I have not felt. I've dreamed it. I've imagined
it--in some moments of passion. But"--she laughed and
shrugged her shoulders and waved the hand with the cigarette
between its fingers--"I have not felt it and I shall not feel
it. I remain I." She paused, considered, added, "And I
prefer that."

"You are strong," said he, absent and reflective. "Yes, you
are strong."

"I don't know," replied she. "Sometimes I think so.
Again----" She shook her head doubtfully.

"You would be dead if you were not. As strong in soul as in body."

"Probably," admitted she. "Anyhow, I am sure I shall always
be--alone. I shall visit--I shall linger on my threshold and
talk. Perhaps I shall wander in perfumed gardens and dream of
comradeship. But I shall return _chez moi_."

He rose--sighed--laughed--at her and at himself. "Don't delay
too long," said he.

"Delay?"

"Your career."

"My career? Why, I am in the full swing of it. I'm at work
in the only profession I'm fit for."

"The profession of woman?"

"Yes--the profession of female."

He winced--and at this sign, if she did not ask herself what
pleased her, she did not ask herself why. He said sharply, "I
don't like that."

"But _you_ have only to _hear_ it. Think of poor me who have to
_live_ it."

"Have to? No," said he.

"Surely you're not suggesting that I drop back into the
laboring classes! No, thank you. If you knew, you'd not say
anything so stupid."

"I do know, and I was not suggesting that. Under this
capitalistic system the whole working class is degraded.
They call what they do 'work,' but that word ought to be
reserved for what a man does when he exercises mind and body
usefully. What the working class is condemned to by
capitalism is not work but toil."

"The toil of a slave," said Susan.

"It's shallow twaddle or sheer want to talk about the dignity
and beauty of labor under this system," he went on. "It is
ugly and degrading. The fools or hypocrites who talk that way
ought to be forced to join the gangs of slaves at their tasks
in factory and mine and shop, in the fields and the streets.
And even the easier and better paid tasks, even what the
capitalists themselves do--those things aren't dignified and
beautiful. Capitalism divides all men except those of one
class--the class to which I luckily belong--divides all other
men into three unlovely classes--slave owners, slave drivers
and slaves. But you're not interested