"He will be thrown into the society of all six, and one of them will marry him, that will be the way of it." "I cannot say I discover great beauty in that social arrangement either, except that it gives the woman the choice." "Of course," she answered, "the system does not pretend to the beautiful, it only aspires to the practical.

If the woman is satisfied with her choice, domestic peace is assured." She laughed.
"Why cannot each satisfy himself or herself of the other?
Why cannot the choice be mutual ?" "It would take too long," said she; and laughed again.
"Very long ?" asked Claudius, trying not to let his voice change.

But it changed nevertheless.
"Generally very long," she answered in a matter-of-fact way.
"Why should it ?" "Because neither women nor men are so easily understood as a chapter of philosophy," said she.
"Is it not the highest pleasure in life, that constant, loving study of the one person one loves?
Is not every anticipated thought and wish a triumph more worth living for than everything else in the wide world ?" He moved close to her side.

"Do you not think so too ?" She said nothing.
"I think so," he said.

"There is no pleasure like the pleasure of trying to understand what a woman wants; there is no sorrow like the sorrow of failing to do that; and there is no glory like the glory of success.