第15章 A CONFERENCE ON DECK(2)

"I mean that she's different from herself at different times," said Morgan."What is it the poet called her?--'an infinite variety show,' or something of that sort; a perpetual vaudeville--a continuous performance, as it were, from twelve to twelve.""Morgan is right, admiral!" put in Conrad the corsair, acting temporarily as bo'sun."The times are sadly changed, and woman is no longer what she was.She is hardly what she is, much less what she was.The Roman Gynaeceum would be an impossibility to-day.You might as well expect Delilah to open a barber-shop on board this boat as ask any of these advanced females below-stairs to sew buttons on a pirate's uniform after a fray, or to keep the fringe on his epaulets curled.They're no longer sewing-machines--they are Keeley motors for mystery and perpetual motion.Women have views now they are no longer content to be looked at merely; they must see for themselves;and the more they see, the more they wish to domesticate man and emancipate woman.It's my private opinion that if we are to get along with them at all the best thing to do is to let 'em alone.Ihave always found I was better off in the abstract, and if this question is going to be settled in a purely democratic fashion by submitting it to a vote, I'll vote for any measure which involves leaving them strictly to themselves.They're nothing but a lot of ghosts anyhow, like ourselves, and we can pretend we don't see them.""If that could be, it would be excellent," said Morgan; "but it is impossible.For a pirate of the Byronic order, my dear Conrad, you are strangely unversed in the ways of the sex which cheers but not inebriates.We can no more ignore their presence upon this boat than we can expect whales to spout kerosene.In the first place, it would be excessively impolite of us to cut them--to decline to speak to them if they should address us.We may be pirates, ruffians, cutthroats, but I hope we shall never forget that we are gentlemen.""The whole situation is rather contrary to etiquette, don't you think?" suggested Conrad."There's nobody to introduce us, and Ican't really see how we can do otherwise than ignore them.Icertainly am not going to stand on deck and make eyes at them, to try and pick up an acquaintance with them, even if I am of a Byronic strain.""You forget," said Kidd, "two essential features of the situation.