rld
by voting about 'em."

She easily threw down the feeble structure of Milly's arguments, which
were largely borrowed from the talk she had heard the night before.
Ernestine spoke with the assurance of one who has had reason to know.

"What women want is money, ain't it? Same as the men?" she demanded
flatly.

"That's so!" Milly assented heartily.

"And they'll get it when they know how to do something somebody wants
done as well as a man can. They do get it now when they've got something
to give--that's truth!"

She gave Milly a brief account of her own struggles in the labor market,
which interested Milly deeply.

"Now how did I get where I am to-day?" she concluded dramatically,
drawing up her right sleeve and pointing to the withered arm. "Because
of that. It taught me a lesson when I was nothing but an empty-headed
girl. That and the burn on my leg made a man of me, because it took most
of the woman thing out of me. I learned to think like a man and to act
like a man. I learned my job, same as a man. Yes! And beat my boss at it
so he had to pay me a man's wages to keep me, and the company has to pay
me big money now--or I'd go out and get it somewheres else."

Milly was impressed. She said doubtfully,--

"But you had great ability to do all that."

Ernestine shook her head,--

"Not so much more'n most."

"And good health."

"Yes. My health don't trouble me--and that's partly because I've had no
chance to fool it away like most girls."

"So you think it all depends on the women," Milly said unconvinced.

"Women--oh, Lord!" Ernestine exclaimed irreverently, getting up and
walking about the room. She examined the books and the few sketches of
Jack's that Milly had kept and hung on the bare walls of the Reddons'
living-room.

"My husband did those," Milly explained.

"Widow?"

Milly nodded.

Examining a drawing, with her back to Milly, Ernestine continued her
remarks on the great question:--

"Women! I guess the trouble with 'em started 'way back--in the Garden of
Eden. They didn't like being put out, and they've never got reconciled
to it since. They're mostly looking for some soft snap,--working-women,
that is," she said deferentially for Milly's sake. "The ones I know at
any rate. When they're young they mostly expect to marry right
off--catch some feller who'll be nice to 'em and let 'em live off him.
But they'd oughter know there's nothin' in that sort of marriage. All
they have to do