d of
creation? Is not woman his abject slave? I not the whole difference
between them purely economic? Is it not the law of supply and demand
that rules them both, he by nature demanding and she supplying?"

Dear reader, did you ever encounter a machine, man-made, merely a
mechanism of ivory, iron, and ink, that could sniff contemptuously? I
never did before this encounter, but the infernal power of either this
type-writer or this woman who manipulated its keys imparted to the
atmosphere I was breathing a sniffing contemptuousness which I have
never experienced anywhere outside of a London hotel, and then only
when I ventured, as few Americans have dared, to complain of the ducal
personage who presided over the dining-room, but who, I must confess,
was conquered subsequently by a tip of ten shillings.

At any rate, there was a sniff of contempt imparted, as I have said, to
the atmosphere I was breathing as Xanthippe answered my question,
and the sniff saved me, just as it did in the London hotel, when I
complained of the lordly lack of manners on the part of the head waiter.
I asserted my independence.

"Don't trouble yourself," I put in. "Of course I shall be interested in
anything you may choose to say, but as a gentleman I do not care to put
a woman to any inconvenience and I do not press the question."

And then I tried to crush her by adding, "What a lovely day we have
had," as if any subject other than the most commonplace was not demanded
by the situation.

"If you contemplate discussing the weather," was the retort, "I wish you
would kindly seek out some one else with whom to do it. I am not one of
your latter-day sit-out-on-the-stairs-while-the-others-dance girls. I
am, as I have always been, an ardent admirer of principles, of great
problems. For small talk I have no use."

"Very well, madame--" I began.

"You asked me a moment ago why I laughed," clicked the machine.

"I know it," said I. "But I withdraw the question. There is no great
principle involved in a woman's laughter. I have known women who have
laughed at a broken heart, as well as at jokes, which shows that there
is no principle involved there; and as a problem, I have never cared
enough about why women laugh to inquire deeply into it. If she'll
just consent to laugh, I'm satisfied without inquiring into the causes
thereof. Let us get down to an agreeable basis for yourself. What
problem do you wish to discuss? Servants, baby-food, floor-p