PART ONE--HOUSE OF MEN

CHAPTER I





Rosalie's earliest apprehension of the world was of a mysterious
and extraordinary world that revolved entirely about her father
and that entirely and completely belonged to her father. Under her
father, all males had proprietory rights in the world and dominion
over it; no females owned any part of the world or could do anything
with it. All the males in this world--her father, and Robert and
Harold her brothers, and all the other boys and men one sometimes
saw--did mysterious and extraordinary things; and all the females
in this world--her mother, and Anna and Flora and Hilda her sisters,
and Ellen the cook and Gertrude the maid--did ordinary and unexciting
and generally rather tiresome things. All the males were like story
books to Rosalie: you never knew what they were going to do next;
and all the females were like lesson books: they just went on and
on and on.

Rosalie always stared at men when she saw them. Extraordinary and
wonderful creatures who could do what they liked and were always
doing mysterious and wonderful things, especially and above all
her father.