The modern woman, no longer young, an intellectual, with a man's work to do, can make of marriage what she pleases.

The possibilities of the relations between men and women in the future are many, and the psychology of them unexplored.

Elizabeth was beginning to think her own case out, when, suddenly, she felt the tears running over her cheeks.
She was back in past days.

Mannering had vanished.

Oh--for love!--for youth!--for the broken faith and the wounded trust!--for the first fresh wine of life that, once dashed from the lips, the gods offer no more! She found herself sobbing helplessly, not for her actual lost lover, who had passed out of her life, but for those beautiful ghosts at whose skirts she seemed to be clutching--youth itself, love itself.
Had she done with them for good and all?
That was what marrying the Squire meant.
A business marriage--on her side, for an income, a home, a career; on his, for a companion, a secretary, an agent.