ived in a
commercial atmosphere; after marriage she grew violently legal in her
conversation. Her husband developed a passion for motoring; so did Case
61. Observe that during a previous attachment to a doctor, Case 61 had
manifested a growing interest in medicine.

Case 18 comes from a hunting family, married a literary man, and within
a few years has ceased to take any exercise and mixes exclusively with
literary people.

Case 38, on becoming engaged to a member of the Indian Civil Service,
became a sedulous student of Indian literature and religion. On her
husband's appointment to a European post, her interest did not diminish.
She has paid a lengthy visit to India.

There are compensating cases among men: I have two. In one case a
soldier who married a literary woman has turned into a scholar. In the
other a commercial man, who married a popular actress, has been
completely absorbed by the theater, and is now writing successful plays.

It would appear from these rather disjointed notes that the emotional
quality in woman is more or less at war with her intellectual aims.
Indeed it is sometimes suggested that where woman appears, narrowness
follows; that books by women are mostly confined to love, are not cosmic
in feeling. This is generally true, for reasons which I hope to indicate
a little farther on; but it is not true that books where women are the
chief characters are narrow. Such novels as _Anna Karenina_, _Madame
Bovary_, _Une Vie_, _Tess of the D'Urbervilles_ make that point
obvious. As a rule, books about men, touching as they do, not only upon
love, but upon art, politics, business, are more powerful than books
about women. But one should not forget that books written round women
are mostly written by women. As women are far less powerful in
literature than men, we must not conclude that books about women are
naturally lesser than books about men. The greatest books about women
have been written by men. But few men are sufficiently unprejudiced to
grasp women; only a genius can do so, and that is why few books about
women exist that deserve the epithet great. It remains to be seen
whether an increased understanding of the affairs of the world will
develop among women a literary power which, together with the world,
will embrace herself.

7

In the attempt to indicate what the future may reserve for woman, it is
important to consider what she has done, because she has achieved much
in the face of