She looked up at him and laughed.
"Why, yes, of course!" she frankly admitted--"I guess I won't argue with you on the six of one and half-dozen of the other! But it's just as natural for women to criticise men as for men to criticise nowadays. Long ago, in the lovely 'once upon a time' fairy period, the habit of criticism doesn't appear to have developed strongly in either sex. The men were chivalrous and tender,--the women adoring and devoted--I think it must have been perfectly charming to have lived then! It is all so different now!"
"Fortunately, it is," said John, with a mirthful sparkle in his eyes--"I am sure you would not have liked that 'once upon a time fairy period' as you call it, at all, Miss Vancourt! Poets and romancists may tell us that the men were 'chivalrous and tender,' but plain fact convinces us that they were very rough unwashen tyrants who used to shut up their ladies in gloomy castles where very little light and air could penetrate,--and the adoring and devoted ladies, in their turn, made very short work of the whole business by either dying of their own grief and ill-treatment, or else getting killed in cold blood by order of their lords and masters. Why, one of the finest proofs of an improvement in our civilisation is the freedom of thought and action given to women in the present day. Personally speaking, I admit to a great fondness for old-fashioned ways, and particularly for old-fashioned manners,- -but I cannot shut my mind to the fact that for centuries women have been unfairly hindered by men in every possible way from all chance of developing the great powers of intelligence they possess,--and it is certainly time the opposition to their advancement should cease. Of course, being a man myself,"--and he smiled--"I daresay that in my heart of hearts I like the type of woman I first learned to know and love best,--my mother. She had the early Victorian, ways,--they were very simple, but also very sweet."
He broke off, and for a moment or two they paced the lawn in silence.
"I suppose you live all alone here?" asked Maryllia, suddenly.
"Yes. Quite alone."
"And are you happy?"
"I am content."
"I understand!" and she looked at him somewhat earnestly:--"'Happy' is a word that should seldom be used I think. It is only at the rarest possible moments that one can feel real true happiness."