"Colin," Delilah questioned, with a funny little smile, "is this a
'back to grandma' movement that you are planning for me?"
The pale little man flickered his blond lashes, but his face was grave.
"No," he said, "but I want you to be abreast of the times. There's
going to be a reaction from this reign of the bizarre. We've gone long
enough to harems and odalisques for our styles and our manners and
presently we are going to see the blossoming of old-fashioned beauty."
"And do you think the old manners and morals will come?"
He shrugged. "Who knows? We can only hope."
It was to Colin that Cousin Patty spoke confidingly of her admiration
of Delilah. "She's beautiful," she said. "Mary says that you plan her
dresses. I never thought that a man could do such things until Roger
took such an interest."
"Men of to-day take an interest," Colin said. "Woman's dress is one
branch of art. It is worthy of a man's best powers because it adds to
the beauty of the world."
"That's the funny part of it," Cousin Patty ventured; "women are taking
up men's work, and men are taking up women's--it is all topsy turvy."
The little artist pondered. "Perhaps in the end they'll understand
each other better."
"Do you think they will?"
"Yes. The woman who does a man's work learns to know what fighting
means. The man who makes a study of feminine things begins to see back
of what has seemed mere frivolity and love of admiration a desire for
harmony and beauty, and self-expression. Some day women will come back
to simplicity and to the home, because they will have learned things
from men and will have taught things to men, and by mutual
understanding each will choose the best."
Cousin Patty was inspired by the thought. "I never heard any one put
it that way before."
"Perhaps not--but I have seen much of the world--and of men--and of
women."
"Yet all women are not alike."
"No." His eyes swept the table. "You three--Miss Ballard, Miss
Jeliffe--how far apart--yet you're all women--all, I may say, awakened
women--refusing to follow the straight and narrow path of the old
ideal. Isn't it so?"
"Yes. I'm in business--none of our women has ever been in business.
Mary won't marry for a home--yet all of her women have, consciously or
unconsciously, married for a home. And Miss Jeliffe I don't know well
enough to judge. But I fancy she'll blaze a way for herself."