arest cases of detachment. Assuming that she comes to the city to
earn her living, her work is not only irksome, but so unremunerative
that she finds it impossible to obtain those accessories to her
personality in the way of finery which would be sufficient to hold
her attention and satisfy her if they were to be had in plenty. She is
lost from the sight of everyone whose opinion has any meaning for her,
while the separation from her home community renders her condition
peculiarly flat and lonely; and she is prepared to accept any
opportunity for stimulation offered her, unless she has been morally
standardized before leaving home. To be completely lost sight of may,
indeed, become an object under these circumstances--the only means by
which she can without confusion accept unapproved stimulations--and
to pass from a regular to an irregular life and back again before the
fact has been noted is not an unusual course.

The professionally irregular class of women represents an extreme and
unfortunate result of an adventitious and not-completely-functional
relation to society. They do not form a class in the psychological
sense, but only a trade. There are many sorts of natural dispositions
among them--as many perhaps as will be found in any other occupation.
None of the reputable occupations are homogeneous from the standpoint
of the natural dispositions of the men and women who compose them,
and the same is true of the disreputable occupations. Many women of
fine natural character and disposition are drawn in a momentary and
incidental way into an irregular life, and recover, settle down
to regular modes of living, drift farther, are married, and make
uncommonly good wives. In this respect the adventuress is more
fortunate than the criminal (that other great adventitious product),
because the criminal is labeled and his record follows him, making
reformation difficult; while the in-and-out life of woman with
reference to what we call virtue is not officially noted and does not
bring consequences so inevitable. But "if you drive nature out at the
door, she will come back through the window;" and this interest in
greater stimulation is, I believe, the dominant force in determining
the choice--or, rather, the drift--of the so-called sporting-woman.
She is seeking what, from the psychological standpoint, may be called
a normal life.

The human mind was formed and fixed once for all in very early times,
through a life of act