en Randolph bethought him of a conversation he
overheard on the train that day and repeated it to Loveland, who sat
bending over toward the fire, his elbows resting on his knees and
poker in hand ready for action.

"I tell you, Steve, it sets one thinking to get at the woman's side of
the matter," said Randolph. "I've been idiot enough to suppose they
thought just as we do on most subjects."

Loveland smiled and poked the fire gently from above.

"You know we've always been taught that women were naturally
dependent, and I supposed it was second nature for them to receive
money from their husbands, and so they got enough they cared no more
about it. Do you think many of them feel like that woman in the car?"

Loveland poked the fire from beneath and then sighed helplessly.

"Can't say, I'm sure," he replied in his gentle, hesitant way. "They
don't seem to go according to tradition in anything, so far as I've
noticed. They're a peculiar race."

"Oh, I don't know about that," said Randolph in a practical tone.
"It's pretty easy to understand, once your attention's called to it.
I'd never given the subject any thought, but if one chooses to observe
he can very soon find out what's what. Some men are idiots and won't
learn, so they get in a mess.

"It's natural for you to be mystified, Steve," continued Randolph
after a short pause, "but you see I have a sister and I know all about
women. You can judge of the rest by any one of them. They're pretty
much alike."

Loveland gave the top of the fire a few little jabs.

"Yes, I know," said Randolph. "You have mother and sister both, but
you haven't lived with them for years. If you don't actually live in
the same house with women you can't know them. Of course even then you
may be in the dark on a point or two, as I was on the money question,
but you can soon learn. All a woman wants is fair treatment. If a man
drinks and makes a beast of himself or sulks around in place of
telling her what he don't like and letting her change it, of course
she isn't going to be happy. It's easy as rolling off a log to manage
a woman."

Loveland rose and thrust the poker down through the top crust of the
fire and left it standing there.

"As far as management goes," Randolph went on unheedingly, "leaving
morality, and expense, and all that out of the question, I'd just as
soon turn Mormon and marry forty women."

Here Loveland stabbed the fire clear through the body, bringing the