The crude words in which she swept away his comfortable evasions made him cringe, but he could not deny their accuracy, nor avoid the deduction that one of the reasons there continued to be "ugly" things in the world was that until now the eyes of women had been holden that they should not see them. Men had done this. Men had created a code which made it a point of honor and decency to hide the truth from women; to shield them, not from the effect of facts, but from the knowledge of facts! Frederica's knowledge was dismaying to Arthur Weston, both from tenderness for her and from his own esthetic sensitiveness; it was all so unlovely! "How do other men take this sort of talk?" he asked; "the Childs boys, for instance?" "Bobby and Payton? I would as soon talk to Zip as to them! They are like their father; they have chubby minds. Laura is the only intelligent person in that family. She gave in to Billy-boy about the parade," Fred said, regretfully, "but she did go with me last week when I talked suffrage to the garment-workers. I tell you what--it took sand for Laura to do that! Uncle William was hopping--not at her, of course, but at wicked Freddy; and Bobby and Payton cursed me out for leading Laura into temptation." "How about Maitland?" he asked. He had taken Frederica's hand and was examining her seal ring. She let her fingers lie in his as lightly as though his hand had been Zip's head, and he found himself wishing that she were less amiable. "Howard?"--her eyes brimmed suddenly with sunshine; "oh, Howard doesn't belong on the same bench with the chubby Childses! He _thinks_,--and he entirely agrees with me." "Which proves that he thinks?" She saw the malice of his question, and rather sharply drew her hand from his. "When is he coming home?" Weston asked. "November," she said, shortly, and gave a flake of lichen a vicious jab that tossed it out into the water. "How's he getting along with his shells?" "All right, I guess. I don't hear from him very often. He's left the region of mails. I've sent him a good many pamphlets and an abstract of a paper I'm writing for the annual meeting of the league. One of these days he'll stop puddling round with shells and do something, I hope. I won't let up on him till he does." "Merely being a fairly decent fellow isn't enough for you?" "Not _nearly_ enough!" "Oh, Fred, how young you are!" he sighed; then pulled Zip's tail and was snapped at. Suddenly he looked her straight in the face. "Are you engaged to him?" he demanded, harshly. "Heavens, no!" she said, laughing. His hands tightened around his knees; he opened his lips, then closed them hard. "I _almost_ made a fool of myself," he told himself, afterward. However, his possibilities for folly were not visible to Frederica, who continued to lay down the law as to the work a man ought to do in the world. "When we get the vote," she said, "we'll show you what a citizen's responsibilities are."