joyment of each by itself and the piquancy which each has for the
other, are alike enhanced. In your day there was no career for women
except in an unnatural rivalry with men. We have given them a world of
their own, with its emulations, ambitions, and careers, and I assure
you they are very happy in it. It seems to us that women were more
than any other class the victims of your civilization. There is
something which, even at this distance of time, penetrates one with
pathos in the spectacle of their ennuied, undeveloped lives, stunted
at marriage, their narrow horizon, bounded so often, physically, by
the four walls of home, and morally by a petty circle of personal
interests. I speak now, not of the poorer classes, who were generally
worked to death, but also of the well-to-do and rich. From the great
sorrows, as well as the petty frets of life, they had no refuge in the
breezy outdoor world of human affairs, nor any interests save those of
the family. Such an existence would have softened men's brains or
driven them mad. All that is changed to-day. No woman is heard
nowadays wishing she were a man, nor parents desiring boy rather than
girl children. Our girls are as full of ambition for their careers as
our boys. Marriage, when it comes, does not mean incarceration for
them, nor does it separate them in any way from the larger interests
of society, the bustling life of the world. Only when maternity fills
a woman's mind with new interests does she withdraw from the world for
a time. Afterwards, and at any time, she may return to her place among
her comrades, nor need she ever lose touch with them. Women are a very
happy race nowadays, as compared with what they ever were before in
the world's history, and their power of giving happiness to men has
been of course increased in proportion."

"I should imagine it possible," I said, "that the interest which girls
take in their careers as members of the industrial army and candidates
for its distinctions might have an effect to deter them from
marriage."

Dr. Leete smiled. "Have no anxiety on that score, Mr. West," he
replied. "The Creator took very good care that whatever other
modifications the dispositions of men and women might with time take
on, their attraction for each other should remain constant. The mere
fact that in an age like yours, when the struggle for existence must
have left people little time for other thoughts, and the future was so
uncertain that to