'I don't myself,' she went on, 'I don't belong to any clubs——'
'I should hope not, indeed! Where should I go for tea and for news of the workings of the Zeitgeist?' he mocked.
'But I begin to see what women's clubs are for.'
'They're for the dowdy, unattached females to meet and gossip in, to hold feeble little debates in, to listen to pettifogging little lectures, and imagine they're dans le mouvement.'
'They are to accustom women to thinking and acting together. While you and I have been laughing at them, they've been building up a huge machinery of organization, ready to the hand of the chief engineer who is to come.'
'Horrible thought!'
'Well, horrible or not, I don't despise clubs any more. They're largely responsible for the new corporate spirit among women.'
He pulled himself out of the cavernous comfort of his chair, and stood glooming in front of the screen that hid the fireless grate.
'Clubs, societies, leagues, they're all devices for robbing people of their freedom. It's no use to talk to me. I'm one of the few individualists left in the world. I never wanted in my life to belong to any body.' Her pealing laughter made him explain, smiling, 'To any corporation, was what I meant.'
'No, no. You got it right the first time! The reason that, in spite of my late perversities, you don't cast me off is because I'm one of the few women who don't make claims.'