They have no conception of what a
society woman goes through with. They think we do nothing. They envy us,
too, and sometimes they're so ungrateful and indifferent, if you try to
help them, or get on terms with them, that I believe they hate us."
"But that comes from ignorance?"
"Yes, though I don't know that they are really any more ignorant of us
than we are of them. It's the other half on both sides."
"Isn't that a pity, rather?"
"Of course it's a pity, but what can you do? You can't know what people
are like unless you live like them, and then the question is whether the
game is worth the candle. I should like to know how you manage in
Altruria."
"Why, we have solved the problem in the only way, as you say, that it can
be solved. We all live alike."
"Isn't that a little, just a very trifling little bit, monotonous?" Mrs.
Makely asked, with a smile. "But there is everything, of course, in being
used to it. To an unregenerate spirit--like mine, for example--it seems
intolerable."
"But why? When you were younger, before you were married, you all lived at
home together--or, perhaps, you were an only child?"
"Oh, no indeed! There were ten of us.
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