The other day I boldly put the thing to the Professor. “What,” I asked, “is going to happen to the world if the number of old maids keeps on increasing?” “Well,” mused rather than replied the Professor, “the present rate of increase in the number of old maids--” “By which,” I said, “I assume that you mean hopelessly unmarried women.” “I do not like that word,” retorted the Professor, a little sharply, “it makes me think of hopelessly insane. I should prefer to say affirmatively unmarried--the present rate of increase in the number of affirmatively unmarried American women might suggest at the first glance that something very annoying to evolution was going to happen by-and-by. Indeed the conditions might seem to be positively detrimental to the Darwinian hypothesis.” “Not at all,” I protested, “if you remember the married old maids. Their transmitted instinct is bound to count sooner or later.” “But I have no fear that anything absurd is going to happen.” (I adored the smile of which the Professor was guilty at this point.) “Nature will work out the scheme. I mean supply and demand.” “I hope you cannot mean,” I protested, “that the American girl has deliberately set about creating a corner in wives for the sake of raising the market--” “Not precisely that,” returned the Professor; “though in the evolution of altruism that might not be so absurd. But you must see that old-maidism will not flourish unless it advantages the race somehow. You cannot think that a girl would set about being an old maid for any other reason than to please or profit herself--” “Unless,” I said, “it were to get even.” “Get even!” laughed the Professor, “think of getting even by being odd! No. The American girl simply is experimenting in independence. If it pays, she will keep it up. If it does not pay, she will revert to the alternative.” “Yes,” I admitted, “she always can do that.” “And meanwhile,” pursued the Professor, “I insist that girl-bachelorism must not be considered as in any sense final. The suggestion that woman can get along without man is an impeachment of his charm and of her wisdom. One thing is always to be remembered: a man cannot reasonably expect to conquer a woman by not marrying her. If the girl bachelor does not know what is good for her, if her position is untenable, if she is losing precious time, a cynical attitude in the man bachelor does not seem at all likely to help the matter. The presumption that the American girl knows what she is about may be erroneous, but ill temper in the opposition will simply fortify her. She will smile and smile and be a spinster still.” [Illustration: A SPINSTER]