"Suppose we begin this way:
"a. Free, healthy, independent, intelligent mothers.
"b. Enough to live on—right conditions for child-raising.
"c. Specialized care.
"d. The new social consciousness, with its religion, its art, its science, its civics, its industry, its wealth, its brilliant efficiency. That's your outline."
I set down these points in my notebook.
"An excellent outline, Nellie. Now for details on 'a.' I will set my teeth till that's over."
My sister regarded me with amused tenderness. "How you do hate the new women, John—in the abstract! I haven't seen you averse to any of them in the concrete!"
At the time I refused to admit any importance to this remark, but I thought it over later—and to good purpose. It was true. I did hate the new kind of human being who loomed so large in every line of progress. She jarred on every age—old masculine prejudice—she was not what woman used to be. And yet—as Nellie said—the women I met I liked.
"Get on with the lesson, my dear," said I. "I am determined to learn and not to argue. What did your omnipresent new woman do to improve the human stock so fast?"