In the press of agitating events, both forgot the incident--for
the time.
CHAPTER XXI
A SWOOP AND A SCRATCH
When Molly Stillwater heard that Margaret and her "wild man" had
gone into the woods for their honeymoon she said: "Rita's got to
tame him and train him for human society. So she's taken him where
there are no neighbors to hear him scream as--as--" Molly cast
about in her stock of slang for a phrase that was vigorous enough
--"as she 'puts the boots' to him."
It was a shrewd guess; Margaret had decided that she could do more
toward "civilizing" him in those few first weeks and in solitude
than in years of teaching at odd times. In China, at the marriage
feast, the bride and the groom each struggle to be first to sit on
the robe of the other; the idea is that the winner will
thenceforth rule. As the Chinese have been many ages at the
business of living, the custom should not be dismissed too
summarily as mere vain and heathenish superstition. At any rate,
Margaret had reasoned it out that she must get the advantage in
the impending initial grapple and tussle of their individualities,
or choose between slavery and divorce.
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