Robert knew nothing of this controversy until he ventured on a remark during the first intermission.
"The tone and workmanship of the orchestra are splendid," he said. "I don't feel qualified to judge, but it strikes me that the women are doing every whit as well as the men."
"As well? They're doing far better. Do you see that first violin in the front row, the third from the left? I could tell he was slacking all through the Cesar Franck number. And there were four or five others as bad. You couldn't say that of one of the women."
"No. Their performance is amazing, isn't it?"
"Why amazing?" asked Janet, still detecting an echo of masculine superciliousness.
"Well, women don't generally reach the top-notch in the fine arts, do they?"
"How can they," said Janet warmly, "when the patronizing disparagement and merciless rivalry of men hold them back at every turn!"
"Well, they've managed to break into this crack orchestra. That doesn't look like merciless rivalry."
"Ah, but wait till I tell you the facts, Robert. As the war went on, managers found it impossible to deny women the privilege of playing in high-class bands. But the men are now recovering their monopoly as fast and as unscrupulously as possible. How? They have set up a hue and cry against the women and have won the musical pundits to their side. I am told that the management of this Rouen orchestra is almost certain to yield to masculine pressure, which means that the women will be dislodged at the end of the current series."
Did Robert appreciate the injustice of this abominable proceeding? It was a fact that the women brought a fire, intensity and freshness to their work which improved the tone and effectiveness of every band they played in. They were twice as keen as the men and worked fifty times harder. Several of the younger, more liberal musical critics both in Paris and in London fully admitted this. Not so the old-timers who sat in the seats of the mighty. And yet the men who were doing their vicious best to elbow their rivals out of the way were the very men who fluttered about town and with crocodile regret assured the public that, no matter what equal chances the weaker sex received, the final incapacity of women to reach the top was beyond dispute.