with them. Was it their own
free choice that put them where they are? If they speak the truth, they
will say `No.' Either no man asked them--though that is rare--or else
in youth they have had their work laid ready to their hands. They had a
father and mother, or brothers and sisters, that they could not forsake
for a stranger. Or they gave their love unsought, and had none to give
when it was asked. Or they fell out with their lovers, or another wiled
them away, or death divided them. Sometimes a woman's life passes
quietly and busily away, with no thoughts of the future, till one day
she wakes up with a great start of surprise and pain, to the knowledge
that her youth is past--that she is an `old maid.' And if a chance
offer comes then, ten to one but she shuts her eyes, and lays hold on
the hand that is held out to her--so feared is she of the solitary life
before her."

"And," said Graeme, in a low voice, "God is good to her if she has not a
sadder wakening soon."

"It is possible, my dear, but it proves the truth of what I was saying,
all the same; that it is seldom by a woman's free choice that she finds
herself alone in life. Sometimes, but not often, a woman sits down and
counts the cost, and chooses a solitary path. It is not every wise man
that can discern a strong and beautiful spirit, if it has its home in an
unlovely form, and many such are passed by with a slighting look, or are
never seen at all. It is possible that such a woman may have the sense
to see, that a solitary life is happiness compared with the pain and
shame a true woman must feel in having to look down upon her husband;
and so when the wise and the worthy pass by, she turns her eyes from all
others, and says to herself and to the world, with what heart she may,
that she has no need of help. But does that end the pain? Does it make
her strong to say it? May not the slight implied in being overlooked
rankle in her heart till it is changed and hardened? I am afraid the
many single women we see and hear of, who live to themselves, giving no
sympathy and seeking none, proves it past all denying. My dear, folk
may say what they like about woman's sphere and woman's mission--and
great nonsense they have spoken of late--but every true woman kens well
that her right sphere is a home of her own, and that her mission is to
find her happiness in the happiness of her husband and children. There
are exceptional cases, no doubt, but that