Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/184

172 woman in her treatment of men, as a return for all this?"

"Nothing whatever," replied Letty, airily; "a man has no rights that a woman is bound to respect—that is, in this glorious land."

"It strikes me that your rule would work very one-sidedly."

"It's a bad rule that works both ways," declared Letty, solemnly.

Sir Archy did not believe a word of all this; but Farebrother thought that Letty had not really over-stated her case very much.

Presently they all turned round and walked home through the purple twilight. The path led through the woods to the straggling edges of the young growth of trees on the borders of a pasture, now brown and bare. A few lean cattle browsed about—the Colonel spent a good deal of time and money, as his fathers had done before him, in getting the grass out of his fields, and raising fodder for his stock, instead of letting the grass grow for them to fatten on—so they were very apt to be lean for nine months in the year. The path led across the pasture to the whitewashed fence that enclosed the lawn. A young moon trembled in the opal sky. As they walked