But the Chief Lady Guest refused to be checked.
"We"ve been gathering some rather interesting statistics,"
she said, speaking very firmly, syllable by syllable, "on that point at our Settlement. We have measured the heads of five hundred factory girls, making a chart of them, you know, and the feet of five hundred domestic servants--"
"And don"t you find--" began the Smooth Gentleman.
"No," said the Chief Lady Guest firmly, "we do not. But I was going to say that when we take our measurements and reduce them to a scale of a hundred--I think you understand me--"
"Ah, but come, now," interrupted the Interesting man, "there"s nothing really more deceitful than anthropometric measures. I remember once saying (in London) to Sir Robert Bittell--_the_ Sir Robert Bittell, you know--"
Here everybody murmured, "Oh, yes," except the Heavy Host and his Heavy Friend, who with all their sins were honest men.
"I said, "Sir Robert, I want your frank opinion, your very frank opinion--""
But here there was a slight interruption. The Soft Lady accidentally dropped a bangle from her wrist on to the floor. Now all through the dinner she had hardly said anything, but she had listened for twenty minutes (from the grapefruit to the fish) while the Interesting Man had told her about his life in Honduras (it is p.r.o.nounced Hondooras), and for another twenty while the Smooth Gentleman, who was a barrister, had discussed himself as a pleader. And when each of the men had begun to speak in the general conversation, she had looked deep into their faces as if hanging on to their words. So when she dropped her bangle two of the men leaped from their chairs to get it, and the other three made a sort of struggle as they sat. By the time it was recovered and replaced upon her arm (a very beautiful arm), the Interesting Man was side-tracked and the Chief Lady Guest, who had gone on talking during the bangle hunt, was heard saying:
"Entirely so. That seems to me the greatest difficulty before us. So few men are willing to deal with the question with perfect sincerity."
She laid emphasis on the word and the Half Man with the Moon Face took his cue from it and threw a pose of almost painful sincerity.
"Why is it," continued the Chief Lady Guest, "that men always insist on dealing with us just as if we were playthings, just so many dressed-up dolls?"
Here the Debutante immediately did a doll.
"If a woman is attractive and beautiful," the lady went on, "so much the better." (She had no intention of letting go of the doll business entirely.) "But surely you men ought to value us as something more than mere dolls?"
She might have pursued the topic, but at this moment the Smooth Gentleman, who made a rule of standing in all round, and had broken into a side conversation with the Silent Host, was overheard to say something about women"s sense of humour.
The table was in a turmoil in a moment, three of the ladies speaking at once. To deny a woman"s sense of humour is the last form of social insult.
"I entirely disagree with you," said the Chief Lady Guest, speaking very severely. "I know it from my own case, from my own sense of humour and from observation. Last week, for example, we measured no less than seventy-five factory girls--"
"Well, I"m sure," said the Lady-with-the-Bust, "I don"t know what men mean by our not having a sense of humour.
I"m sure I have. I know I went last week to a vaudeville, and I just laughed all through. Of course I can"t read Mark Twain, or anything like that, but then I don"t call that funny, do you?" she concluded, turning to the Hostess.
But the Hostess, feeling somehow that the ground was dangerous, had already risen, and in a moment more the ladies had floated out of the room and upstairs to the drawing-room, where they spread themselves about in easy chairs in billows of pretty coloured silk.
"How charming it is," the Chief Lady Guest began, "to find men coming so entirely to our point of view! Do you know it was so delightful to-night: I hardly heard a word of dissent or contradiction."
Thus they talked; except the Soft Lady, who had slipped into a seat by herself with an alb.u.m over her knees, and with an empty chair on either side of her. There she waited.
Meantime, down below, the men had shifted into chairs to one end of the table and the Heavy Host was shoving cigars at them, thick as ropes, and pa.s.sing the port wine, with his big fist round the neck of the decanter. But for his success in life he could have had a place as a bar tender anywhere.
None of them spoke till the cigars were well alight.
Then the Host said very deliberately, taking each word at his leisure, with smoke in between:
"Of course--this--suffrage business--"
"Tommyrot!" exclaimed the Smooth Gentleman, with great alacrity, his mask entirely laid aside.
"d.a.m.n foolishness," gurgled the Heavy Business Friend, sipping his port.
"Of course you can"t really discuss it with women,"
murmured the Host.
