The Benson signal., 1918-01-05

WIN Cnem-elCner out In rogers Park,
where they lived, or at queer, terrible
little restaurants downtown. They
were always game to try anything, once.
He's the longest, 1eanest, angularest,
absent-mindedest chap in the world.
And just about the best. And his wife
fits all his angles. She writes, too.
Oh, you're sure to like them! They're
going to be out here for months, he
says. He's going to specialize in
women and he's come back here where
they get the vote, to make headquar-
ters. It's great! haven't had real
talk with anybody since he went away,
over year ago."
Then, at the sound Of the bell, he
cried out: "There they are!' and
dashed down into the hall ahead of
the parlor maid, as eagerly as a
scho0lboy anticipating birthday pres
ent.
Rose followed more slowly, and by
the time she had reached the landing,
she found him slapping Barry on the
back and shaking both hands with
Jane, and trying to help both of them
out of their wraps at once.
When the greetings were over and
they were on the way upstairs again,
he said: II told Rose we weren't go
ing to dress, but she explained she
didn't put on this coronation robe for
you, but for a treat for me before I
telephoned, and hadn't time to change
back.''
And when Jane cried out, as they
entered the drawing room: "Good
heavens, Rodney, what a house!" he
answered: "It isn't ours. We rented
it for a 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 it,
The gaiety in his voice clouded
little as he said it, and his grin, for
a 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 up
of a 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 prismatic spray Of epi-
gram. Jane kept up sort Of obliga-
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, eh!
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,"
/
away there all this time without say
! ing a word. Are you for it?"
For what?" 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 I 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?"
81 knew there was something dead
ly about your grim" 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 I hear a
woman with five hundred dollars
worth of clothes Orwell, no, not on
her back-and anything you like in
jewelry, talking about economic indie
pendence as if it were something nice
jam on the pantry shelf that we men
were too greedy to let them have a
share of have to put on the brakes
in order to stay on the rails.
eve 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 econom's independence is.
How does that wo"1.n think she'd set
about it, to mike nCr professional
services worth s hundred dollars
day-or fifty, or ten? What's she got
tl>At has a market value? What is
there that she can capitalize? She's
| got her physical charm, Of course,
and there are various professions