An Unmarried Father by Floyd Dell

A YOUNG man may expend anguished thought upon the question of which of two girls he ought to marry; but a third claimant breaks the spell of that dilemma. He no longer feels the sense of having to make a painful choice; his feeling is rather a bewildering one of having no choice at all. He loses in imagination the position of embarrassing masculine jurisdiction over the fate and happiness of the girls, and begins to feel a little like a hunted animal.

Abruptly, when left alone by his mother, the color of the whole situation changed for Norman. He felt as though a horde of women were closing in upon him. It was not a dignified situation, and in self-defense he felt a burst of resentment against them all.