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Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920

"Complete March Family Trilogy"

I don't believe,
unless I keep right round after him, as we say in New England, that he'll
ever go near the man."
Agatha looked daunted, but she said, "That is a very different thing."
"It isn't a different kind of thing. And it shows what men are,--the
sweetest and best of them, that is. They are terribly apt to
be--easy-going."
"Then you think I was all wrong?" the girl asked in a tremor.
"No, indeed! You were right, because you really expected perfection of
him. You expected the ideal. And that's what makes all the trouble, in
married life: we expect too much of each other--we each expect more of
the other than we are willing to give or can give. If I had to begin over
again, I should not expect anything at all, and then I should be sure of
being radiantly happy. But all this talking and all this writing about
love seems to turn our brains; we know that men are not perfect, even at
our craziest, because women are not, but we expect perfection of them;
and they seem to expect it of us, poor things! If we could keep on after
we are in love just as we were before we were in love, and take nice
things as favors and surprises, as we did in the beginning! But we get
more and more greedy and exacting--"
"Do you think I was too exacting in wanting him to tell me everything
after we were engaged?"
"No, I don't say that.


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