“Why, yes,” said he.
“And it is tolerated, allowed, nobody objects?”
“O, yes, there are plenty of objectors,” he replied. “There is a very strong anti-intoxicant element here, but it has no actual force and exerts but little influence in—in our circles.”
Severnius was too modest a man to boast of belonging to the upper class of society, but that was what “our circles” meant.
“But do not the male relatives of these women object,—their husbands, fathers, brothers?”
“No, indeed, why should they? We do the same things they do, without demur from them.”
“But they should be looking after their domestic affairs, their children, their homes.”
“My dear sir! they have servants to attend to those matters.”
It seemed useless to discuss these things with Severnius, his point of view concerning the woman question was so different from mine. Nevertheless, I persisted.