"I thought," said she, "from the way in which you spoke of 'primitive and young persons' that you considered their opinion in regard to--to this question, as being the natural and proper opinion of the original and civilised young man."
"I repeat that I do not claim to be very civilised, or very young--certainly not to be very original, and my renunciation of all these qualifications is my excuse for the confirmed bachelorhood to which I adhere. Many Mohammedans are young and original; some of them are civilised, as you see, and all of them are married. 'There is no God but God, Muhammad is his prophet, and if you refuse to marry you are not respectable,' is their full creed."
Isaacs frowned at my profanity, but I continued--"I do not mean to say anything disrespectful to a creed so noble and social. I think you have small chance of converting Mr. Isaacs."
"I would not attempt it," she said, laying down her work in her lap, and looking at me for a moment. "But since you speak of creeds, to what confession do you yourself belong, if I may ask?"
"I am a Roman Catholic," I answered; adding presently--"Really, though, I do not see how my belief in the papal infallibility affects my opinion of Mohammedan marriages."
"And what _do_ you think of them?" she inquired, resuming her work and applying herself thereto with great attention.
"I think that, though justified in principle by the ordinary circumstances of Eastern life, there are cases in which the system acts very badly. I think that young men are often led by sheer force of example into marrying several wives before they have sufficiently reflected on the importance of what they are doing. I think that both marriage and divorce are too easily managed in consideration of their importance to a man's life, and I am convinced that no civilised man of Western education, if he were to adopt Islam, would take advantage of his change of faith to marry four wives. It is a case of theory _versus_ practice, which I will not attempt to explain. It may often be good in logic, but it seems to me it is very often bad in real life."
"Yes," said Isaacs; "there are cases----" He stopped, and Miss Westonhaugh, who had been very busy over her work, looked quietly up, only to find that he was profoundly interested in the horses cropping the short grass, as far as the saice would let them stretch their necks, on the other side of the lawn.