“Yes, yes, the ‘monstrous regiment of women,’ as the old writer hath it.  Look at the diseases from which we are suffering—­materialism and hysteria.  The one has been intensified and extended, the other has newly declared itself, since women came to the front.  No materialist like a woman; give her a voice in the control of things, and good-bye to all our ideals.  Hard cash, military glory, glittering and clanging triumph—­these be the gods of a woman’s heart.  Thought and talk drowned by a scream; nerves worried into fiddlestrings.  We had our vain illusion; we were generous in our manly way.  Open the door!  Let the women come forth and breathe fresh air!  Justice for wives, an open field for those who will not or cannot wed!  We meant well, but it was a letting out of the waters.  There’s your idle lady with the pretty face, who wants to make laws for the amusement of breaking them.  ’As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman without discretion.’  There’s your hard-featured woman who thinks that nobody in the world but she has brains.  And our homes are tumbling about our heads, because there’s no one to look after them.  ’One man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found.’  Back with them to nursery and kitchen, pantry and herb-garden!  Back with them, or we perish.”

Dyce wore a broad smile.  He knew that he himself would have spoken thus had he not been committed to another way of talking.  Breakspeare, too, smiled, but with only half-assent; he reserved his bigamous alternative.  Martin Blaydes took a long draught from his beaker, puffed half-a-dozen rings of smoke, and pursued his diatribe in the same good-natured growl.

“The fury to get rich—­who is so responsible for it as the crowd of indolent, luxurious and vain women?  The frenzy to become notorious—­almost entirely women’s work.  The spirit of reckless ambition in public life encouraged by the sex which has never known the meaning of responsibility.  Decay of the arts—­inevitable result of the predominance of little fools who never admired anything but art in millinery.  Revival of delight in manslaying—­ what woman could ever resist a uniform?  Let them be; let them be.  Why should they spoil our ale and tobacco?  Friend Breakspeare, how’s your wife?  Now there, Mr. Lashmar, there is a woman such as I honour!  ’She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.’  A woman of the by-gone day—­gentle but strong, silent and wise.  ’Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates!’ Mr. Lashmar, your beaker stands empty.  So, by the bye, does the jug.  Mrs. Ricketts!”

The little room contained many books, mostly old and such as had seen long service.  As his habit was when a friend sat with him, Mr. Blaydes presently reached down a volume, and, on opening it, became aware of a passage which sent him into crowing laughter.