Di was mute. If a bolt from the blue had tumbled down at her feet she couldn't have been more amazed. She began to wonder if she was always going to be beset with people who would worry her with their religious convictions. To her great relief Hector did not pursue the subject, and she listened with interest to an account he gave her of a journey of his across the Rocky Mountains, when he was shooting bears. But the following Sunday she accompanied the others to church, and never missed a service from that time forward. Hector only stayed a fortnight with them. He and Di had a long ride together the afternoon before he went, and when they were returning, he said: "You'll have to come and see my horses one day, when I'm settled in. I shall give a house-warming about Christmas time. Will you come?" "Is this a bona fide invitation?" "Rather!" "Then I accept, with thanks. I'm wondering what kind of a house you'll run. You'll be a bit of a despot I know." "I jolly well will. I mean to be master in my house, I can tell you." "Don't try to take to yourself a wife; disaster will follow if you do." "Why?" "Because now no woman will lie down for a man to walk over her." "That's a bit of clap-trap." "No; it's real fact. You want a wife who will meekly do her lord's will, and that kind of women are out of date. They don't exist." "I'll wait till they come into fashion again. I'm in no hurry." "You're so cocksure of yourself!" "I'm not going to make a mess of my life now," he responded with emphasis. "Look through the daily papers and see the result of these modern wives and husbands. They both want to rule, they both want their own ways, and they go them, and then the fat is in the fire, there is a flare up, and divorce follows." "But it's all wrong," said Di with sudden heat. "Why should men be selfish brutes? Why should they make life impossible for their wives unless they are their slaves and tools? Women will never again be subjugated by men, never! And I hope you'll never marry; I hope you'll never get a girl whom you are able to crush and mould according to your liking." He looked at her with a gleam of mischief in his eyes. "Women really like to meet their masters," he said. "I've knocked about the world a good bit, and I assure you they do. There's still the instinct of the ages left in most of them, that they're really made to be loved and protected. You've only to read some of the present-day novels written by your sex to see that the strong man always prevails." "I shan't argue with you any more," said Di a little huffily. "But you'll meet with your deserts one day, I hope." She parted with him later in the most friendly fashion, and when he had gone told Rowena she felt quite flat. "He kept us alive; and though I hate some of his principles, he's good company," she said. She was the next to go. She had been with Rowena much longer than she had intended. Rowena came into her bedroom the last evening of her stay.