 special desire to burn his fingers with in the first
instance.
    »Marriage,« he rejoined promptly, »and the power of disposing of his
property after a man is dead. The question of Christianity is virtually settled
- or if not settled there is no lack of those engaged in settling it - the
question of the day now is marriage and the family system.«
    »That,« said I drily, »is a hornet's nest indeed.«
    »Yes,« said he no less drily, »but hornet's nests are exactly what I happen
to like. Before, however, I begin to poke at this particular one, I propose to
travel for a few years, with the especial object of finding out what nations now
existing are the best, comeliest and most loveable, and also what nations have
been so in times past. I want to find out how these people live, and have lived,
and what their customs are.
    I have very vague notions upon the subject as yet, but the general
impression I have formed is that - putting ourselves on one side - the most
vigorous and amiable of known nations are the modern Italians, the old Greeks
and Romans, and the South Sea Islanders. I believe that these nice peoples have
not as a general rule been purists, but I want to see those of them who can yet
be seen; they are the practical authorities on the question, What is best for
man? - and I should like to see them and find out what they do. Let us settle
the facts first and fight about the moral tendencies afterwards.«
    »In fact,« said I laughing, »you mean to have high old times.«
    »Neither higher nor lower,« was the answer, »than those people whom I can
find to have been the best in all ages. But let us change the subject.«
    He put his hand into his pocket and brought out a letter. »My father,« he
said, »gave me this letter this morning - with the seal already broken.«
    He passed it over to me, and I found it to be the one which Christina had
written before the birth of her last child, and which I have given in an earlier
chapter.
    »And you do not find this letter,« said I, »affect the conclusion which you
have just told me you have come to concerning your present plans?«
    He smiled, and answered, »No. But if you do what you have sometimes talked
about, and turn the adventures of my
