I sighed. “The chances of my getting to be a fellow are minus nothing. Especially after last night.”
He didnt pretend to misunderstand. “Barbara’ll come out of it. She’s not always that way. As her father says, she’s high-strung, and she’s been working madly. And to tell the truth,” he went on in a burst of frankness, “she really doesnt get on too well with other women. She has a masculine mind.”
I have often noticed that men not strikingly brilliant themselves attribute masculine minds to intelligent women on the consoling assumption that feminine minds are normally inferior. Ace however was manifestly innocent of any attempt to patronize.
“Anyway,” he concluded, “she has only one vote.”
I didnt know whether to take this as a pledge of support or mere politeness. “Isnt it wasteful, assigning a chemist like Dr Agati to kitchen work? Or isnt he a good chemist?”
“Just about the best there is. His artificial tea and coffee would bring a fortune to the haven if there were a profitable market; even as it is it’ll bring a good piece of change. Wasteful? What would you have us do, hire cooks and servants?”
“Theyre cheap enough.”
“Or frightfully expensive. Specialization, the division of labor, is certainly not cheap in anything but dollars and cents, and not always then. And it’s unquestionably wasteful in terms of equality. And I don’t think there’s anyone at the haven who isn’t an egalitarian.”
“But you do specialize and divide labor. Don’t tell me you swap your physics for Agati’s chemistry.”
“In a way we do. Of course I don’t set up as an experimenter, any more than he does as a speculator. But there have been plenty of times Ive worked under his direction when he needed an assistant who didnt know anything but had a strong back.”