Turning to another but kindred question, I said-- "Your marriage contract, like our own laws, appears to favour the weaker sex more than strict theoretical equality would permit.

This is quite right and practically inevitable; but it hardly agrees with the theory which supposes bride and bridegroom, husband and wife, to enter on and maintain a coequal voluntary partnership." "How so ?" he inquired.
"The right of divorce," I said, "at the end of two years belongs to the wife alone.

The husband cannot divorce her except under a heavy penalty." "Observe," he answered, "that there is a grave practical inequality which even theory can hardly ignore.

The wife parts with something by the very fact of marriage.

At the end of two years, when she has borne two, three, or four children, her value in marriage is greatly lessened.