they know it, and take advantage of it. I suppose it began in the war."

He laughed, and, "I should think," he said, laying hold of a single idea
out of several which she had presented, "that there would always be
enough young men in Cambridge to go round."

Mrs. Pasmer gave a little cry. "In Cambridge!"

"Yes; when I was in college our superiority was entirely numerical."

"But that's all passed long ago, from what I hear," retorted Mrs. Pasmer.
"I know very well that it used to be thought a great advantage for a girl
to be brought up in Cambridge, because it gave her independence and ease
of manner to have so many young men attentive to her. But they say the
students all go into Boston now, and if the Cambridge girls want to meet
them, they have to go there too. Oh, I assure you that, from what I hear,
they've changed all that since our time, Mr. Mavering."

Mrs. Pasmer was certainly letting herself go a little more than she would
have approved of in another. The result was apparent in the jocosity of
this heavy Mr. Mavering's reply.

"Well, then, I'm glad that I was of our time, and not of this wicked
generation. But I presume that unnatural supremacy of the young men is
brought low, so to speak, after marriage?"

Mrs. Primer let herself go a little further. "Oh, give us an equal
chance," she laughed, "and we can always take care of ourselves, and
something more. They say," she added, "that the young married women now
have all the attention that girls could wish."