“Why?” repeated Mrs. Brocklehurst.
“Yes. You must have everything you want.”
Even then the lady's sweet reasonableness did not desert her. She smiled winningly, displaying two small and even rows of teeth.
“On principle, my dear. For one reason, because I have such sympathy with women who toil, and for another, I believe the time has come when women must no longer be slaves, they must assert themselves, become individuals, independent.”
“But you?” exclaimed Janet.
Mrs. Brocklehurst continued to smile encouragingly, and murmured “Yes?”
“You are not a slave.”
A delicate pink, like the inside of a conch shell, spread over Mrs. Brocklehurst's cheeks.
“We're all slaves,” she declared with a touch of passion. “It's hard for you to realize, I know, about those of us who seem more fortunate than our sisters. But it's true. The men give us jewels and automobiles and clothes, but they refuse to give us what every real woman craves—liberty.”
Janet had become genuinely interested.