man who used to cram me with
mathematics? I thought you would. He is on the point of marrying, and
his engagement has lasted just seventeen years.'

'The wisest of your friends, I should say.'

'An excellent fellow. He is forty, and the lady the same. An
astonishing case of constancy.'

'And how is it likely to turn out?'

'I can't predict, as the lady is unknown to me. But,' he added with
facetious gravity, 'I think it likely that they are tolerably well
acquainted with each other. Nothing but sheer poverty has kept them
apart. Pathetic, don't you think? I have a theory that when an
engagement has lasted ten years, with constancy on both sides, and
poverty still prevents marriage, the State ought to make provision for
a man in some way, according to his social standing. When one thinks of
it, a whole socialistic system lies in that suggestion.'

'If,' remarked Rhoda, 'it were first provided that no marriage should
take place until _after_ a ten years' engagement.'

'Yes,' Barfoot assented, in his smoothest and most graceful tone. 'That
completes the system. Unless you like to add that no engagement is
permitted except between people who have passed a certain examination;
equivalent, let us say, to that which confers a university degree.'

'Admirable. And no marriage, except where both, for the whole
decennium, have earned their living by work that the State recognizes.'

'How would that effect Mr. Micklethwaite's betrothed?' asked Miss
Barfoot.

'I believe she has supported herself all along by teaching.'

'Of course!' exclaimed the other impatiently. 'And more likely than
not, with loathing of her occupation. The usual kind of drudgery, was
it?'

'After all, there must be some one to teach children to read and write.'

'Yes; but people who are thoroughly well trained for the task, and who
take a pleasure in it. This lady may be an exception; but I picture her
as having spent a lifetime of uncongenial toil, longing miserably for
the day when poor Mr. Micklethwaite was able to offer her a home.
That's the ordinary teacher-woman, and we must abolish her altogether.'

'How are you to do that?' inquired Everard suavely. 'The average man
labours that he may be able to marry, and the average woman certainly
has the same end in view. Are female teachers to be vowed to celibacy?'

'Nothing of the kind. But girls are to be brought up to a calling in
life, just as men are. It's because they have no calling that,