"Oh, brava! brava! It's your paper, to be sure; and devoted to the woman question?"
"No, no! Still—yes! to women's questions, properly understood."
"I see!—women's questions properly understood. Well, teach the women to work. Habituate them to the idea of work, of earning their living, of independence. When I go abroad, especially when I go to England, I am immensely struck by the 'moral physiognomy' of the women—so different from our women at home—from you——"
"But I do work!" protested Arduina.
"Your work is not sufficiently profitable if you require subscriptions!" cried Regina.
"Oh, brava! brava! And you, I suppose, write too?"
"Oh, no! I don't do anything!"
The Senator looked at her with his mocking and melancholy blue eyes; and she blushed, remembering she had never worked in her life.
"I want subscriptions," said Arduina, "because in Italy work is not yet remunerative. But in the future—the generations we shall educate——," etc., etc., etc.