Letitia and Gault walked on, now and then according the customary phrase to the beauty of the landscape. Letitia, who was not an admirer of nature, was much more interested in the occasional couples they met, smart and smiling in their Sunday attire; but, with the complaisance of her amiable spirit, she was always quick to echo her companion's enthusiasm. Presently, after walking in silence for a few minutes, he asked her: "How would you like to earn your own living, Letitia?" This was rather an unexpected problem to solve, but Letitia had no doubts on the subject, and answered promptly: "I wouldn't like it at all." "But there are lots of women who have to--women like you, who have had everything they wanted, and been well taken care of, and then their parents--relations--guardians lose their money, and they have to work." "I think it would be better for them to marry," said Letitia, sagely. "It's much better for a woman to marry, and have some one to take care of her, than to have to take care of herself." "Well, suppose she doesn't want to marry, or doesn't want to marry the kind of man that asks her, isn't it better for her to work for her living? Wouldn't a proud, self-respecting woman rather work for her living than--than--than not? You see, Letitia," he said, turning to her with a smile, "how much I think of your opinion." "Of course, any woman would rather work than go without things. She'd have to. Why do you want my opinion? Whom do you know that has to work for her living?" "Oh, no one in especial," he said, with a careless shrug. "It was just a supposititious case. I was reading a novel about something like that, and I thought I'd get your opinion as an intelligent, modern, up-to-date young person." He looked at her again with his indulgent and somewhat quizzical smile. "Aren't you all that, Tishy?" he asked, using the family diminutive of her name. "I don't know," she answered, "whether I'm all that. I may be some of it. But it's so awfully hard for a woman to support herself. They have such a hard time, and get so badly paid, and there are so few things that you make money by soon, you know, without studying for years." "Why, it seems to me there are lots of things: dressmaking, and type-writing, and--er--trimming hats, and making jam, and reciting poems, and teaching children." Letitia laughed. "Why, how could a girl type-write, or trim hats, or even make jam, without knowing how? You've got to learn those things. I've tried to trim hats a dozen times, and always spoiled them; and one summer Maud undertook to make some jam, and it was perfectly awful--I don't mean the jam: I mean the house while the jam was getting made. Maud and the Chinaman and Mortimer were all in such a bad temper!" They walked on for a few moments in silence. Then Letitia continued: