she is wrong from the beginning.  A little word of half-dissent, a smile, a shrug, and an ambiguous compliment which is misunderstood, are all the forms of argument which can be used against her.  Wallachia Petrie, in her heart of hearts, conceived that she had fairly discussed her great projects from year to year with indomitable eloquence and unanswerable truth and that none of her opponents had had a leg to stand upon.  And this she believed because the chivalry of men had given to her sex that protection against which her life was one continued protest.

‘Here he is,’ said Caroline, as Mr Glascock came up to them.  ’Try and say a civil word to him, if he speaks about it.  Though he is to be a lord, still he is a man and a brother.’

‘Caroline,’ said the stern monitress, ’you are already learning to laugh at principles which have been dear to you since you left your mother’s breast.  Alas, how true it is, “You cannot touch pitch and not be defiled."’

The further progress of these friendly and feminine amenities was stopped by the presence of the gentleman who had occasioned them.  ’Miss Petrie,’ said the hero of the hour, ’Caroline was to tell you of my good fortune, and no doubt she has done so.’

‘I cannot wait to hear the pretty things he has to say,’ said Caroline, ’and I must look after my aunt’s guests.  There is poor Signor Buonarosci without a soul to say a syllable to him, and I must go and use my ten Italian words.’

‘You are about to take with you to your old country, Mr Glascock,’ said Miss Petrie, ’one of the brightest stars in our young American firmament.’  There could be no doubt, from the tone of Miss Petrie’s voice, that she now regarded this star, however bright, as one of a sort which is subjected to falling.

‘I am going to take a very nice young woman,’ said Mr Glascock.

’I hate that word woman, sir, uttered with the halfhidden sneer which always accompanies its expression from the mouth of a man.’

‘Sneer, Miss Petrie!’

’I quite allow that it is involuntary, and not analysed or understood by yourselves.  If you speak of a dog, you intend to do so with affection, but there is always contempt mixed with it.  The so-called chivalry of man to woman is all begotten in the same spirit.  I want no favour, but I claim to be your equal.’

’I thought that American ladies were generally somewhat exacting as to those privileges which chivalry gives them.’

’It is true, sir, that the only rank we know in our country is in that precedence which man gives to woman.  Whether we maintain that, or whether we abandon it, we do not intend to purchase it at the price of an acknowledgment of intellectual inferiority.  For myself, I hate chivalry—­what you call chivalry.  I can carry my own chair, and I claim the right to carry it whithersoever I may please.’