the work now, since the result of the work means more power.