‘Because it would take too long to prove your case. What is more, if you fight the question on that ground, I doubt whether you will ever win it. You cannot be said to have proved a case to your opponent until you have got him to agree with you, and you will never, in your lifetime at least, get more than a number to agree with you on that point; it may be an influential number, and a select one, but it will not be at all a majority.’ ‘Your argument is not logical, it is a quibble,’ said Miss Mereweather disdainfully. ‘Your real opinion is that women ought not to have the franchise.’ ‘I never said so. If they think it a privilege, and if they would be pleased to have it, why not?’ Miss Mereweather, unaccustomed to this style, neither agreement nor opposition, was silent a moment. Then a shade of pique crossed her brow. ‘You do not think women worth discussing anything seriously with?’ said she. ‘Excuse my saying that you are quite mistaken.’ ‘Then why don’t you discuss this question seriously?’ was the decidedly feeble reply of the most remarkable woman of her time. ‘But I do. I say, why not give them the franchise if they would like to have it? I suppose that by degrees they would get educated up to it.’ ‘Mr. Mallory! you are absolutely insulting,’ cried Helena, angrily, and Sebastian merely answered with a grave look, and the remark, ‘I am sorry if I have offended you.’ Helena’s lips, opened to utter further reproach, suddenly closed; with a look of embarrassment she became silent, and Miss Mereweather, in a business-like tone, said, ‘Mr. Mallory is not so dark as he seems to you, my dear, I have good hopes for him. We will turn to another branch of the subject. What is your opinion, Mr. Mallory, of the relative status before the law of husband and wife? What do you think of the laws about married women’s property?’ ‘I think they are bad,’ said Sebastian, stifling a yawn, and glancing at Hugo, who was fanning himself with Helena’s fan, while she leaned eagerly forward. ‘Ah!’ said Laura, ‘an opinion at last! You agree with us that there, in that most important of all relations, the woman is a slave.’ ‘I don’t think I said so. I suppose the woman might be a slave if every husband were as bad as the law would allow him to be. Men are not all tyrants, nor women all slaves! so I suppose that is why the law has not been changed.’ ‘That is sophistry,’ said Laura. ‘Will you deny that it is fact?’ he inquired politely. ‘Then you would allow the law to be altered?’ ‘Certainly.’ ‘It is an important subject for you, my dear child,’ said Miss Mereweather to Helena. ‘I only hope your resolution will remain firm, and that you will resist temptation and specious promises. In your case you will have plenty of both.’ ‘Of course I shall resist,’ said Helena, a little crossly. ‘I am not quite imbecile, Laura, and know how to take care of myself. My mind is quite made up on that subject.’ ‘In what direction?’ inquired Sebastian.