"That's the best conversational opening I've ever heard. But I'm
afraid it will only act between men. Can you picture a lady who
has been introduced to another lady by a third lady opening
civilities with 'How do you do? Come and have a bathe'? And yet
you will tell me that the sexes are equal."
"I tell you that they shall be," said Mr. Emerson, who had been
slowly descending the stairs. "Good afternoon, Mr. Beebe. I tell
you they shall be comrades, and George thinks the same."
"We are to raise ladies to our level?" the clergyman inquired.
"The Garden of Eden," pursued Mr. Emerson, still descending,
"which you place in the past, is really yet to come. We shall
enter it when we no longer despise our bodies."
Mr. Beebe disclaimed placing the Garden of Eden anywhere.
"In this--not in other things--we men are ahead. We despise the
body less than women do. But not until we are comrades shall we
enter the garden."
"I say, what about this bathe?" murmured Freddy, appalled at the
mass of philosophy that was approaching him.
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