And Men Imitated Napoleon.
“Well,” I said, “that seems to me a better explanation of why we do not have salons than of why we do have women’s clubs. There were men’s clubs at the time of the salons; and I think we may say that the salons stopped before the feminine clubs began.”
“Have women taken up with one another because they had to? Is that what you are going to ask? No; we have taken up with one another in this modified sort of way for the same reason that the blacksmith whipped the parson—because we wanted to and because we could. The salon never kept many women busy, but the decay of the salon was one more reason why there should be women’s clubs. The logical thing was bound to happen sometime: clubs for men, clubs for women, clubs for both—society being in a sort of way the club for both.”
“That is logical,” I admitted. “That is to say, it has a nicely balancing sound, which is the same thing. Then there is a fine balance in other ways, as we may observe every day. We have a dozen men to one woman in political boards, and a dozen women to one man at prayer-meeting. In each case the minority undergoes a trying test.”
She laughed an unresentful laugh.
“I hope you won’t think me irreverent,” I said, “in suggesting that the same test is imposed upon all clubs alike: What is our condition when we leave them?”
“In that case,” she answered, rising. “I’m afraid we shall be obliged to decide that this club may not have been entirely good for you.”
To which, naturally, I did not agree.