"My dear young woman, I dictate to men—"
"Oh, to men!"
"I see! You presume on your womanhood. It's a common American expedient, and a cheap one. But I don't stop for that."
"You may not stop for womanhood, Mr. Brokenshire; but neither does womanhood stop for you."
He rose with an air of weary patience. "I'm afraid we sha'n't gain anything by talking further—"
"I'm afraid not." I, too, rose, advancing to the table. We confronted each other across it, while one of the dogs came nosing to his master's hand. I had barely the strength to gasp on: "We've had our talk and you see where I am. I ask nothing but the exercise of human liberty—and the measure of respect I conceive to be due to every one. Surely you, an American, a representative of what America is supposed to stand for, can't think of it as too much."
"If America is supposed to stand for your marrying my son—"
"America stands, so I've been told by Americans, for the reasonable freedom of the individual. If Hugh wants to marry me—"
"Hugh will marry the woman I approve of."
"Then that apparently is what we must put to the test."