You are a kind of
generous outlaw, a moral Robin Hood, you compel us to give up everything
we possess, in order that you may have the somewhat equivocal merit of
restoring back a small portion of what you take."
"True, and this, I am afraid, Miss Lucy, however by the admission I
forfeit for my sex all reputation for chivalry, is after all the precise
relationship between us. The very fact that the requisitions made by our
sex produce immediate concession from yours, establishes the dependence
of which you complain."
"You mistake me, sir. I complain not of the robbery---far from it; for,
if we do lose the possession of a commodity so valuable, we are at least
freed from the responsibility of keeping it. The gentlemen, nowadays,
seldom look to us for intellectual gladiatorship; they are content that
our weakness should shield us from the war. But, I conceive the reproach
of our poverty to come unkindly from those who make us poor. It is of
this, sir, that I complain."
"You are just, and justly severe, Miss Munro; but what else have you to
expect? Amazon-like, your sex, according to the quaint old story, sought
the combat, and were not unwilling to abide the conditions of the
warfare.
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