“Oh. I am so sorry for Ilse!–––” Her eyes rested intently on Palla’s for a moment; then she smiled subtly, as though sharing with Palla some occult understanding.
Palla’s face whitened a little: “I want to ask you 311 a question, Marya.... You know our belief––concerning life in general.... Tell me––since your separation from Vanya, do you still believe in that creed?”
“Do I still believe in my own personal liberty to do as I choose? Of course.”
“From the moral side?”
“Moral!” mocked Marya, “––What are morals? Artificial conventions accidentally established! Haphazard folkways of ancient peoples whose very origin has been forgotten! What is moral in India is immoral in England: what is right in China is wrong in America. It’s purely a matter of local folkways––racial customs––as to whether one is or is not immoral.
“Ethics apply to the Greek Ethos; morals to the Latin Mores––moeurs in French, sitte in German, custom in English;––and all mean practically the same thing––metaphysical hair-splitters to the contrary––which is simply this: all beliefs are local, and local customs or morals are the result. Therefore, they don’t worry me.”
Palla sat with her troubled eyes on the careless, garrulous, half-smiling Russian girl, and trying to follow with an immature mind the half-baked philosophy offered for her consumption.
She said hesitatingly, almost shyly: “I’ve wondered a little, Marya, how it ever happened that such an institution as marriage became practically universal–––”
“Marriage isn’t an institution,” exclaimed Marya smilingly. “The family, which existed long before marriage, is the institution, because it has a definite structure which marriage hasn’t.
“Marriage always has been merely a locally varying 312 mode of sex association. No laws can control it. Local rules merely try to regulate the various manners of entering into a marital state, the obligations and personal rights of the sexes involved. What really controls two people who have entered into such a relation is local opinion–––”