"

"So, that is the way American writers are made. There are so many of
them--I had often wondered----"

"Oh, not at all!" Miss Dwight rushed to the defence of native American
genius. "But all writers, no matter what their gifts, often go through
a period of torture while forming habits of regular work."

"It sounds like torture!" She gave Gora a glance of lazy amusement.
"Really, Miss Dwight! Are you trying to frighten me off?"

But Gora did not blush. If she chose to concentrate her agile mind on
acting, the accomplished actress opposite could give her few points.
She replied with convincing emphasis: "Certainly not. What an odd
idea. I have the most enormous respect for your abilities, and you
should be famous for something besides beauty--and I should like to see
you live down mere notoriety."

"I've loved the notoriety, and rather regret that it seems to have lost
flavor with time. But I'll never make a writer, Miss Dwight, and have
not the least intention of trying."

"But surely you'll not be content to be just Lee's wife? Why,
practically every woman in our crowd does something. There used to be
a superstition that two brain-workers could not live comfortably under
the same roof, but as a matter of fact we've proved that a woman keeps
her husband far longer if her brain is as productive as his. Each
inspires and interests the other. Another old _cliche_ gone to the
dust bin. Our sort of men want something more from a woman than good
housekeeping. Not that men no longer want to be comfortable, but the
clever women of today have learned to combine both."

"Marvellous age and marvellous America! Don't you think I could keep
Lee interested without grinding away at my desk for three hours every
morning and lying in hungry misery for days at a time?"

"You could keep any man interested. I wasn't thinking of him, but of
you. He has more than a man's entitled to already. Men are selfish
brutes, and I waste no sympathy on them. It's women who have the
rotten deal in this world, the best of them. And men are as vain as
they are selfish. It's an enormous advantage for a woman to have her
own reputation and her own separate life. No man should be able to
feel that he possesses a woman wholly. He simply can't stand it."

"Quite right. Discarding modesty, I may add that I am an old hand at
that game."

Gora regarded her with frank admiration, wholly unassumed. "Oh, you
couldn't lose Clave