“Don’t say those things, Fred,” cried Josephine, smiling but half in earnest.

“Why not?  Aren’t you glad I’m here?”

She gave him a long look of passionate love and lowered her eyes.

“At whatever cost?”

“Yes,” she said in a low voice.  “But I’m sure you exaggerate.”

“I’ve done nothing you wouldn’t approve of—­or find excuses for.  But that’s because you—­I—­all of us in this class—­and in most other classes—­have been trained to false ideas—­no, to perverted ideas—­to a system of morality that’s twisted to suit the demands of practical life.  On Sundays we go to a magnificent church to hear an expensive preacher and choir, go in expensive dress and in carriages, and we never laugh at ourselves.  Yet we are going in the name of One who was born in a stable and who said that we must give everything to the poor, and so on.”

“But I don’t see what we could do about it—­” she said hesitatingly.

“We couldn’t do anything.  Only—­don’t you see my point?—­the difference between theory and practice?  Personally, I’ve no objection—­no strong objection—­to the practice.  All I object to is the lying and faking about it, to make it seem to fit the theory.  But we were talking of women—­women who work.”

“I’ve no doubt you’re right,” admitted she.  “I suppose they aren’t to blame for using their sex.  I ought to be ashamed of myself, to sneer at them.”

“As a matter of fact, their sex does few of them any good.  The reverse.  You see, an attractive woman—­one who’s attractive as a woman—­can skirmish round and find some one to support her.  But most of the working women—­those who keep on at it—­don’t find the man.  They’re not attractive, not even at the start.  After they’ve been at it a few years and lose the little bloom they ever had—­why, they’ve got to take their chances at the game, precisely like a man.  Only, they’re handicapped by always hoping that they’ll be able to quit and become married women.  I’d like to see how men would behave if they could find or could imagine any alternative to ‘root hog or die.’”

“What’s the matter with you this evening, Fred?  I never saw you in such a bitter mood.”

“We never happened to get on this subject before.”

“Oh, yes, we have.  And you always have scoffed at the men who fail.”

“And I still scoff at them—­most of them.  A lot of lazy cowards.  Or else, so bent on self-indulgence—­petty self-indulgence—­that they refuse to make the small sacrifice to-day for the sake of the large advantage day after to-morrow.  Or else so stuffed with vanity that they never see their own mistakes.  However, why blame them?  They were born that way, and can’t change.  A man who has the equipment of success and succeeds has no more right to sneer at one less lucky than you would have to laugh at a poor girl because she wasn’t dressed as well as you.”