your only hope of getting at ours is to live into it. One feature of it is
the confusion of foreigners at the sight of our men's willingness to
subordinate themselves to our women."

"Oh, I don't find that very bewildering," said the Altrurian. "It seems to
me a generous and manly trait of the American character. I'm proud to say
that it is one of the points at which your civilization and our own touch.
There can be no doubt that the influence of women in your public affairs
must be of the greatest advantage to you; it has been so with us."

I turned and stared at him, but he remained insensible to my astonishment,
perhaps because it was now too dark for him to see it. "Our women have no
influence in public affairs," I said, quietly, after a moment.

"They haven't? Is it possible? But didn't I understand you to imply just
now that your women were better educated than your men?"

"Well, I suppose that, taking all sorts and conditions among us, the women
are as a rule better schooled, if not better educated."

"Then, apart from the schooling, they are not more cultivated?"

"In a sense you might say they were. They certainly go in for a lot of
things: art and music, and Browning and the drama, and foreign travel and
psychology, and political economy and Heaven knows what all. They have
more leisure for it; they have all the leisure there is, in fact; our
young men have to go into business. I suppose you may say our women are
more cultivated than our men; yes, I think there's no questioning that.
They are the great readers among us. We poor devils of authors would be
badly off if it were not for our women. In fact, no author could make a