or, and went thundering down the stairs. In an instant
Mrs. Makebelieve bounded from her bed; three wide twists put up her
hair, eight strange billow-like movements put on her clothes; as each
article of clothing reached a definite point on her person Mary
stabbed it swiftly with a pin--four ordinary pins in this place, two
safety pins in that: then Mrs. Makebelieve kissed her daughter sixteen
times and fled down the stairs and away to her work.

XXI

In a few minutes Mrs. Cafferty came into the room. She was, as every
woman is in the morning, primed with conversation about husbands, for
in the morning husbands are unwieldy, morose creatures without joy,
without lightness, lacking even the common, elemental interest in
their own children, and capable of detestably misinterpreting the
conversation of their wives. It is only by mixing amongst other men
that this malignant humor may be dispelled. To them the company of men
is like a great bath into which a husband will plunge wildly, renouncing
as he dives wives and children, all anchors and securities of hearth and
roof, and from which he again emerges singularly refreshed and capable
of being interested by a wife, a family, and a home until the next
morning. To many women this is a grievance amounting often to an
affront, and although they endeavor, even by cooking, to heal the
singular breach, they are utterly unable to do so, and perpetually seek
the counsel of each other on the subject. Mrs. Cafferty had merely asked
her husband would he hold the baby while she poured out his stirabout,
and he had incredibly threatened to pour the stirabout down the back of
her neck if she didn't leave him alone.

It was upon this morning madness she had desired to consult her
friend, and when she saw that Mrs. Makebelieve had gone away her
disappointment was quite evident. But this was only for a moment.
Almost all women are possessed of a fine social sense in relation to
other women. They are always on their best behavior towards one
another. Indeed, it often seems as if they feared and must by all
possible means placate each other by flattery, humor or a serious
tactfulness. There is very little freedom between them, because there
is no real freedom or acquaintance but between things polar. There is
nothing but a superficial resemblance between like and like, but
between like and unlike there is space wherein both curiosity and
spirit may go adventuring. Extremes must me