ve for
One you know not. How bitterly may you hereafter look back on your
present Lot! You know, I have the Apostle's Word for it, that, if I give
you in Marriage, I may do well; but, if I give you not, I shall do
better. The unmarried Woman careth for the Things of the Lord, that she
may be holy in Body and Spirit, and attend upon him without Distraction.
Thus was it with the five wise Maidens, who kept their Lamps ready
trimmed until the Coming of their Lord. I wish we only knew of five that
were foolish. Time would fail me to tell you of all the godly Women,
both of the elder and later Time, who have led single Lives without
Superstition, and without Hypocrisy. Howbeit, you may marry if you will;
but you will be wiser if you abide as you are, after my Judgment. Let me
not to the Marriage of true Minds oppose Impediment; but, in your own
Case--"

"Father," interrupts _Anne_, "you know I am ill at speaking; but permit
me to say, you are now talking wide of the Mark. Without going back to
the Beginning of the World, or all through the _Romish Calendar_, I will
content me with the more recent Instance of yourself, who have thrice
preferred Marriage, with all its concomitant Evils, to the single State
you laud so highly. Is it any Reason we should not dwell in a House,
because St. _Jerome_ lived in a Cave? The godly Women of whom you speak
might neither have had so promising a Home offered to them, nor so ill a
Home to quit."

"What call you an ill Home?" says Father, his Brow darkening.

"I call that an ill Home," returns _Anne_, stoutly, "where there is
neither Union nor Sympathy--at least, for my Share,--where there are no
Duties of which I can well acquit myself, and where those I have made for
myself, and find suitable to my Capacity and Strength, are contemned,
let, and hindered,--where my Mother-Church, my Mother's Church, is
reviled--my Mother's Family despised,--where the few Friends I have made
are never asked, while every Attention I pay them is grudged,--where, for
keeping all my hard Usage from my Father's Hearing, all the Reward I get
is his thinking I have no hard Usage to bear--"

"Hold, ungrateful Girl!" says Father; "I've heard enough, and too much.
Tis Time wasted to reason with a Woman. I do believe there never yet was
one who would not start aside like a broken Bow, or pierce the Side like
a snapt Reed, at the very Moment most Dependance was placed in her. Let
her Husband humour her to