" Mrs. Fairford looked at Bowen
reproachfully. "You talk as if you were on her side!"
"Are there sides already? If so, I want to look down on them impartially
from the heights of pure speculation. I want to get a general view of
the whole problem of American marriages."
Mrs. Fairford dropped into her arm-chair with a sigh. "If that's what
you want you must make haste! Most of them don't last long enough to be
classified."
"I grant you it takes an active mind. But the weak point is so
frequently the same that after a time one knows where to look for it."
"What do you call the weak point?"
He paused. "The fact that the average American looks down on his wife."
Mrs. Fairford was up with a spring. "If that's where paradox lands you!"
Bowen mildly stood his ground. "Well--doesn't he prove it? How much does
he let her share in the real business of life? How much does he rely on
her judgment and help in the conduct of serious affairs? Take Ralph for
instance--you say his wife's extravagance forces him to work too hard;
but that's not what's wrong. It's normal for a man to work hard for a
woman--what's abnormal is his not caring to tell her anything about it."
"To tell Undine? She'd be bored to death if he did!"
"Just so; she'd even feel aggrieved. But why? Because it's against the
custom of the country. And whose fault is that? The man's again--I don't
mean Ralph I mean the genus he belongs to: homo sapiens, Americanus.
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