Virginia shook her head. Doubtfully she asked:
"Is it—when it gives no guarantee for the future?"
Fanny was silent. There are some crises in a woman's life when even a sister cannot advise, when a woman must decide for herself. Slowly she said: "But after all's said and done, dear—he is your husband and that makes everything right, doesn't it?"
"No," retorted Virginia bitterly, "it merely makes it legal."
"Legal?"
"Yes, lecherous old men of eighty marry girls in their teens—but does that make their relations right? Avaricious young men in their twenties marry women in their fifties. Does marriage make their relations right? In some States white women can marry black men—marry them just as properly as you and I are married—but does marriage make their relations right? No, marriage merely makes them legal."
"Do you mean to tell me that if a woman has a marriage certificate—"
"Precisely. She has documentary evidence that she is lawfully entitled to live with a man—that's all. A marriage certificate has nothing to do with the morality of marriage! Nothing!"
"Then what has?"
"Love—and self-respect," said Virginia. "The legal thing isn't always the right thing, and if I am ever forced to choose between what is legal and what is right I shall choose what is right."