“I rather think, Mrs. Blodgett,” said Mr. Whitely, in that charmingly deferential manner he has with women, “that some men do not try to win highly educated women because they are abashed by a sense of their own inferiority.”
“Where do those men hide themselves, Whitely?” interrogated Mr. Blodgett.
“I’ll not question the reason,” retorted Mrs. Blodgett. “The fact that over-educated girls think themselves above men is all I claim.”
“I don’t think, Mrs. Blodgett,” you corrected, “it is so much a feeling of superiority as it is a change in the aims of marriage. Formerly, woman married to gain a protector, and man to gain a housewife. Now, matrimony is sought far less for service, and far more for companionship.”
“But, Miss Walton,” questioned Mr. Whitely, “does not the woman ask too much nowadays? She has the leisure to read and study, but a business man cannot spare the time. Is it fair, then, to expect that he shall be as cultivated as she can make herself?”
“That is, I think, the real cause for complaint,” you answered. “The business man is so absorbed in money-making that he sacrifices his whole time to it. I can understand a woman falling in love with a lance or a sword, dull companions though they must have been, but it seems to me impossible for any woman to love a minting-machine, even though she might be driven to marry it for its product.”
“That’s rough on us, Whitely,” laughed Mr. Blodgett good-naturedly; but Mr. Whitely reddened, and you, as if to divert the subject from this personal tendency, turned and surmised to me:—
“I suppose that as a German, Dr. Hartzmann, you think a woman should be nothing more than a housekeeper?”
“Why not suggest, Miss Walton,” I replied, smiling, “that as an Orientalist I must think the seraglio woman’s proper sphere?”
“But, Miss Walton,” persisted Mr. Whitely, not accepting your diversion, “a man, to be successful nowadays, must give all his attention to his business.