§ 124
This climax-capping boulder on the peak of Mt. Chocorua in New Hampshire has on its southeast side the six-foot sheer perpendicular up which he helped her first. On its northwest side it has a slope of some forty degrees up which they might have scrambled hand in hand and reached the utmost altitude simultaneously. But she will be much better pleased and admire his restraint forever, if he not only keeps her ahead of him all the long trail up the mountain but finally lifts her up ahead of him, up the steep side at the southeast and (with her pardonable childish satisfaction, which well becomes her but ill becomes him) lets her, on this mountain-climbing experience, be his superior in this one little thing for these brief five minutes. During this time she will recover a bit from the sublimity of her position, will regain her breath, and will be able to turn her attention from the wonders of the mountain view, so that she too may have the pleasure of watching his face and covering it with kisses when he has made his final upspringing to the highest physical altitude in the region. Ardent mountain climbers like this will not be satisfied until they have symbolically, so to speak, climbed Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. And these ascents, each with the other, will preclude their taking any interest in the company of other mountain climbers. No woman will want other company than that of her husband, no man will be able to find a more attractive companion than his wife.