“And keep your family in the country till they grow up.  Town’s no place for women.  They go crazy.  Women—­and most men—­have no initiative.  They think only about whatever’s thrust at them.  In the country it’ll be their children and domestic things.  In town it’ll be getting and spending money.”

Norman was struck by this.  “I think I’ll take your advice,” said he.

“A man’s home ought to be a retreat, not an inn.  We are humoring the women too much.  They are forgetting who earns what they spend in exhibiting themselves.  If a woman wants that sort of thing, let her get out and earn it.  Why should she expect it from the man who has undertaken her support because he wanted a wife to take care of his house and a mother for his children?  If a woman doesn’t like the job, all right.  But if she takes it and accepts its pay, why, she should do its work.”

“Flawless logic,” said Norman.

“When I hire a man to work, he doesn’t expect to idle about showing other people how handsome he is in the clothes my money pays for.  Not that marriage is altogether a business—­not at all.  But, my dear sir—­” And Galloway brought his cane down with the emphasis of one speaking from a heart full of bitter experience—­“unless it is a business at bottom, organized and conducted on sound business principles, there’s no sentiment either.  We are human beings—­and that means we are first of all business beings, engaged in getting food, clothing, shelter.  No sentiment—­no sentiment, sir, is worth while that isn’t firmly grounded.  It’s a house without a foundation.  It’s a steeple without a church under it.”

Norman looked at the old man with calm penetrating eyes.  “I shall conduct my married life on a sound, business basis, or not at all,” said he.

“We’ll see,” said Galloway.  “That’s what I said forty years ago—­No, I didn’t.  I had no sense about such matters then.  In my youth the men knew nothing about the woman question.”  He smiled grimly.  “I see signs that they are learning.”

Then as abruptly as he had left the affairs he was there to discuss he returned to them.  His mind seemed to have freed itself of all irrelevancy and superfluity, as a stream often runs from a faucet with much spluttering and rather muddy at first, then steadies and clears.  Norman gave him the attention one can get only from a good mind that is interested in the subject and understands it thoroughly.  Such attention not merely receives the words and ideas as they fall from the mouth of him who utters them, but also seems to draw them by a sort of suction faster and in greater abundance.  It was this peculiar ability of giving attention, as much as any other one quality, that gave Norman’s clients their confidence in him.  Galloway, than whom no man was shrewder judge of men, showed in his gratified eyes and voice, long before he had finished, how strongly his conviction of Norman’s high ability was confirmed.