CHARACTER OF THE MORE IMPASSIONED WOMAN. 19 



and exaggerated self-importance demands the sacrifice 

 (committees being much tried thereby) of subordinates 

 who are becoming too popular, or who are, it may be, 

 inadequately deferential. The active temperament is 

 perhaps the more readily spoiled by high position 

 because, while it has possibly more of acute intellec- 

 tual apprehension, it has less of that intellectual 

 detachment which secures to contemplative natures 

 a more impartial judgment of themselves and of 

 others. 



It is a significant circumstance that by far the 

 greater number of head mistresses, matrons, and lady 

 superintendents generally, are women of curved upper 

 spine, forward head-poise, and limited hair-growth. 

 Here and there may be found perhaps a straighter 

 spine, a backward head-poise, and abundant hair- 

 growth. The hospital matron of forward head- poise 

 and delicate eyebrow keeps everyone up to the mark 

 every moment of the day; the matron with strongly- 

 marked eyebrows spares an hour to play at lawn tennis 

 with the resident doctors. 



It is not easy, if indeed it is- possible, to say 

 which physiological bias the impassioned or the un- 

 impassioned furnishes the finest characters ; at any 

 rate, it would seem that the worst characters are found 

 among the more impassioned women. Let us* enter 

 the domestic circle and look at the impassioned woman 

 as a step-mother. The cruellest step-mothers are 

 usually impassioned. It is a physiological incident of 

 extreme interest. They are women who, in ordinary 

 circumstances, make the most affectionate wives and 

 mothers. But their emotions are strong, it may be 

 disproportionately strong, and the reason, whether 

 weak or strong it is not by any means always weak 



