“Naturally. Ah! it is pathetic, the way we have tried to make things decorative; but it won’t hold out much longer. Women are driving their masters to plain speaking—the ornaments are being dragged down. And what do we find? Bare and very ugly fact. And if we venture to hint that this unsatisfactory skeleton may be modified in form, science becomes stern. She wishes things, in this department, left as they are. Women are made for purposes of reproduction; let them clearly understand that. No picking and choosing.”
“Men pick and choose, it is true,” observed Lady Engleton in a musing tone, as if thinking aloud.
“Ah, but that’s different—a real scientific argument, though a superficial observer might not credit it. At any rate, it is quite sufficiently scientific for this particular subject. Our leaders of thought don’t bring out their Sunday-best logic on this question. They lounge in dressing-gown and slippers. One gets to know the oriental pattern of that dressing-gown and the worn-down heels of those old slippers.”
“They may be right though, notwithstanding their logic,” said Lady Engleton.
“By good luck, not good guidance. I wonder what her Serene Highness Science would say if she heard us?”
“That we two ignorant creatures are very presumptuous.”
“Yes, people always fall back on that, when they can’t refute you.”
Lady Engleton smiled.
“I should like to hear the question discussed by really competent persons. (Well, if luncheon is dead cold it will be his own fault.)”
“Oh, really competent persons will tell us all about the possibilities of woman: her feelings, desires, capabilities, and limitations, now and for all time to come. And the wildly funny thing is that women are ready, with open mouths, to reverently swallow this male verdict on their inherent nature, as if it were gospel divinely inspired. I may appear a little inconsistent,” Hadria added with a laugh, “but I do think women are fools!”