He went on presently. "I'm afraid, Pinsent, I have done a foolish thing, perhaps even a caddish thing, in telling you anything about our private quarrel. It did not occur to me at the time that I might prejudice you against her. To be honest, there were faults on both sides, and if you knew all you might consider me the more deserving of censure, her the more deserving of pity."
"My dear old chap," I answered solemnly, "have I known you all these years for nothing? All you have said only the more assures me of your chivalry and generosity and tenderness of heart, and makes me feel the angrier at her insensate incapacity to appreciate your qualities. I grant you that you hide yourself at times behind a mask of surliness, but do you mean to tell me that any true woman, any woman, indeed, even such a frivolous creature as she has proved herself to be, could have failed to penetrate so transparent a disguise? I can't believe it, my boy. In my opinion, Lady Helen knows you perfectly for what you are. But instead of responding with an equal or similar nobility of mind, at the instance of her innate selfishness she is using her knowledge to put upon you, to hurt you, to trifle with you, and to drain your purse, all that she may pass the sort of existence she prefers without the wheel-brake of your tutelage."
Hubbard moved uncomfortably in his seat. He frowned and bit his lip. Then he coughed and put up a hand to his brow.
"Damme!" at length he blurted out. "You're as wrong as you can be. It was I who insisted on the separation."
"But she forced you to it. She broke her marriage vow of obedience, by refusing to accept the rules of life that you had planned."
"I prescribed conditions which she characterised as grossly unreasonable and unfair. I am by no means sure now that she was not right."
"Nonsense, Hubbard. It's a woman's first duty to obey and cleave to her husband at all costs and whatever be the consequences or fancied consequences to her comfort or convenience. Marriage imposes that obligation on the woman in its sacramental character. It is a sacred obligation and it cannot be violated without the guilt of crime. I could have no mercy on such a criminal."
Hubbard unbuttoned his coat and threw back the lapels. He seemed hot. He puffed out his cheeks and began to fan himself with a newspaper.
"Lord!" he muttered. "What strait-laced ideas you have of matrimony. Upon my soul I cannot follow you. They are out of date. There was a time, perhaps, when they were necessary. But now! My dear Hugh, you should reconsider the matter. Your views are somewhat narrow. For years past the world has been allowing an ever-increasing license to woman. And who shall say that it is wrong! Woman is a reasoning, responsible being. I——"
"Nonsense, Hubbard," I interrupted. "Woman is the weaker vessel, and the more she is restricted the better for her own protection. Look at the Divorce Court! Thousands of marriages are every year dissolved. That is all owing to the greater freedom which men have conceded woman of latter years. Divorce was, comparatively speaking, an unknown quantity when men asserted the right to confine their wives in proper bounds and forced them to observe and practise the domestic virtues both for occupation and amusement. Look around you and consider what has been brought about by the unwise relaxation of the old, sound laws! A race of social moths and drones and gad-flies has been created, whose chief business in life it is to amuse themselves; whose pleasure it is to spend money often earned with difficulty by devoted fools; whose delight it is to ensnare and to deceive their former tyrants; whose estimate of motherhood is an avoidable and loathsome human incident; whose morality is a resolution to preserve their immorality from public criticism; whose faith is a shibboleth composed of superstitious formulæ, and whose religion is occasionally to attend divine service in some fashionable church arrayed in the latest thing in headgear and a chic French gown."