'You mean that there would be more emulation in a mixed class?'

'Yes; and Elsie says it is better to work in the men's studio. There
are cleverer pupils there than in the ladies' studio, and one learns
as much from one's neighbours as from the professor; more.'

'Are you sure of that? Do you not think that we are all far too ready
to assume that whatever men do is the best?'

'I suppose we are.'

'Men kept us uneducated till a hundred years ago; we are only gaining
our rights inch by inch, prejudice is only being overcome very slowly,
and whenever women have had equal, or nearly equal, advantages they
have proved themselves equal or superior to men. Women's inferiority
in physical strength is immaterial, for, as mankind grows more
civilised, force will be found in the brain and not in the muscles.'

Mrs. Fargus was now fairly afloat on her favourite theme, viz., if men
were kind to women, their kindness was worse than their cruelty--it
was demoralising.

Eventually the conversation returned whence it had started, and Mrs.
Fargus said:

'Then why do you hesitate? What is the objection to the men's studio?'

'I do not know that there is any particular objection, nothing that I
ought to let stand in the way of my studies. It was only something
that Elsie and Cissy said. They said the men's conversation wasn't