"But of course," the older man said, "it is ridiculous to make sex either a qualification or a disqualification for the ballot; and it's absurd that my wife shouldn't have a vote when that old Portuguese fool from Gloucester, Massachusetts, who guts our fish and can't speak English so that an American dog could understand him—has it."
"That's just it!" Howard said, surprised at his fairness.
"Why multiply him by two?" Leighton said, dryly.
"We wouldn't be a democracy if we discriminated against the uneducated!"
"I don't. I discriminate against the unintelligent. You'll admit there's a difference? Also, allow me to remind you that democracy is not the ballot; it's a state of mind."
"Very well!" Maitland retorted. "Make intelligence the qualification: the women put it over us every time! They are far more intelligent than men."
"I'd like to hear you prove it."
"That's easy! Girls can stay in school longer than boys, so they are better educated."
"But I'm not talking about schooling!" Leighton broke in; "I mean just common sense as to functions of the ballot. Let women ask for an intelligence qualification, and I'll be the biggest kind of a suff! But while they don't know any more about what the ballot can and can't do, than to gas about its raising woman's wages—oh, Lord!" he ended, hopelessly.
"Suffrage in itself is educating," Howard instructed him.