'Oh! But you?'
'No, I don't mind, and yet I don't think I should care to be cooped up all day with a lot of women.'
'You mean that there would be more emulation in a mixed class?'
'Yes; and Elsie says it is better to work in the men's studio. There are cleverer pupils there than in the ladies' studio, and one learns as much from one's neighbours as from the professor; more.'
'Are you sure of that? Do you not think that we are all far too ready to assume that whatever men do is the best?'
'I suppose we are.'
'Men kept us uneducated till a hundred years ago; we are only gaining our rights inch by inch, prejudice is only being overcome very slowly, and whenever women have had equal, or nearly equal, advantages they have proved themselves equal or superior to men. Women's inferiority in physical strength is immaterial, for, as mankind grows more civilised, force will be found in the brain and not in the muscles.'
Mrs. Fargus was now fairly afloat on her favourite theme, viz., if men were kind to women, their kindness was worse than their cruelty—it was demoralising.
Eventually the conversation returned whence it had started, and Mrs.
Fargus said:
'Then why do you hesitate? What is the objection to the men's studio?'