Said Cecil: "I am perfectly ready to marry anybody before luncheon, if you will let me."
"I do not wish you to feel that way."
"Mother, I do! All I want is to be let alone long enough to learn something for myself."
"What do you not know? What have you not learned? What accomplishment do you lack, little daughter? What is it you wish?"
The girl glanced out of the window. A young and extremely well-built man went striding down the avenue about his business. He looked a little like a man she had seen playing ball on the Harvard team a year ago. She sighed unconsciously.
"I've learned about everything there is to learn, I suppose.... Except—where do men go when they walk so busily about their business?"
"Down town," said her mother, laughing.[14]
"What do they do there?"
"A million things concerning millions."
"But I don't see how there's anything left for them to do after their education is completed. What is there left for me to do, except to marry and have a few children?"