“I am afraid I am very stupid. Would you tell me then how I should address you. I don’t understand.”
“Address me as Mary Winkle, and my husband as John Wright.”
Olive stared at her.
“Are you not Mrs. Wright then?”
“No, certainly not. I scorn the title. It is a symbol of subjection. I did not lose my identity when I chose to marry. I am the same Mary Winkle that I was before, and as such I desire to retain the name that I always possessed. Why should I take a new name simply because I am married?”
“It is usual,” stammered Olive. “I shouldn’t like not to be called Mrs. Weston. It is so confusing, you see.”
“Mere custom and prejudice. Why should not your husband take your name, instead of its always being the wife who is absorbed?”
“I don’t know, but I never heard of it before.”
“Ah, that is one of the first changes that must be made when women get their rights,” observed Mary Winkle.
“But I don’t want the change one bit. I much prefer the old way.”