e. You will, some day. Everybody does. It's as sure as
death or taxes."

"Everybody! _You_ haven't, have you?"

"Oh, dear, no. Not yet. But I suppose I shall some day."

Jerry regarded her in silence for a moment.

"I didn't think you were a bit slushy."

"I'm _not_ slushy," indignantly. "I _hate_ slushy people. Where did
you get that word?"

"Roger. He hates 'em too."

"Your Roger doesn't like women, does he?"

"No. He's very wise, Roger is. But sometimes I think he's prejudiced.
I'd like you to know Roger, I really would."

She gazed straight before her for a moment deliberating and then:

"I hope you don't mind if I say so, but I think your Roger must be a
good deal of a fossil."

"A fossil. Now see here, Una--I can't have you talking about Roger
like that."

"He is. I'm sure of it. All theorists are."

"He's not. He's the broadest fellow you ever knew."

"Nobody's broad who ignores the existence of woman," she returned
hotly. "It's sinful--that sort of philosophy. It's against nature.
We're here--millions of us, working as hard as men do, earning our own
way in the world, active, live intelligences, writing books, nursing
in hospitals, cleaning the plague-spots out of the cities, influencing
in a thousand ways the uplift of that coarser brute man and besides
all this practicing a thousand acts of self-abnegation in the home.
Keeping man's house, cooking his food, bearing his ch--"

She stopped abruptly and bit her lip.

"Bearing his--what?" asked Jerry.

"Burdens," she blurted out. "Burdens--all sorts of burdens," she
finished weakly.

"I suppose there _are_ things that women can do," said Jerry after a
moment. "Of course, I don't know much about it. But--"

"Well, it's time you did," she broke in again. "It may be beautiful
here--inside these walls--an unbroken idyl of peace and contentment,
but it isn't life. It's just existence, that's all. If I were a man,
I'd want to do a man's work in the world. I wouldn't want to miss an
hour of it, childhood, boyhood or manhood. I'd want to meet my
temptations and conquer them. It's selfish, the way you live, unreal,
cowardly."

"See here, Una--"

"I mean it. You've got me started and I can't help it. If I say
anything that hurts, you'll have to put me out. But I'm going to tell
you what I think."

"You're rather bewildering. But I'm not a coward. I don't want you to
say that. If you were a man, I'd give you a thrashing," he said
quietly.

Th