MRS. TILSBURY. I wasn’t thinking about your marrying one of them, Imogene.
MRS. BROWN. I know you were not, but I was. I can’t marry Mr. Van Tousel, I am afraid, not even for your sake, Josephine, but don’t worry about him. I do not believe he can ever win Mildred. She is too sensible to be attracted by him. Mr. Becker is the dangerous man. Unlike seeks unlike, you know. I will do what I can to change Mr. Becker’s thoughts, but you must help me. Ask us to dinner together again.
MRS. TILSBURY. Did you notice how that Slavinsky girl made eyes at Mr. Van Tousel? She is a horribly bold girl.
MRS. BROWN. Yes, she will probably keep him busy. Now, you have cleared the field of two suitors in one afternoon, but what will you do if another man turns up? I can’t divorce Mr. Becker and start in on some one else in order to protect Mildred; besides that would leave Mr. Becker free and open to consolation.
MRS. TILSBURY. Oh dear, I don’t know what I shall ever do. I am worried to death with the complications that have arisen in this house recently. Here is the cook striking because she says women are imposed upon in a country where they are not allowed to vote. She is going out to California, since the franchise has been given to women there, for she says that although she voted before she left her home in Norway, she is afraid she will forget how if she doesn’t keep in practice.
MRS. BROWN. Why, I did not know that one could forget how to vote. I thought it was like swimming, once learned always remembered. I have known men who have not voted for years because they forgot to register or wanted to play golf on election day or some other silly reason, and then suddenly they would vote again because they said it was an election that was important for the business interests of the country. They never seemed to forget how to vote.
MRS. TILSBURY. Helma says it is the same as her cooking. If she doesn’t make a dish every day or two she loses the knack of it. George complains awfully when she gives us the same thing too often, but what can I do? Helma says, too, that she wants to reach California before the next presidential election because she wishes to write home how she helped to elect a President of the great United States.
MRS. BROWN. Well, you can’t mind her leaving if Mr. Tilsbury is growing tired of her cooking.
MRS. TILSBURY. Yes I do; the next one will probably be worse. Katy is going away too. She is going to marry right away because her intended says that if she stays any longer in this house of insurgents, he won’t marry her at all! Mrs. Thom is working Mildred for all she is worth, and you are flirting with Mr. Becker instead of Mr. Van Tousel. George will be so cross when he hears it all. Everything seems to be in a muddle.
MRS. BROWN. Don’t be so discouraged. I must go now, but I will run in to-morrow and we will try and arrange something. Perhaps you might get Mildred interested in collecting postal cards. That would be a cheap pursuit, unless it was discovered that the ancient Egyptians used them and you had to pay a fabulous price for a postal card from Cleopatra to Mark Antony encrusted with pearls.