on of the husband who only now and then
suspects in a dreamy way that he is being prompted and urged on and
directed by an ambitious wife, and has sense enough not to inflame
himself with chimerical notions about the superiority and grandeur of
the male sex--this perhaps is not so bad. If the tide of ambition runs
rather sluggish in yourself, it is a plain advantage to have somebody at
your side with enthusiasm enough to atone for the deficiency.

It is impossible to tell how much good the world gets, which otherwise
it would miss, simply out of the fact that women are discontented with
their position. Now and then, it is understood, the husband who is thus
made a mere conductor for the mental electricity of a wife who is too
clever for him may feel a little bored, and almost wish that he had
married a girl instead. But enthusiasm spreads, and in a general way the
fervor of the wife who aspires to distinction proves catching to the
husband. Some ladies are found to prefer this position to any other.
They are full of power, and have abundance of room for energy, and yet
they have no responsibility. They get their ample share of the spoil,
and yet they do not bear the public heat and burden of the day. It is
only the more martial souls among them for whom this is not enough.

PLATONIC WOMAN.

In the wearier hours of life, when the season is over, and the boredom
of country visits is beginning to tell on the hardy constitutions that
have weathered out crush and ball-room, there is usually a moment when
the heroine of twenty summers bemoans the hardships of her lot. Her
brother snuffed her out yesterday when she tried politics, and the
clerical uncle who comes in with the vacation extinguished a well-meant
attempt at theology by a vague but severe reference to the Fathers. If
the afternoon is particularly rainy, and Mudie's box is exhausted, the
sufferer possibly goes further, and rises into eloquent revolt against
the decorums of life.

There is indeed one career left to woman, but a general looseness of
grammar, and a conscious insecurity in the matter of spelling, stand in
the way of literary expression of the burning thoughts within her. All
she can do is to moan over her lot and to take refuge in the works of
Miss Hominy. There she learns the great theory of the equality of the
sexes, the advancement of woman and the tyranny of man. If her head
doesn't ache, and holds out for a few pages more, she is comfort