“And that is your doctrine?” said Irene.  There was a shade of surprise in her voice that lingered huskily in her throat.

“That is my doctrine,” was Emerson’s firmly spoken answer.

Irene sighed heavily.  Both were silent for some moments.  At length Irene said, lifting her hands and bringing them down with an action of despair,

“In bonds! in bonds!”

“No, no!” Her husband replied quickly and earnestly.  “Not in bonds, but in true freedom, if you will—­the freedom of reciprocal action.”

“Like bat and ball,” she answered, with bitterness in her tones.

“No, like heart and lungs,” he returned, calmly.  “Irene! dear wife!  Why misunderstand me?  I have no wish to rule, and you know I have never sought to place you in bonds.  I have had only one desire, and that is to be your husband in the highest and truest sense.  But, I am a man—­you a woman.  There are two wills and two understandings that must act in the same direction.  Now, in the nature of things, the mind of one must, helped by the mind of the other to see right, take, as a general thing, the initiative where action is concerned.  Unless this be so, constant collisions will occur.  And this takes us back to the question that lies at the basis of all order and happiness—­which of the two minds shall lead?”

“A man and his wife are equal,” said Irene, firmly.  The strong individuality of her character was asserting its claims even in this hour of severe mental pain.

“Equal in the eyes of God, as I have said before, but where action is concerned one must take precedence of the other, for, it cannot be, seeing that their office and duties are different, that their judgment in the general affairs of life can be equally clear.  A man’s work takes him out into the world, and throws him into sharp collision with other men.  He learns, as a consequence, to think carefully and with deliberation, and to decide with caution, knowing that action, based on erroneous conclusions, may ruin his prospects in an hour.  Thus, like the oak, which, grows up exposed to all elemental changes, his judgment gains strength, while his perceptions, constantly trained, acquire clearness.  But a woman’s duties lie almost wholly within this region of strife and action, and she remains, for the most part, in a tranquil atmosphere.  Allowing nothing for a radical difference in mental constitution, this difference of training must give a difference of mental power.  The man’s judgment in affairs generally must be superior to the woman’s, and she must acquiesce in its decisions or there can be no right union in marriage.”

“Must lose herself in him,” said Irene, coldly.  “Become a cypher, a slave.  That will not suit me, Hartley!” And she looked at him with firmly compressed mouth and steady eyes.

It came to his lips to reply, “Then you had better return to your father,” but he caught the words back ere they leaped forth into sound, and, rising, walked the floor for the space of more than five minutes, Irene not stirring from the sofa.  Pausing at length, he said in a voice which had lost its steadiness: