“Everything.”
“The children?”
“Harry, the children don’t want me in the way that children used to want their mothers when I was a child. They don’t display the same affection, not in the same way, that we used to. I wish they did. I came back for it. It wasn’t there. They’re darlings, but they’re self-reliant darlings, self-assured, self-interested.”
“They’ve a right to a home, Rosalie.” He paused. “And, Rosalie, I have a right to a home.”
She said, “Have I no rights?”
“There are certain things—” he slowly said and paused again—“established.”
She said quickly, “Yes, men think that. They always have. Well, I believe that nothing is.”
He looked steadily before him. “If it’s not established that woman’s part is the home part; if that is going to change, I wonder what’s going to happen to the world?”
She said, “Men always do. They always have—wondered, and the future always has changed right out of their wondering. I believe that the future is with woman. I believe that as empires have passed, Rome, Greece, Carthage, that seemed to their rulers the pillars of the world, so will pass man’s dominion. Woman’s revolt—it’s no use talking of it as that, as a revolt. Women aren’t and never will be banded. They’re like the Jews. They’re everywhere but nowhere. But the Jews have had their day; woman—not yet. They work, not banded, but in single spies. In every generation more single spies and more single spies. In time.... In every generation man’s dominion, by like degree, decreased, decreased. In time.... I’m one of this day’s single spies, Harry.”
He said with a sudden animation, “Look here, let’s take it on that level, Rosalie. In your case what’s the need? Call it dominion. I’ve never exercised nor thought to exercise dominion over you.”