“No, never; I should never go to that extreme,” I maintained indignantly.
“But listen to me. Do our women romp about with other men—half clothed, too!—and shame their husbands who stand looking on? You saw those ladies racing round the deck yesterday for a gold bangle; what sort of an exhibition did you call it?”
I called it an exhibition of stockings, but I held my tongue. There was something in what he said. Some ladies, I knew, might be eliminated from society with much advantage to womankind in general.
“You think our women have no liberty,” he pursued, gesticulating with his thin brown hands.
“I am sure they have not,” I answered emphatically.
“Another mistake! They have far more than in English families. Although the world does not see them, our mothers and wives pull all the strings from behind the purdah. No family matter is settled without them; be it weddings, purchase of land or jewels, all those affairs are generally arranged by them; they are far more deferred to in money matters than European women, who are often beaten, and almost always neglected or ignored where business is in question. An old lady like you, were she of my people, would have great authority. And they have ample variety; they drive about from one Zenana to another, and hear all the news, and drink coffee with their friends. Nor are they debarred from male society; they see their husbands and brothers and uncles. Once a woman is married, why should she desire to see another man than her husband? There is where the great mistake is made in your country; were your ladies kept in strict seclusion, there would be no disgrace, none of those shocking scandals that become more common every day.”
“Have you never any?” I demanded in my tartest tone.
“Rarely, rarely, very rarely.”
“And when one is discovered, what happens?”
“Do not ask me too much,” was his mysterious reply. “I maintain here to you, an enlightened English lady, who knows India, and knows the world, that our Zenana life, our women’s lives, is infinitely superior to yours. Where women smoke and drink, and shoot and hunt, and have their liberty, and make a very bad use of it—ours have sufficient liberty, but no licence.”