He was to have a salary of $1,000 a year. He
was going strong.
One thousand dollars! Millions of married couples live on less
than that. But John didn't even think of asking Mary to share it
with him.
Mary, when married, was to be supported in approximate accordance
with the standards of the people John knew. Every John thinks
that about it, without really thinking about it at all. It's just
in him.
It bothered Mary. How much money would John want to spend on her
before he would take her? It made her feel like a box of candy in
a store window.
Still, a social standard is a fact. Just as much so as if it
could be laid off with a tape. And there is sense in it.
"After all," thought Mary, "if we had only $1,000 a year we
couldn't live where any of our friends do, and John would be cut
off from being on daily intimate terms with people who could help
him; and if we had children--Well, there you are! We surely
couldn't give our children what our children ought to have. That
settles it."
The influence of social standards is greatly increased and
complicated in a world in which women earn their living before
marriage and have a chance to make social standards of their own
in place of the ones they were born to.
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