se of the
dignity of their 'omes. They can't see their 'omes as run by anything
but slyves. All that's outside the dinin' room and the drorin' room
and the masters' bedrooms the American sees as if it was a low-down
thing, even when it's hunder 'is own roof. Colored men, yellow men,
may cook 'is meals and myke 'is bed; but a white man'd demean 'imself.
A poor old white man like me when 'e's no longer fit for 'ard outdoor
work ain't allowed to do nothink; when all the time there's women
workin' their fingers to the bone that 'e could be a great 'elp to,
and who 'e'd like to go to their 'elp."

This was one reason, he argued, why the question of domestic aid in
America was all at sixes and sevens. It was not considered humanly. It
was more than a question of supply and demand; it was one of national
prejudice. A rich man could have a French chef and an English butler,
and as many strapping indoor men--some of them much better fitted for
manual labor--as he liked, and find it a social glory; while a family
of moderate means were obliged to pay high wages to crude incompetent
women from the darkest backwaters of European life, just because they
were women.

"And the women's mostly to blyme," he reasoned. "They suffers--nobody
knows what they suffers better nor me--just because they ain't got the
spunk to do anything _but_ suffer. They've got it all in their own
'ands, and they never learn. Men is slow to learn; but women don't
'ardly ever learn at all."

Letty was thinking of herself, as she glanced up at this fount of
wisdom with the question:

"Don't none of 'em?"

Having apparently weighed this already he had his answer. "None that's
been drilled a little bit before 'and. Once let woman feel as so and
so is the custom, and for 'er that custom, whether good or bad, is
there to stye. They sye that chyngin' 'er mind is a woman's privilege;
but the woman that chynged 'er mind about a custom is one I never met
yet."

She took him as seriously as he took himself.

"Don't you like women, mister--I mean, Steptoe?"

He pondered before replying. "I don't know as I could sye. I've never
'ad a chance to see much of women except in 'ousework, where they're
out of their element and tyken at a disadvantage. I don't like none
I've ever run into there, because none of 'em never was no sport."

The inquiry in her golden eyes led him a little further.

"No one ain't a sport what sighs and groans over their job, and don't
do i