"

"This is the keel of a ship."

"No!"

"Yep!"

"And was the _Clara_ like this once?"

"No. _Clara's_ an old-fashioned creature like mother. This is a
newfangled thing like--like you."

"Like me! This isn't--"

"This is to be the _Mamise_."

She could not hide her disappointment in her namesake.

"I must confess she's not very beautiful to start with."

"Neither were you at first, I suppose. I--I beg your pardon. I
mean--"

He tried to tell her about the new principles of fabricated ships, the
standardizing of the parts, and their manufacture at distances by
various steel plants, the absence of curved lines, the advantage of
all the sacrifice of the old art for the new speed.

In spite of what she had read she could not make his information her
own. And yet it was thrilling to look at. She broke out:

"I've just got to learn how to build ships. It's the one thing on
earth that will make me happy."

"Then I'll have to get it for you."

"You mean it?"

"If anything I could do could make you happy--cutting off my right
arm, or--"

"That's no end nice of you. But I am in earnest. I'm wretchedly
unhappy, doing nothing. We women, I fancy, are most of us just where
boys are when they have outgrown boyhood and haven't reached
manhood--when they are crazy to be at something, and can't even decide
where to begin. Women have got to come out in the world and get to
work. Here's my job, and I want it!"

He looked at the delicate hands she fluttered before him, and he
smiled. She protested:

"I always loved physical exercise. In England I did the roughest sort
of farmwork. I'm stronger than I look. I think I'd rather play one of
those rat-tat-tat instruments than--than a harp in New Jerusalem."

Davidge shook his head. "I'm afraid you're not quite strong enough. It
takes a lot of power to hold the gun against the hull. The compressed
air kicks and shoves so hard that even men tire quickly. Sutton
himself has all he can do to keep alive."

"Give me a hammer, then, and let me--smite something."

"Don't you think you'd rather begin in the office? You could learn the
business there first. Besides, I don't like the thought of your
roughing up those beautiful hands of yours."

"If men would only quit trying to keep women's hands soft and clean,
the world would be the better for it."

"Well, come down and learn the business first--you'd be nearer me."

She sidestepped this sentimental jab and countered wi