It's the only thing I can do. What else is there a woman can
do?"
As Clara and Kate walked about in the evening, they talked continually of
the new position Kate believed women were on the point of achieving in the
world. The woman who was so essentially a man wanted to talk of marriage
and to condemn it, but continually fought the impulse in herself. She knew
that were she to let herself go she would say many things that, while they
might be true enough as regards herself, would not necessarily be true of
Clara. "Because I do not want to live with a man or be his wife is not very
good proof that the institution is wrong. It may be that I want to keep
Clara for myself. I think more of her than of any one else I've ever met.
How can I think straight about her marrying some man and becoming dulled to
the things that mean most to me?" she asked herself. One evening, when the
women were walking from Kate's apartment to the Woodburn house, they were
accosted by two men who wanted to walk with them. There was a small park
nearby and Kate led the men to it. "Come," she said, "we won't walk with
you, but you may sit with us here on a bench." The men sat down beside them
and the older one, a man with a small black mustache, made some remark
about the fineness of the night. The younger man who sat beside Clara
looked at her and laughed. Kate at once got down to business.
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