“It is the same everywhere,” burst out Winifred. “It is the office, or the shop, or the business that gets the man, the woman gets the bit the shop can't digest. What is he at home, a man? He is a meaningless lump — a standing machine, a machine out of work.”

“They know they are sold,” said Tom Brangwen. “That's where it is. They know they are sold to their job. If a woman talks her throat out, what difference can it make? The man's sold to his job. So the women don't bother.

They take what they can catch — and vogue la gal�re.”

“Aren't they very strict here?” asked Miss Inger.

“Oh, no. Mrs. Smith has two sisters who have just changed husbands. They're not very particular —