"
Edith smiled.
"If Arthur were here," she returned, "he would probably say that you
think you mean that, but that really you don't."
"My dear," Mrs. Frostwinch answered, with her beautiful smile and a
characteristic undulation of the neck, "your husband, although he is
clever to an extent which I consider positively immoral, is only a man,
and he does not understand. Men do what they like; women, what they
can. There may be moral free will for women, although I've ceased to be
sure of that even; but socially no such thing exists. Do we wear the
dreadful clothes we are tied up in because we want to? Do we order
society, or our lives, or our manners, or our morals? Do we"--
"There, there," interrupted Helen, laughing and putting up her hand. "I
can't hear all this without a protest. If it is true I won't own it. I
had rather concede that all women are fools"--
"As indeed they are," interpolated Mrs. Frost-winch.
"Than that they are helpless manikins," continued Helen. "In any other
sense, that is," she added, "than men are."
"My dear Mrs. Greyson," the other said, leaning toward her, "you take
the single question of the relation of the sexes, and where are we? I
wouldn't own it to a man for the world, but the truth is that men are
governed by their will, and women are governed by men; and, what is
more, if it could all be changed to-morrow, we should be perfectly
miserable until we got the old way back again; and that's the most
horribly humiliating part of it.
Pages:
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171