"Vulgar! Well, you are going it! Isn't the mating instinct as deep and true as any of them?"
"It isn't a reason for marriage," said Cornelia, in staccato accents. "And you know perfectly well I never said or thought it was. Quite the reverse. I opposed marriage because the sex instinct, which is what induces most people to marry, is a good ground for a temporary union but not a good ground for a permanent one."
"Then there are good reasons for a permanent union?"
"Yes. And they absorb the sex reason a million times over."
"It's easy for you to talk like that, Cornelia, with Harry thinking that the sun rises in one of your eyes and sets in the other. But where shall I find a Harry to be absorbed in me a million times over like that?"
"If you go on making nasty sarcastic replies to all my well-meant suggestions, I shall wash my hands of you," said Cornelia, rising with frigid haughtiness.
She added, on a superior note:
"You'd better see a little less of poor, bedraggled Mazie Ross, if it's on her level that you're being tempted to think."
IV
Janet hastened after her in a complete change of mood.