"We've saved all the loveliest of it--for keeps," he said. "Out here, where the grass and trees are just as they used to be, you won't be bothered, and one expositor will be easier to handle than four at once. Now, shall I talk, or will you ask questions?" "I'd like to ask a few questions first, then you can expound by the hour. Do give me the long and short of this 'women-waked-up' proposition. What does it mean--to a man?" Owen stroked his chin. "No loss," he said at length; "at least, no loss that's not covered by a greater gain. Do you remember the new biological theory in regard to the relative position of the sexes that was beginning to make headway when we were young?" I nodded. "Ward's theory? Oh, yes; I heard something of it. Pretty far-fetched, it seemed to me." "Far-fetched and dear-bought, but true for all that. You'll have to swallow it. The female is the race type; the male is her assistant. It's established beyond peradventure." I meditated, painfully. I looked at Owen. He had just as happy and proud a look as if he was a real man--not merely an Assistant. I though of Jerrold--nothing cowed about him; of the officers and men on the ship; of such men as I had seen in the street. "I suppose this applies in the main to remote origins?" I suggested. "It holds good all through life--is just as true as it ever was." "Then--do you mean that women run everything, and men are only helpers?" "Oh, no; I wasn't talking about human life at all--only about sex. 'Running things' has nothing to do with that. Women run some businesses and are in practically all, but men still do the bulk of the world's work. There is a natural division of labor, after all." This was pleasant to hear, but he dashed my hopes. "Men do almost all the violent plain work--digging and hewing and hammering; women, as a class, prefer the administrative and constructive kinds. But all that is open yet, and settling itself gradually; men and women are working everywhere. The big change which Nellie is always referring to means simply that women 'waked up' to a realization of the fact that they were human beings." "What were they before, pray?" "Only female beings." "Female human beings, of course," said I. "Yes; a little human, but mostly female. Now they are mostly human. It is a great change." "I don't follow you. Aren't they still wives and mothers?" "They are still mothers--far more so than they were before, as a matter of fact; but as to being wives--there's a difference." I was displeased, and showed it. "Well, is it Polygamy, or Polyandry, or Trial Marriages, or what?" Owen gazed at me with an expression very like Nellie's.