"Yes," he answered; and then he asked: "Isn't it taking work away from
some needy seamstress, though? But I suppose you excuse it to the
thoughtlessness of youth."
Mrs. Makely did not say, and he went on: "What I find it so hard to
understand is how you ladies can endure a life of mere nervous exertion,
such as you have been describing to me. I don't see how you keep well."
"We _don't_ keep well," said Mrs. Makely, with the greatest amusement. "I
don't suppose that when you get above the working classes, till you reach
the very rich, you would find a perfectly well woman in America."
"Isn't that rather extreme?" I ventured to ask.
"No," said Mrs. Makely, "it's shamefully moderate," and she seemed to
delight in having made out such a bad case for her sex. You can't stop a
woman of that kind when she gets started; I had better left it alone.
"But," said the Altrurian, "if you are forbidden by motives of humanity
from doing any sort of manual labor, which you must leave to those who
live by it, I suppose you take some sort of exercise?"
"Well," said Mrs. Makely, shaking her head gayly, "we prefer to take
medicine.
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