

DAUGHTERS 343 



I have been asked whether an unmarried woman is 

 happier with a profession or without one. Without hesita- 

 tion of course I answer 'Yes, with a profession,' especially 

 if it is the outcome of any particular talent. The real 

 cause of the happiness which ensues is that it gives her 

 the same excuse and the same ease to her conscience for 

 selfishness as a man has. It always works round to the 

 same thing how much can a woman evade her home 

 duties in order to be able to indulge in any intellectual 

 occupation which takes up her mind, to the detriment of 

 the ordinary, petty drudgeries such as practically absorb 

 most women's lives ? The great difficulty for a woman 

 who is head of a house, or even for a daughter who helps 

 much in the management of a house, allowing herself the 

 pleasure of any intellectual employment be it writing, or 

 art, or music, or even reading conducted as a study is 

 that the very meaning of work is absorption. Women 

 are by their natures impressionable and too apt to become 

 engrossed in anything they are doing, to the neglect of 

 the claims of others. It is not exactly the time that it 

 takes from the husband and children, but the thoughts of 

 a woman are not quickly brought back to the level of her 

 ceaseless duties. I heard once of the wife of an Ambassa- 

 dor, who was devoted to drawing, having arranged for a 

 dinner for royalties, &c., planning the details with her ser- 

 vants in her usual careful way. The day arrived, she had 

 time on her hands, the weather was lovely ; she took her 

 sketching things and went out. She became so absorbed 

 in her drawing and the beauty of the evening that the 

 royal guests, the husband, and the dinner became abso- 

 lutely effaced from the tablet of her memory. She arrived 

 home at half-past nine, to find her husband agonised, 

 her guests expectant and a little angry, all believing she 

 must have come to some injury. This little anecdote 

 exactly illustrates what I mean, and describes the struggle 



