Part 8 (2/2)
Mrs. Makely sighed, and there fell a little pause, which she broke with a question she had the effect of having kept back.
”There is one thing I should like to ask you, too, Mr. h.o.m.os. Is it true that everybody in Altruria does some kind of manual labor?”
”Why, certainly,” he answered, quite as if he had been an American.
”Ladies, too? Or perhaps you have none.”
I thought this rather offensive, but I could not see that the Altrurian had taken it ill. ”Perhaps we had better try to understand each other clearly before I answer that question. You have no t.i.tles of n.o.bility as they have in England--”
”No, indeed! I hope we have outgrown those superst.i.tions,” said Mrs.
Makely, with a republican fervor that did my heart good. ”It is a word that we apply first of all to the moral qualities of a person.”
”But you said just now that you sometimes forgot that your seamstress was not a lady. Just what did you mean by that?”
Mrs. Makely hesitated. ”I meant--I suppose I meant--that she had not the surroundings of a lady; the social traditions.”
”Then it has something to do with social as well as moral qualities--with ranks and cla.s.ses?”
”Cla.s.ses, yes; but, as you know, we have no ranks in America.” The Altrurian took off his hat and rubbed an imaginable perspiration from his forehead. He sighed deeply. ”It is all very difficult.”
”Yes,” Mrs. Makely a.s.sented, ”I suppose it is. All foreigners find it so.
In fact, it is something that you have to live into the notion of; it can't be explained.”
”Well, then, my dear madam, will you tell me without further question what you understand by a lady, and let me live into the notion of it at my leisure?”
”I will do my best,” said Mrs. Makely. ”But it would be so much easier to tell you _who_ was or who was not a lady. However, your acquaintance is so limited yet that I must try to do something in the abstract and impersonal for you. In the first place, a lady must be above the sordid anxieties in every way. She need not be very rich, but she must have enough, so that she need not be hara.s.sed about making both ends meet, when she ought to be devoting herself to her social duties. The time is past with us when a lady could look after the dinner, and perhaps cook part of it herself, and then rush in to receive her guests and do the amenities. She must have a certain kind of house, so that her entourage won't seem cramped and mean, and she must have nice frocks, of course, and plenty of them. She needn't be of the smart set; that isn't at all necessary; but she can't afford to be out of the fas.h.i.+on. Of course, she must have a certain training. She must have cultivated tastes; she must know about art and literature and music, and all those kind of things, and, though it isn't necessary to go in for anything in particular, it won't hurt her to have a fad or two. The nicest kind of fad is charity; and people go in for that a great deal. I think sometimes they use it to work up with, and there are some who use religion in the same way; I think it's horrid; but it's perfectly safe; you can't accuse them of doing it. I'm happy to say, though, that mere church a.s.sociation doesn't count socially so much as it used to. Charity is a great deal more insidious. But you see how hard it is to define a lady. So much has to be left to the nerves, in all these things. And then it's changing all the time; Europe's coming in, and the old American ideals are pa.s.sing away. Things that people did ten years ago would be impossible now, or at least ridiculous. You wouldn't be considered vulgar, quite, but you would certainly be considered a back number, and that's almost as bad. Really,” said Mrs. Makely, ”I don't believe I can tell you what a lady is.”
We all laughed together at her frank confession. The Altrurian asked: ”But do I understand that one of her conditions is that she shall have nothing whatever to do?”
”Nothing to _do_!” cried Mrs. Makely. ”A lady is busy from morning till night. She always goes to bed perfectly worn out.”
”But with what?” asked the Altrurian.
”With making herself agreeable and her house attractive, with going to lunches and teas and dinners and concerts and theatres and art exhibitions, and charity meetings and receptions, and with writing a thousand and one notes about them, and accepting and declining, and giving lunches and dinners, and making calls and receiving them, and I don't know what all. It's the most hideous slavery!” Her voice rose into something like a shriek; one could see that her nerves were going at the mere thought of it all. ”You don't have a moment to yourself; your life isn't your own.”
”But the lady isn't allowed to do any useful kind of work?”
”_Work_! Don't you call all that work, and _useful_? I'm sure I envy the cook in my kitchen at times; I envy the woman that scrubs my floors. Stop!
Don't ask why I don't go into my kitchen, or get down on my knees with the mop. It isn't possible. You simply can't. Perhaps you could if you were very _grande dame_, but if you're anywhere near the line of necessity, or ever have been, you can't. Besides, if we did do our own household work, as I understand your Altrurian ladies do, what would become of the servant cla.s.s? We should be taking away their living, and that would be wicked.”
”It would certainly be wrong to take away the living of a fellow-creature,” the Altrurian gravely admitted, ”and I see the obstacle in your way.”
”It's a mountain,” said the lady, with exhaustion in her voice, but a returning amiability; his forbearance must have placated her.
”May I ask what the use of your society life is?” he ventured, after a moment.
”Use? Why should it have any? It kills time.”
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