ionate; it was not impossible that, in spite of her
apparent absence of certain domestic instincts, they had only lain
dormant and were now awake. He could not bear that she should lose any
happiness which might be hers; and the tender memory of the blessed
companionship which had been withdrawn from his mortal sight only to
be given back to him more fully as he had lived closer and nearer to
spiritual things, made him shrink from forbidding the same sort of
fullness and completion of life to one so dear as Nan. He tried to
assure himself that while a man's life is strengthened by his domestic
happiness, a woman's must either surrender itself wholly, or
relinquish entirely the claims of such duties, if she would achieve
distinction or satisfaction elsewhere. The two cannot be taken
together in a woman's life as in a man's. One must be made of lesser
consequence, though the very natures of both domestic and professional
life need all the strength which can be brought to them. The decision
between them he knew to be a most grave responsibility, and one to be
governed by the gravest moral obligations, and the unmistakable
leadings of the personal instincts and ambitions. It was seldom, Dr.
Leslie was aware, that so typical and evident an example as this could
offer itself of the class of women who are a result of natural
progression and variation, not for better work, but for different
work, and who are designed for certain public and social duties. But
he believed this class to be one that must inevitably increase with
the higher developments of civilization, and in later years, which he
might never see, the love for humanity would be recognized and
employed more intelligently; while now almost every popular prejudice
was against his ward, then she would need no vindication. The wielder
of ideas has always a certain advantage over the depender upon facts;
and though the two classes of minds by no means inevitably belong, the
one to women, and the other to men, still women have not yet begun to
use the best resources of their natures, having been later developed,
and in many countries but recently freed from restraining and
hindering influences.

The preservation of the race is no longer the only important question;
the welfare of the individual will be considered more and more. The
simple fact that there is a majority of women in any centre of
civilization means that some are set apart by nature for other uses
and condit