175
Professional Work for Women 187
Little Children 200
On Naming Children 205
The Children's Table 217
Intellectual "Cramming" of Boys 225
The Servant-Girl's Point of View 231
Extravagance 240
Ought we to Wear Mourning? 248
How To Have One's Portrait Taken 254
The Crown of Beauty 272
Waste of Vitality 281
A Little Matter of Money 288
Mission of Household Furniture 293
People Who Have Good Impulses 302
Worried to Death 307
The Grapes We Can't Reach 313
Burdens 319

Maids and Bachelors

Women who have devoted themselves for religious purposes to celibacy
have in all ages and countries of the world received honor, but those
upon whom celibacy has been forced, either through the influence of
untoward circumstances, or as a consequence of some want or folly in
themselves, have been objects of most unmerited contempt and dislike.
Unmerited, because it may be broadly asserted that until the last
generation no woman in secular and social life remained unmarried from
desire or from conviction. She was the victim of some natural
disadvantage, or some unhappy circumstance beyond her control, and
therefore entitled to sympathy, but not to contempt.

Of course, there are many lovely girls who appear to have every
advantage for matrimony, and who yet drift into spinsterhood. The
majority of this class have probably been imprudent and over-stayed
their market. They have dallied with their chances too long. Suddenly
they are aware that their beauty is fading. They notice that the
suitable marriageable men who hung around them in their youth have
gone away, and that their places are filled with mere callow youths.
Then they realize their mistakes, and are sorry they have thought
being "an awfully