u
see, I've always had the idea that women, beginning with little girls
and ending with grandmothers, ought to be brought up as nearly like
their brothers as can be--that is, if they are to be the wives of other
women's brothers. It don't so much matter how an old maid is brought up,
but you can't have her destiny in view, though I believe if an old
maid could be brought up more like an old bachelor she would be more
comfortable to herself, anyway."

"And what does Dr. Denbigh say?"

"Well, you must hear him talk. I guess he rather wants to draw me out,
for the most part."

"I don't wonder at that. I wish you'd draw yourself out. I've thought
something in the direction of your opinion myself."

"Have you? That's good! We'll tackle the doctor together sometime. The
difficulty about putting a thing like that in practice is that you have
to co-operate in it with women who have been brought up in the old way.
A man's wife is a woman--"

"Generally," I assented, as if for argument's sake.

He gave himself time to laugh. "And she has the charge of the children
as long as they're young, and she's a good deal more likely to bring
up the boys like girls than the girls like boys. But the boys take
themselves out of her hands pretty soon, while the girls have to stay
under her thumb till they come out just the kind of women we've always
had."

"We've managed to worry along with them."

"Yes, we have. And I don't say but what we fancy them as they are when
we first begin to 'take notice.' One trouble is that children are sick
so much, and their mothers scare you with that, and you haven't the
courage to put your theories into practice. I can't say that any of my
girls have inherited my constitution but this one." I knew he meant
the one whose engagement was the origin of our conversation. "If you've
heard my mother-in-law talk about her constitution you would think
she belonged to the healthiest family that ever got out of New England
alive, but the fact is there's always something the matter with her, or
she thinks there is, and she's taking medicine for it, anyway. I can't
say but what my wife has always been strong enough, and I've been
satisfied to have the children take after her; but when I saw this one's
sorrel-top as we used to call it before we admired red hair, I knew she
was a Talbert, and I made up my mind to begin my system with her."
He laughed as with a sense of agreeable discomfiture. "I can't say it
work