de. Although when in college she had written a paper
on it which had been read aloud in the Economics Seminar and favorably
commented upon, she knew, in her heart of hearts, that she understood
less than nothing about the underlying principles of the subject. This
nettled her and gave her occasional nightmare moments of doubt as to the
real fitness of women for public affairs. She read feverishly all she
could find on the subject, ending by addling her brains to the point of
frenzy.

She was almost in that condition now although she did not look it in
the least as, dressed for dinner in the evening gown which replaced
the stark linens and tailored seams of her office-costume, she bent her
shining head and earnest face over the pages of the book.

Penfield Evans took a long look at her, as one looks at a rose-bush in
bloom, before he spoke through the open door and broke the spell.

"Oh, Betty," he called in a low tone, beckoning her with a gesture
redolent of mystery.

Betty laid down her book and stared. "What you want?" she challenged
him, reverting to the phrase she had used when they were children
together.

"Come on out here a minute!" he said, jerking his head over his
shoulder. "I want to show you something."

"Oh, I can't fuss around with you," said Betty, turning to her book
again. "I've got Roberts' _Balance of Trade_ out of the library and I
must finish it by tomorrow." She began to read again.

The young man stood silent for a moment. "Great Scott!" he was saying to
himself with a sinking heart. "So _that's_ what they pick up for light
reading, when they're waiting for dinner!"

He had a particularly gone feeling because, although he had made
several successful political speeches on international trade and foreign
tariffs, he was intelligent enough to know in his heart of hearts that
he had no real understanding of the principles involved. He had come,
indeed, to doubt if any one had!

Now, as he watched the pretty sleek head bent over the book he had
supposed of course was a novel, he felt a qualm of real apprehension.
Maybe there was something in what that guy said, the one who wrote
a book to prove (bringing Queen Elizabeth and Catherine the Great as
examples) that the real genius of women is for political life. Maybe
they _have_ a special gift for it! Maybe, a generation or so from now,
it'll be the _men_ who are disfranchised for incompetence.... He put
away as fantastic such horrifying ideas