“Paul said that! He was a dry old lawyer, a bookworm and a bachelor! What did he know about it? And besides, if he had been like Jacob, a married man, with two wives, and two handmaids, and twelve children, I would not take the word of the old apostle any more than I would that of a modern preacher, unsupported by the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ! And man’s legislation upon marriage has been guided neither by law nor gospel!”
“Bosh!” exclaimed Elfie, whom neither pastors nor masters had been able to break of the use of slang, “let the poor wretches make all the laws in their own favor, if it amuses or helps to deceive them. They like it, and it don’t hurt us! We needn’t trouble our heads to keep their laws, you know! Let who will bother themselves about women’s rights, so we have our own way! And anything we can’t bluster or coax out of our natural enemy ain’t worth having! Why, law! girls, the creatures are easily enough managed when you once get used to them! Why, there are no less than three governors at Sunnyslopes—one pap and two uncles; but who do you think, now, rules the roost at Sunnyslopes?”
“You do, when you are at home,” suggested Britomarte.
“You better believe it, my dear! Why, law, girls, I can wind pap and uncles round my finger as easily as I can this blade of grass,” said Elfie, suiting the action to the word with a mischievous sparkle in her bright black eyes.
“Well, for my part,” said the fair Alberta, coolly playing with the gold chain upon her bosom, “whenever I shall be engaged to be married, it will, of course, be to the proper sort of person. And papa will see that proper settlements are drawn up between us, and that my own fortune is settled upon myself to spend as I please. In that way I shall secure all the rights I care about. I must have a splendid establishment, with costly furniture, and carriages, and horses, and servants, and dresses and jewelry, and unlimited pocket-money. And so that I have all that, my husband may do all the voting and make all the laws for both of us.”
“Yes!” exclaimed Britomarte, bitterly, “it is you and such as you, Alberta, that retard the progress of woman’s emancipation! If there were no willing slaves, there could be no successful tyrants! You are quite willing to sell your liberty for lucre—to become a slave, so that your chains and fetters be of gold!”
“Yes, these ornaments are rather like handcuffs, are they not?” said Alberta, slightly raising her eyebrows as she displayed the priceless diamond bracelets on her wrists. “But I do not see the justice of your words, Britomarte, since I certainly do not intend to sell my hand for money, but only to have my own inherited fortune settled upon myself.”
“For which simple price of justice you are willing to concede your most sacred civil and political rights!”
Alberta shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said. “I speak to you of pocket-money, and you answer me with politics. Bah! why should I care, so that I have a fortune to spend independent of my future husband? For just think what a trouble it would be to have to ask him for money every time I wanted to go shopping!”
“Oh! a horrid nuisance! I think I shall follow your example, Alba! I shall get pap to settle the niggers, and the money, and the old blind mare, and all the rest of the personal on me by myself, so that my natural enemy, whenever I shall fall into his hands, can’t take it from me. In return for which I will promise to keep in my sphere, and not run for constable nor Congress,” said Elfie.