could her experiences with her great thinker have been, to
make her turn her back so absolutely on the fair and sheltered land of
matrimony? I could not but agree with much that she was saying. That
women, if they chose, need not do or endure any of the things against
which those of them who find their voice cry out has long been clear to
me. That they are, on the whole, not well-disposed towards each other is
also a fact frequently to be observed. And that this secret antagonism
must be got over before there can be any real co-operation may, I
suppose, be regarded as certain. But when Charlotte spoke of
co-operation she was apparently thinking only of the co-operation of
those whom years, in place of the might of youth, have provided with the
sad sensibleness that comes of repeated disappointments--the
co-operation, that is, of the elderly; and the German elderly in the
immense majority of cases remains obscurely in her kitchen and does not
dream of co-operating. Has she not got over the conjugal quarrels of the
first married years? Has she not filled her nurseries and become
indefinite in outline? And do not these things make for content? If
thoughts of rebellion enter her head, she need only look honestly at her
image in the glass to be aware that it is not her kind that will ever
wring concessions from the other sex. She is a _brave Frau_, and a
_brave Frau_ who should try to do anything beyond keeping her home tidy
and feeding its inmates would be almost pathetically ridiculous.

'You shouldn't bother about the old ones,' I murmured, watching a little
white steamer rounding the Goehren headland. 'Get the young to
co-operate, my dear Charlotte. The young inherit the earth--Teutonic
earth certainly they do. If you got all the pretty women between twenty
and thirty on your side the thing's done. No wringing would be required.
The concessions would simply shower down.'

'I detest the word concession,' said Charlotte.

'Do you? But there it is. We live on the concessions made us by those
beings you would probably call the enemy. And, after all, most of us
live fairly comfortably.'

'By the way,' she said, turning her head suddenly and looking at me,
'what have you been doing all these years?'

'Doing?' I repeated in some confusion. I don't know why there should
have been any confusion, unless it was a note in Charlotte's voice that
made her question sound like a stern inquiry after that one talent which
is death t