Middletown transcript., 1917-05-19


answered: 'It isn't ours. We rented
it for year in some sort OF honey
moon delirium, l guess. we don't llVe
up to it, Of course. Nobody could Dut
the woman who built it.
The gaiety in his voice clouded a
little as he said it, and his grin, Tor
moment, had rueful twist. But
for moment only. Then his unteln-
pered delight in the possession OF ms
old friends took him again.
They talked-heavens. how they
talked. 1t was like the breaking up
of a log jam. The two men would
rush along, side by side, in perfect
agreement for while, catching each
others half-expressed ideas, and hurl-
ing them forward and then suddenly
they'd meet, head on, in collision over
some fundamental difference OF opln-
ion, amid a prismatic spray OF cpl
gram. Jane kept up sort OF obllga-
to to the show, inserting provocative
witticisms here and there, sometimes
as Rodney's ally, sometimes as her
husbands, and Turing them, when she
could, into the quiet backwater OF
metaphysics, where she was more
than a match for the two of them.
But the main topic of the evening
got launched when Rodney seized the
advantage of pause to say:
"a series Of articles on women. Ell /!
What are you going to do to them?'
With that the topic of feminism
was on the carpet and it was never
thereafter abandoned. After half an
hour of it Jane turned to Rodney.
But what do you think about it,
she demanded. you've been grinninG
away there all this time without say
ing a word. Are you for it?'
For whatT Rodney wanted to
know.
"For what women want said Jane.
Economic independence = equality,
easy divorce-all the new stuff
I'm not against it," Rodney said,
"any more than Pm against tomorrow
being Tuesday. It's going to be Tues
day whether l like it or not. But
that conviction keeps me from crusad'
ing for it very hard. What I'm Curl
Gus about is how it's going to work
When they get what they want, dc
you suppose they're going to want
what they get?'
Il knew there was something dead
ly about your grin" said Jane. ''What
are you so cantankerous about?'
"Why, the thing" said Rodney
that sours my naturally sweet dis
position is this economic independ
ence. I've been hearing it at dinner
tables all winter. When l hear {
woman with five hundred dollars
worth of clothes On-Well, no, not Oh
her back-and anything you like IL
iewelry, talking about economic indie
pendence as if it were something nice
Jam on the pantry shelf that we mel
were too greedy to let them have
share of have to put on the brake:
in order to stay ON the rails.
independence from the time were TWEEN
ty. more or less, till the time we die
It's q sentence to hard labor for life
that's what economic independence is
How does that woman think she'd Sc
about it, to make her prOfessiOna
services worth a hundred dollars ;
day-or fifty, or ten? What's she go
that has a market value? What i
there that she can capitalize? She'
got her physical charm, of course
and there are various professiGn
where she can make it pay. Well, ant
what else?"
"She can bear children" said Jane
"She ought to be paid well for that.
"Yourc only paid well,' Rodney re
piled, ''for something you can do eS
ceptionally well. or for something tha
few people can do at all. AS long a
the vast majority of women can bea
children, the only women who coul
get we'll paid for it. would be thos
exceptionally qualified, or exception
ally proficient. This is economics
now, we're talking. Other cOnsidera
tions are left out. No, l tell vol
economic independence, if she reall
got 1.-THE kind of woman I've bee
talking about-would make her yer
sick"
"She'd get over being sick, though
wouldn't she," said Rose, "afte
awhile? And then don't you thin
she'd be glad?"
Rodney laughed. "The sort of won
! an I've been talking about" he sait
"would feel, when all is said, tha
4 she'd got q gold brick"
Rose poured his coffee with
steady hand. They were in the librar
now.
: 'If that's so," she said, 'then tn
0 kind of woman you've been talkin
N about has already got profession
AS Doctor Randolph says, she's cashe
in on her ankles. But maybe your
+ mistaken in thinking she wouldn
choose something else if she had
chance. Maybe she wouldn't hay
= done it, except because her husban
Il wanted her to and she was in loy
7, with him and tried to please. Yo
can't always tell"
e 1t was almost her first contribute
d to the talk that evening. She ha
# asked q few questions and said tf
a things n hostess has to say. I'll
s. other three were manifestly taken b
surprise.
y But surprise was not the only e
z, feet she produced. Her husband ha
e never seen her look just like that b
h fore. The flash in her eyes, the splas
n of bright color in her cheeks, the e.
citing timbre of her voice, was ne
d to him and very alluring.