"What would you suggest?" inquired Stephanie curiously.
"Education. A girl should be brought up to master some trade or profession. She should support herself by it. She should never go to her husband empty-handed and unable to support herself.
"If, then, under the mutual marriage contract, her earning capacity be necessarily checked by child-birth, and by the later and natural demands of progeny, these alone should temporarily but only in part interrupt her in the exercise of her trade or profession. And he should pay for them.
"But she should have a life work to do; and so should he, no matter how ample their means. Domestic drudgery must be done by others hired for the purpose, or else by themselves, sharing alike. In no other way that I see can marriage remain endurable."
After a silence Stephanie said naïvely:
"I haven't any trade or profession."
"You are a graduate nurse."
"Oh. I forgot. That is comforting!"
"Also you are already married."
The girl looked up in a startled way, as though hearing this information for the first time. Helen gazed gravely into the troubled grey eyes: