DAUGHTERS 345 



it might be. But think of a woman, head of any such 

 household, sitting down under the circumstances to write 

 a poem, or to paint a picture, or going out to her model- 

 ling studio? The woman's profession must go to the 

 wall, unless it is under the very exceptional circumstances 

 when the woman is the bread-winner, or even partially 

 so, and when disaster may increase the necessity for her 

 earnings. 



Perhaps many Englishwomen would deny what I 

 really believe to be the truth — namely, that passion is the 

 great moving power of Ufe, the root of all that is highest 

 and noblest in us, the developer of aU that is artistic, 

 intellectual, affectionate, and even religious in ourselves. 

 Some people may accuse me of iuconsisteney in saying 

 this. Of that I should be proud, for can an3rthing ever 

 approach the inconsistency of life — especially, perhaps, 

 the life of women? Women — Englishwomen, at aU 

 events — imagine that there is but one danger in having 

 strong feeling, and that, if that is sufficiently suppressed 

 in the direction which is natural and ordinary, it ceases 

 to cause any alarm at aU. I do not agree with this. It 

 is a platitude to talk of the dual nature which we all have 

 within us. The contrast between these two natures is 

 much more marked, and causes a fiercer struggle, in 

 passionate natures than in cold ones. 



Women as well as men have a twin within them, 

 often concealed, which represents aU that is strongest 

 and most lovable in their natures. They generally 

 have something which they like doing better than any- 

 thing else in the world, and which for that reason is 

 very apt to interfere with their duty, however innocent 

 or even meritorious it may be in itself, whether it takes 

 the form of writing, art, politics, philanthropy, or the 

 practice of reUgion. If a married woman throws all this 

 power, so often described as suppressed steam, into any 



