its grammar, but they should hear it; she read it all through. Now,
whoever the writer might be, it seemed pretty clear that he was not the
kind of person with whom one could profitably argue; no use in replying
to him, even had he given the opportunity. For all that, his uncivil
attack had a meaning, and there were plenty of people ready to urge his
argument in more respectable terms. 'They will tell you that, in
entering the commercial world, you not only unsex yourselves, but do a
grievous wrong to the numberless men struggling hard for bare
sustenance. You reduce salaries, you press into an already overcrowded
field, you injure even your own sex by making it impossible for men to
marry, who, if they earned enough, would be supporting a wife.' To-day,
continued Miss Barfoot, it was not her purpose to debate the economic
aspects of the question. She would consider it from another point of
view, repeating, perhaps, much that she had already said to them on
other occasions, but doing so because these thoughts had just now very
strong possession of her mind.

This abusive correspondent, who declared that he was supplanted by a
young woman who did his work for smaller payment, doubtless had a
grievance. But, in the miserable disorder of our social state, one
grievance had to be weighed against another, and Miss Barfoot held that
there was much more to be urged on behalf of women who invaded what had
been exclusively the men's sphere, than on behalf of the men who began
to complain of this invasion.

'They point to half a dozen occupations which are deemed strictly
suitable for women. Why don't we confine ourselves to this ground? Why
don't I encourage girls to become governesses, hospital nurses, and so
on? You think I ought to reply that already there are too many
applicants for such places. It would be true, but I don't care to make
use of the argument, which at once involves us in a debate with the
out-crowded clerk. No; to put the truth in a few words, I am not
chiefly anxious that you should _earn money_, but that women in general
shall become _rational and responsible human beings_.

'Follow me carefully. A governess, a nurse, may be the most admirable
of women. I will dissuade no one from following those careers who is
distinctly fitted for them. But these are only a few out of the vast
number of girls who must, if they are not to be despicable persons,
somehow find serious work. Because I myself have had an edu