u found it
out.

_Miss A._ You men always stand by each other so faithfully! Now, I have
observed these traits among my married friends: the husbands invariably
give a half sigh at the sight of a beautiful girl, implying, "Oh, if I
were not a married man!" while the wives, on meeting a man who attracts
admiration, as uniformly believe that, let him be ever so handsome, clever
or fascinating, he cannot compare with their own particular John.

_Mrs. M._ That is true, Ethel; and it shows how much more faithful women
are than men.

_Philip._ Now, Jenny, that is nonsense.

_Beverly._ Oh, I dare say there is a soupcon of truth in it. But I think I
could give wives a recipe for keeping their husbands' affections, which,
unpopular although it might be, would yet prove salutary.

_Miss A._ Give it by all means, Mr. Beverly. Anything so beneficial would
naturally be popular.

_Beverly._ Pardon me, no. Were I to suggest a pilgrimage, a fast, or
scourgings even, the fair sex would undertake the remedy at once, for they
like some eclat about their smallest doings. All I want them to do is to
correct their little spirit of self-will and cultivate good taste.

_Mrs. M._ Women _self-willed_! Most women have no will at all.

_Beverly._ I never saw a woman yet who had not a will; and I am the last
person to deny their right to it. What I suggest is that they suit it to
the requirements of their lives, not let it torment them by going all
astray, by delighting in its errors and persisting in its chimeras.

_Miss A._ I grant the first, that we have wills, but I do insist that we
have good taste.

_Beverly._ Now, then, we will consider this abstract question. I maintain
that, considering their interest in women and their natural zest in
pursuing them, men show more right up-and-down faithfulness and devotion
to their obligations than women do.

_Philip._ Hear! hear!

_Miss A._ Oh, if you start upon the hypothesis that man is a being
incapable of--

_Beverly._ Not at all. You must, however, grant at the outset that man is
the free agent in society--has always been since the beginning of
civilization. He has made all the laws, enjoying complete immunity to suit
the requirements of his wishes and needs, yet everybody knows that, in
spite of the clamor of the woman-suffragists, all the laws favor women.
The basis of every system of civilized society proves that men are
inclined to hold themselves strictly to their obligations to