[Sidenote:  The Thousand Foes]

The mother of Sparta bade her son return with his shield or on it, and the thought has potential might to-day.  If a man honestly loves a woman, she need have no fear of the thousand foes that wait to take him from her.  If he does not, the sooner she understands the truth, the better it is for both.  There are many people who consider love a dream, but they usually grow to think of marriage as the cold breakfast.

Men are but children of a larger growth.  A small boy forgets his promise to stay at home and tears madly down the street in the discordant wake of a band.  The same boy, in later years, will follow his impulses with equal readiness, for he is taught conformity to outward laws, but very seldom self-control.

The fear of “the other woman” may be largely assuaged by a spinster’s confidence in her ability to cope with the difficult situation, should it ever present itself, but there are other considerations which act as a discouragement to matrimony.

The chains of love may be sweet bondage, but freedom is hardly less dear.  The spinster, like the wind, may go where she listeth, and there is no one to say her nay.  A modern essayist has pointed out that “if a mortal knows his mate cannot get away, he is apt to be severe and unreasonable.”

The thought of being compelled to ask for money, and perhaps to meet with refusal, frequently acts as a deterrent upon incipient love.  A man is often generous with his sweetheart and miserly with his wife.  In the days of courtship, the dollars may fly on wings in search of pleasure for the well-beloved, and yet, after marriage, they will be squeezed until the milling is worn smooth, the eyes start from the eagle, and until one half-way expects to hear the noble bird scream.

[Sidenote:  Unlimited Credit]

There are girls in every circle, married to men not by any means insolvent, who have unlimited credit, but never any money of their own.  They have carriages but no car fare; fine stationery, monogrammed and blazoned with a coat of arms, but not by any chance a postage stamp.

Many a woman in such circumstances covenants with the tradespeople to charge as merchandise what is really cash, and sells laces and ribbons to her friends a little below cost.  When a girl is approached with a plea to have her purchases charged to her friend’s account, and to pay her friend rather than the merchant, is it not sufficient to postpone possible matrimony at least six months?  Adversity has no terrors for a woman; she will gladly share misfortune with the man she loves, but simple selfishness is a very different proposition.

[Sidenote:  “Wedded to their Art”]

There are also the dazzling allurements offered by various “careers” which bring fame and perhaps fortune.  The glittering triumphs of a prima donna, a picture on the line in the Salon, or a possible book which shall sell into the hundred thousands, are not without a certain charm, even though people who are “wedded to their art” sometimes get a divorce without asking for it.