"I have always considered it prudent before entering into debate with a woman to have a few facts on my side," I said.
"As if that made any difference," she replied scornfully.
"As to the sheeplike way in which women follow the fashions of the moment," continued Emmeline, "it simply isn't true." I could see she was terribly in earnest now. "There are tens of thousands of women who dress to please themselves; independent, courageous, self-reliant women who face life seriously and rationally. We are going in more and more for loose and comfortable things to wear."
"Not the typical woman of to-day, I assure you."
"Of course not the typical woman," said Emmeline. "Any Exhibition of common-sense by a woman at once makes her a freak. You prefer the other kind for your ideal of the eternal womanly. Take her and welcome. I suppose it is necessary for a man to have something worthless to work for."
[XXII]
WITH THE EDITOR'S REGRETS
Talk of post-office-reform brings to my mind a conversation I had with Williams, who is a poet. It was about the time, some two years ago, when a Postmaster-General of the United States proposed the abolition of the second-class mail privilege for magazines.