DECEMBER 249 



" But you might also say, if you want to be 

 strictly reasonable, that no man is justified either 

 in risking a refusal from a woman. And where 

 should you be then ? " 



" I should be exactly where I was before," 

 laughed Magdalen ; " but probably you mean where 

 would he be." 



" Yes, where would he be ? " 



"He would be just where he ought to be," said 

 Magdalen, with some heat, "at the feet of the 

 woman he loves. But if she loved him she would 

 see that he was not there long." 



" But if she didn't love him ? " 



" Oh, then it wouldn't matter." 



" Yes, it would matter, for you would have placed 

 him in a position which you would consider humilia- 

 ting for her. You are not reasonable." 



"It isn't a case for reasonableness. There is no 

 reason in any aspect of the position. If you want 

 reason you must have suitable marriages arranged 

 at a central bureau." 



" But given the present state of things, I don't 

 see why a woman should not show a man that she 

 loves him." 



"How should she show him when perhaps she 

 won't show her own heart ? No, he practically 

 commands the position in being the person who has 

 apparently the sole right of choosing. Let him 

 have its disadvantages, too, in being liable to 

 rejection." 



" I don't think the least deserving man in the 

 world ought to be liable to rejection, if rejection is 

 so unpleasant as you seem to imagine. He ought 



