He looked sheepish for a moment, but soon recovered his assertiveness.
“True!—and quite unconsciously I hit upon a fact,” he said. “For now, by your own admission, your tastes lead you in the direction of mere frippery. Frocks! Jewels! Good heavens! Two frocks a year—a simple brooch of unadorned gold, and a couple of plain hats, suffice for any reasonable woman whose thoughts are trained and fixed—” he paused—then repeated, “whose thoughts are trained and fixed—” He paused again.
“Yes?” she queried. “Whose thoughts are trained and fixed?—on what?”
“On the simple ideals of life,” he said. “On domestic economies—the chemistry of the kitchen—the various useful arts by which a woman can make herself indispensable to man—”
“I know!” And she had such a dancing sparkle of mirth and mischief in her blue eyes that he could not meet her glances. “The chief art of all is to give him a good dinner! Sometimes—not always—that is why a man gets married—that he may have a cook-housekeeper on the premises!” She laughed merrily,—the Philosopher surveyed her with a kind of ironic compassion.
“You think that funny!” he observed. “But it isn’t! Your worldly wisdom is by no means profound—”
“Of course it isn’t!” she agreed. “It’s shallow—shallow as a running brook!—but quite pleasant! I should hate to be profound,—and—stagnant! And if I ever do get married, I shall try to marry a rich man, who would be kind to me and take pleasure in giving me all sorts of lovely things—and I should not be mercenary, only I should like him to do things for me, and not want me to wait upon him! I think it such a pity that our men always expect to be attended to first! Americans are quite different!—they always look after women in such a courteous, friendly way! After all, kindness is the true chivalry.”
He dropped lazily into an armchair and began his favourite pastime of puffing smoke-rings into the air, with the usual ugly distortions of face which accompanied that effort.
“You are quite eloquent!” he observed, sardonically. “I notice you have a special predilection for Americans. Why, I can’t imagine! Perhaps you are looking out for an American millionaire?”
She nodded her fair little head mischievously.