And I believe that people can go and get as many new illusions as they want, whenever they've lost their old ones." "Yes, but the new illusions won't wear so well; and in marriage you want illusions that will last.

No; you needn't talk to me.

It's all very well, but it isn't ideal." March laughed.

"Ideal! What is ideal ?" "Going home!" she said with such passion that he had not the heart to point out that they were merely returning to their old duties, cares and pains, with the worn-out illusion that these would be altogether different when they took them up again.
LXXIII.
In fulfilment of another ideal Mrs.March took straightway to her berth when she got on board the Cupania, and to her husband's admiration she remained there till the day before they reached New York.

Her theory was that the complete rest would do more than anything else to calm her shaken nerves; and she did not admit into her calculations the chances of adverse weather which March would not suggest as probable in the last week in September.