Severnius smiled. "If you cannot find an answer to your first question here in Paleveria, I think you may in any of the savage countries, where I am quite positive the women exhibit no finer qualities than their lords. And for a very conclusive reply to your second question,--go to Caskia!" "Does the same idea of equality, or likeness rather, exist in Caskia that prevails here?" I asked. "O, yes," said he, "but their plane of life is so much higher. I cannot but believe in the equality" he added, "bad as things are with us. We hope that we are progressing onward and upward; all our teaching and preaching tend toward that, as you may find in our churches and schools, and in our literature. I am so much of an optimist as to believe that we are getting better and better all the time. One evidence is that there is less of shamelessness than there used to be with respect to some of the grossest offences against decency. People do not now glory in their vices, they hide them." "Then you approve of concealment!" I exclaimed. "It is better than open effrontery, it shows that the moral power in society is the stronger; that it is making the way of the transgressor hard, driving him into dark corners." I contrasted this in my mind with Elodia's theory on the same subject. The two differed, but there was a certain harmony after all. Severnius added, apropos of what had gone before, "It does not seem fair to me that one half of humanity should hang upon the skirts of the other half; it is better that we should go hand in hand, even though our progress is slow." "But that cannot be," I returned; "there are always some that must bear the burden while others drag behind." "O, certainly; that is quite natural and right," he assented. "The strong should help the weak. What I mean is that we should not throw the burden upon any particular class, or allow to any particular class special indulgences. That--pardon me!--is the fault I find with your civilization; you make your women the chancellors of virtue, and claim for your sex the privilege of being virtuous or not, as you choose." He smiled as he added, "Do you know, your loyalty and tender devotion to individual women, and your antagonistic attitude toward women in general--on the moral plane--presents the most singular contrast to my mind!" "No doubt," I said; "it is a standing joke with us. We are better in the sample than in the whole piece. As individuals, we are woman's devoted slaves, and lovers, and worshipers; as a political body, we are her masters, from whom she wins grudging concessions; as a social factor, we refuse her dictation."