"Oh, no," a.s.sented all the others. Even the Half Man sipped his wine and turned traitor, there being no one to see.
"You see," said the Host, "if my wife likes to go to meetings and be on committees, why, I don"t stop her."
"Neither do I mine," said the Heavy Friend. "It amuses her, so I let her do it." His wife, the Lady-with-the-Bust, was safely out of hearing.
"I remember once," began the Interesting Man, "saying to"--he paused a moment, for the others were looking at him--"another man that if women did get the vote they"d never use it, anyway. All they like is being talked about for not getting it."
After which, having exhausted the Woman Question, the five men turned to such bigger subjects as the fall in sterling exchange and the President"s seventeenth note to Germany.
Then presently they went upstairs. And when they reached the door of the drawing-room a keen observer, or, indeed, any kind of observer, might have seen that all five of them made an obvious advance towards the two empty seats beside the Soft Lady.
VII. The Gra.s.s Bachelor"s Guide.
With sincere Apologies to the Ladies" Periodicals
There are periods in the life of every married man when he is turned for the time being into a gra.s.s bachelor.
This happens, for instance, in the summer time when his wife is summering by the sea, and he himself is simmering in the city. It happens also in the autumn when his wife is in Virginia playing golf in order to restore her shattered nerves after the fatigues of the seaside. It occurs again in November when his wife is in the Adirondacks to get the benefit of the alt.i.tude, and later on through the winter when she is down in Florida to get the benefit of the lat.i.tude. The breaking up of the winter being, notoriously, a trying time on the system, any reasonable man is apt to consent to his wife"s going to California.
In the later spring, the season of the bursting flowers and the young buds, every woman likes to be with her mother in the country. It is not fair to stop her.
It thus happens that at various times of the year a great number of men, unable to leave their business, are left to their own resources as housekeepers in their deserted houses and apartments. It is for their benefit that I have put together these hints on housekeeping for men.
It may be that in composing them I owe something to the current number of the leading women"s magazines. If so, I need not apologise. I am sure that in these days We Men all feel that We Men and We Women are so much alike, or at least those of us who call ourselves so, that we need feel no jealousy when We Men and We Women are striving each, or both, in the same direction if in opposite ways.
I hope that I make myself clear. I am sure I do.
So I feel that if We Men, who are left alone in our houses and apartments in the summer-time, would only set ourselves to it, we could make life not only a little brighter for ourselves but also a little less bright for those about us.
Nothing contributes to this end so much as good housekeeping. The first thing for the housekeeper to realise is that it is impossible for him to attend to his housekeeping in the stiff and unbecoming garments of his business hours. When he begins his day he must therefore carefully consider--
WHAT TO WEAR BEFORE DRESSING
The simplest and best thing will be found to be a plain sacque or kimono, cut very full so as to allow of the freest movement, and b.u.t.toned either down the front or back or both. If the sleeve is cut short at the elbow and ruffled above the bare arm, the effect is both serviceable and becoming. It will be better, especially for such work as lighting the gas range and boiling water, to girdle the kimono with a simple yet effective rope or ta.s.selled silk, which may be drawn in or let out according to the amount of water one wishes to boil. A simple kimono of this sort can be bought almost anywhere for $2.50, or can be supplied by Messrs. Einstein & Fickelbrot (see advertising pages) for twenty-five dollars.
Having a kimono such as this, our housekeeper can either b.u.t.ton himself into it with a b.u.t.ton-hook (very good ones are supplied by Messrs. Einstein & Fickelbrot [see ad.]
at a very reasonable price or even higher), or better still, he can summon the janitor of the apartment, who can b.u.t.ton him up quite securely in a few minutes" time --a quarter of an hour at the most. We Men cannot impress upon ourselves too strongly that, for efficient housekeeping, time is everything, and that much depends on quiet, effective movement from place to place, or from any one place to any number of other places. We are now ready to consider the all-important question--
WHAT TO SELECT FOR BREAKFAST
Our housekeeper will naturally desire something that is simple and easily cooked, yet at the same time sustaining and invigorating and containing a maximum of food value with a minimum of cost. If he is wise he will realise that the food ought to contain a proper quant.i.ty of both proteids and amygdaloids, and, while avoiding a nitrogenous breakfast, should see to it that he obtains sufficient of what is alb.u.minous and exogamous to prevent his breakfast from becoming monotonous. Careful thought must therefore be given to the breakfast menu.