But there is one subject in which I think I am wholly with my own country." "And that ?" she asked.
"I do not think," he said, "that the rougher and more strenuous paths of life were meant to be trodden by your sex.

Please do not misunderstand me," he went on earnestly.

"I am not thinking of the paths of literature and of art, for there the perceptions of your sex are so marvellously acute that you indeed may often lead where we must follow.

I am speaking of the more material things of life." She was suddenly conscious of a shiver which seemed to spread from her heart throughout her limbs.

She sat quite still, gripping her little lace handkerchief in her fingers.
"I mean," he continued, "the paths which a man must tread who seeks to serve his country or his household,--the every-day life in which sometimes intrigue or force is necessary.