'Not everything; something, perhaps. Remember your evolutionism. The preservation of the race demands in women many kinds of irrationality, of obstinate instinct, which enrage a reasoning man. Don't suppose I speak theoretically. Four or five years ago I had really made up my mind to marry; I wasted much valuable time among women and girls, of anything but low social standing. But my passions were choked by my logical faculty. I foresaw a terrible possibility--that I might beat my wife. One thing I learned with certainty was that the woman, _qua_ woman, hates abstract thought--hates it. Moreover (and of consequence) she despises every ambition that has not a material end.' He enlarged upon the subject, followed it into all its ramifications, elaborated the inconsistencies with which it is rife. Peak's reply was deliberate. 'Admitting that some of these faults are rooted in sex, I should only find them intolerable when their expression took a vulgar form. Between irrationality and coarseness of mind there is an enormous distinction.' 'With coarse minds I have nothing to do.' 'Forgive me if I ask you a blunt question,' said Peak, after hesitating. 'Have you ever associated with women of the highest refinement?' Earwaker laughed. 'I don't know what that phrase means. It sounds rather odd on your lips.' 'Well, women of the highest class of commoners. With peeresses we needn't concern ourselves.' 'You imagine that social precedence makes all that difference in women?' 'Yes, I do. The daughter of a county family is a finer being than any girl who can spring from the nomad orders.' 'Even supposing your nomads produce a Rachel or a Charlotte Brontë?' 'We are not talking of genius,' Peak replied. 'It was irrelevant, I know.--Well, yes, I _have_ conversed now and then with what you would call well-born women. They are delightful creatures, some of them, in given circumstances. But do you think I ever dreamt of taking a wife drenched with social prejudices?' Peak's face expressed annoyance, and he said nothing. 'A man's wife,' pursued Earwaker, 'may be his superior in whatever you like, _except_ social position. That is precisely the distinction that no woman can forget or forgive. On that account they are the obstructive element in social history. If I loved a woman of rank above my own she would make me a renegade; for her sake I should deny my faith. I should write for the _St. James's Gazette_, and at last poison myself in an agony of shame.' A burst of laughter cleared the air for a moment, but for a moment only. Peak's countenance clouded over again, and at length he said in a lower tone: 'There are men whose character would defy that rule.' 'Yes--to their own disaster. But I ought to have made one exception. There is a case in which a woman will marry without much regard to her husband's origin. Let him be a parson, and he may aim as high as he chooses.' Peak tried to smile. He made no answer, and fell into a fit of brooding.