"Do you think they will?"
"Yes. The woman who does a man's work learns to know what fighting means. The man who makes a study of feminine things begins to see back of what has seemed mere frivolity and love of admiration a desire for harmony and beauty, and self-expression. Some day women will come back to simplicity and to the home, because they will have learned things from men and will have taught things to men, and by mutual understanding each will choose the best."
Cousin Patty was inspired by the thought. "I never heard any one put it that way before."
"Perhaps not—but I have seen much of the world—and of men—and of women."
"Yet all women are not alike."
"No." His eyes swept the table. "You three—Miss Ballard, Miss Jeliffe—how far apart—yet you're all women—all, I may say, awakened women—refusing to follow the straight and narrow path of the old ideal. Isn't it so?"
"Yes. I'm in business—none of our women has ever been in business. Mary won't marry for a home—yet all of her women have, consciously or unconsciously, married for a home. And Miss Jeliffe I don't know well enough to judge. But I fancy she'll blaze a way for herself."
His eyes rested on Delilah. "She has blazed a way," he said, slowly; "she's a most remarkable woman."
Delilah, looking up, caught his glance and smiled.
"Are they in love with each other?" Cousin Patty asked Mary that night.