The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1917-05-25


it for q year in some sort Of honey
moon delirium, guess. We don't live
up to it, of course. Nobody could but
the woman who built 1t"
The gaiety in his voice clouded 6
little as he said 1t, and his grin, fol-
moment, had a rueful twist. But
for a moment only. Then his untem
pered delight in the possession of his
old friends took him again.
They talked-heavens, how they
talked! It was like the breaking uI
of log jam. The two men would
rush along, side by side, In perfect
agreement for a 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 opin'
ion, amid q prismatic spray of cpl
gram. Jane kept up sort of obl1ga-
to to the show, inserting provocative
witticisms here and there, sometimes
as Rodney's ally, sometimes as her
husbands, and Turing them, when she
~
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 q pause to say:
"a series of articles on women, eh
What are you going to do to lem?'
With that the topic of feminism
was on the carpet and 1t was never
thereafter abandoned. After half an
hour Of 1t 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 I'm 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, do
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 ahout?"
"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 I hear a
woman with five hundred dollars
worth of clothes on-well, no, not on
her back-and anything you like In
jewelry, talking about economic inde-
pendence as If it were something nice
jam on the pantry shelf that we men
were too greedy to let them have q
share of have to put on the brakes
in order to stay on the rails.
1--WE men have to fight for economic
independence from the time we're twen-
ty. more or less, till the time we die.
It's a sentence to hard labor for life !:
that's what economic independence is.
How does that woman think she'd set
about it, to make her professional
services worth a hundred dollars a
day-or fifty, or ten? What's she got
that has a market value? What is
there that she can capitalize? She's
got her physical charm, of course,
and there are various professions
where she can make it pay. Well, ana
what else?"
''She can bear children" said Jane.
"She ought to be paid we'll for that
You're only paid WELL" Rodney re-
piled, for something you can do ex-
ceptionally well, or for something that
few people can do at all. AS long as
the vast majority of women can bear
children, the only women who could
get well paid for it, would be those
exceptionally qualified, or exception
ally proficient. This is economics,
now, we're talking. Other considera-
tions are left out. No, 1 tell you,
economic independence, If she really
got 1.-THE kind of woman I've been
talking about-would make her very
sick"
Shed get over being sick, though
wouldn't She" said Rose, after
awhile? And then don't you think
she'd be glad?"
Rodney laughed. The sort of wom-
an I've been talking about" he said
would feel, when all is said, that
she'd got a gold brick"
Rose poured his coffee with a
steady hand. They were In the library
now.
"If that's So" she said, then the
kind Of woman you've been talking
about has already got a profession.
AS Doctor Randolph says, she's cashed
in on her ankles. But maybe you're
mistaken in thinking she wouldn't
choose something else if she had a
chance. Maybe she wouldn't have
done it, except because her husband
wanted her to and she was in love
with him and tried TO please. You
can't always tell
1t was almost her first contribution
to the talk that evening. She had
asked a few questions and said the
things a hostess has to say. The
other three were manifestly taken by
surprise.
But surprise was not the only eff
feet she produced. Her husband had
never seen her look just like that be-
fore. The flash in her eyes, the splash
of bright color in her checks, the ex-
citing timbre of her voice, was new
to him and very alluring.
Barry saved him the necessity of
trying to answer, by taking up the