The Star in the West

90 THE STAR IN THE WEST Turn not thy face from us in wrath , for we Are thine own father's children , and his loins With double fervour gat a double flower ; And we indeed were born of drudging wives, Pale spouses whom his heart despised , but thou Wast of a fairer face and brighter eyes , And limbs more amorous assuaged thy sire ; And fuller blood of his is tingling thus Now in thy veins indignant at our sin . ' Thus we find free love is the great , pure , and only true love . Its name has been soiled and fouled by the feculencies of Holywell Street , its celebration mis understood and prostituted by the Church , and its life threatened and blackguardized by the Law . But wherever two hearts beat in unison , there is its abode , North or South , East or West , it knows no locality , no time , no space ; for it is love sublime , eternal , inscrutable ; its greatest foe is Lust , and the most fearful form of lust is Marriage : Whom God hath joined let no man put asunder . We have already seen marriage described in “ The Honourable Adulterers ” and in “ The Star and the Garter ”; we get a pregnant glimpse of it again in the one speech , “ A bargain's a bargain , a thousand a year and a flat in Mayfair are better than Farmer Tyson's butter and eggs . » 2 In these few words are practically summed up the raison d’être of all mariages de convenance . The affluent marry out of sensuality , or to engender sons to inherit their selfishness , the middle orders trot their daughters round the London ball - rooms just as strumpets fall in to the cry of descendes , mesdemoiselles ! Women marry for title , clothing , shelter , and food ; men because they think 1 Jephthah , vol . i, pp . 70 , 71 . ? Why Jesus Wept , vol . iii, p . 42 .