Page:Far from the Maddening Girls.djvu/103

 class, that’s all. I am far from denying a woman’s utility in the household — mind you, I say a woman, not a wife! Why, the episode of Galvin and the bill-of-fare taught me that much. I am not so prejudiced or dogged as you think. Miss Berrith. I can learn a lesson as well as the next man.”

“Can you?” said she. “If you will allow me to say so, Mr. Sands, I think your capacity in that line is likely to be severely taxed. So far as the scope of a woman’s utility is concerned, there is only one individual who knows less about it than a bachelor.”

“And that is?” I asked.

“A married man,” said Miss Berrith.

Arbuthnot came again, two Sundays later, but I was not so pleased to see him as I had been on the first occasion. It is to be presumed that a man would always be gratified to act as host to angels; but as for ordinary mortals, if their visits are to be really desirable, they must be —