t, and carriage. To get at their hearts and their souls, I should
have to settle in the country, and for years and years live among the
people.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE HUSBAND OF THE AMERICAN WOMAN

The telephone and the ticker--The most useful of domestic
animals--Money-making--Loneliness of the women--A reminiscence of
Chicago.

On the whole, I believe that there is no country where men and women go
through life together on such equal terms as in France. The wife
follows her husband everywhere; she is the companion of his pleasures
as well as of his hardships. She works with him, takes her vacation
with him, and when they have amassed a little fortune that insures
independence, they knock off work together and enjoy life quietly for
the rest of their days. In business, the wife is the clerk of her
husband, often his cashier, always his partner. She is consulted by him
in the investment of their savings. It is a little firm--Monsieur,
Madame and Co.

In England, the wife does not share the hardships of her husband, and
not always his pleasures. She is seldom consulted in important matters.

What often astonishes us in Europe is to see a crowd of handsome and
clever women, whom America sends to brighten up society, and who
reappear in London and Paris every year with the regularity of the
swallows. The London season, from the beginning of May to July 25, the
Paris season, from the beginning of April to June 10, are absolutely
run by them. You meet them everywhere, at dinner-parties, 'At Homes,'
and the play. You conclude that they must be married, because they are
styled Mrs. and not Miss, but whether they are wives, widows, or
divorcees, you rarely think of inquiring, and you go on enjoying their
society, even their friendship, year after year, without knowing
whether there exists, somewhere in America, a Mr. So-and-so or not.

It was in America only, on calling on my lady friends whose
acquaintance I had made in Europe, that I discovered the existence of
their husbands. I found them very much alive, having for the companions
of their joys and sorrows the telephone and the ticker.

Now, an impression (not an opinion, much less a conviction) to be
formed from all this is that the American woman, with all her physical
beauty and intellectual attainments, is not always a woman whose
characteristic traits are devotion, unselfishness, and self-sacrifice.
But it is not her fault if this should be the