wouldn't get those places to tend counters and keep books, if the
world hadn't found out that it was poor economy, as a general rule,
to take men for it."

"But what do you say about mental power? About pay for teaching, for
instance?" asked Ray.

"Why, you're coming round to _my_ side!" exclaimed Marion. "I should
really like to know _where_ you are?"

"I am wherever I can get nearest to the truth of things," said Ray,
smiling.

"That," said Sunderline, "is one of the specialties that is
getting righted. Women _are_ being paid more, in proportion, for
intellectual service, and the nearer you come to the pure mental
power, the nearer you come to equality in recompense. A woman who
writes a clever book, or paints a good picture, or sculptures a good
statue, can get as much for her work as a man. But where _time_ is
paid for,--where it is personal service,--the old principle at the
root of things comes in. Men open up the wildernesses, men sail the
seas, work the mines, forge the iron, build the cities, defend the
nations while they grow, do the physical work of the world, _make
way_ for all the finishings of education and opportunity that come
afterward, and that put women where they are to-day. And men must be
counted for such things. It is man's work that has made these
women's platforms. They have the capital of strength, and capital
draws interest. The right of the strongest isn't necessarily
_oppression_ by the strongest. That's the way I look at it. And I
think that what women lose in claim they gain in privilege."