"I only come, by request, on behalf of the proprieties, you know. I don't wish to embarrass Miss Morton by seeming to protect her from you, Jerry." "You act as if you thought you'd find me kissing her!" he exploded. "You're welcome to kiss her, if it gives you pleasure and she does not object," replied Jane. "Jane Judd, haven't you any sense of proprieties?" "Yes, real proprieties, not surface trifles." "You call kissing Miss Morton a surface trifle?" "Distinctly; don't you?" "I'd be interested to hear what you call the real proprieties," he said satirically. "If you loved Miss Morton deeply and continued to live with me, I should say that the proprieties were outraged. That's a question of human relationship, you see. But kissing a silly woman who invites you to kiss her--pooh!--what's that?" "I trust you don't pattern your own conduct on that belief?" hotly. "I'm not a silly woman, little boy Jerry. I don't invite people to kiss me, because I don't like being kissed," she laughed. Bobs came in for some tea and interrupted them in their enlivening discussion. When Jerry went out of the room, Bobs said to Jane: "Is Jerry trailing that Morton woman again?" "He is painting her, as Melisande." "Do you have to have her here all the time?" "I don't see much of her. Poor Jerry has her." "Poor Jerry likes her. Just when you begin to think that women are getting somewhere--being something fine and busy and loyal--then you run into an Althea, and smash goes the dream!" "Dear, we can't change our natures in one generation, nor two, nor three. When we come back a few centuries from now, think what splendid creatures women will be!" "Lord, Jane, I don't want to come back!" "I do--just to see my twenty-fifth great-granddaughter!" "What gets me is that a man with brains like Jerry can endure that old sex stuff! Flattery, sentiment, adoration--bah!" "Men can't change in a minute either, Bobs!" "To live with a woman like you and waste one minute with Althea--well--it's weak minded, that's what it is." "Most men don't want heroic qualities to live with, Bobs. They haven't even sensed this comrade idea of ours yet, the majority of them. They still like mastery, special privilege, their own code; after all, they're human!" "I'm sick of 'em!" Bobs remarked. "Bobs, you're too big a woman to let one man set you against all men. That isn't fair. We can't be against them, dear. We're just human creatures here in this complex world, trying to make life bearable--to make it constructive; we have to do it together, in affectionate fellowship." "Give me time, old, wise Jane! But scold me and teach me, too. Let's go play with Baby." "Baby's a man!" teased Jane. "Bah!"