They seemed
to take it for granted. If you liked each other, why shouldn't you? He
said he liked her.
The occurrence is fairly typical of up-to-date standards--except in one
particular. Most girls refrain from mentioning it to mother.
Here is another symptom, of slightly different complexion which applies
to married life and suggests the extent to which the new principle is
bearing fruit, in society circles.
It was brought to my notice, last summer, that in one colony on Long
Island where I happened to be, there were fourteen different houses
where the wife had deserted the family and the husband was keeping house
alone with the children. This was among members of the fashionable set.
In each of these cases, of course, the wife had come across some man
who, for the time being at least, appealed to her more than her husband
and a divorce had been obtained in some convenient way, or was in the
process of obtaining.
It usually happens when a discussion takes place concerning the
immorality of the present day, that some member of the party will
advance the opinion in a more or less authoritative way that the
tendency in question is confined almost entirely to the so-called upper
crust of society and is consequently not entitled to the significance
which is being attributed to it.
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