sk
questions which wrung from her what she had concealed for
seventeen long years, and the world at last knew how her husband
had kept the money she earned by her pen. She stood in court, and
said: "I do not ask for rights; I have no rights, I have only
wrongs. I will go abroad, and live with my son." Her husband had
proposed to take her children from her, but she said: "I would
rather starve than give them up." And for a time she did starve.
I will read for you her poem of "Twilight," and you will all see
what kind of woman has been so wronged, and has so suffered.

That woman, gifted, noble, and wealthy, with such great yearnings
in her soul, whose heart was so bound up in her children, was
thus robbed not only of her own rights, but also of theirs. Men!
we can not trust you! You have deceived us too long! Since this
movement began, _some_ laws have been passed, securing to woman
her personal property, but they are as nothing in the great
reform that is needed. I can tell you a case. A woman married a
man, whom she did not love, because he had a fortune. He died,
and she married the man whom she loved before her first marriage.
He died, too, and the fortune which was hers through her first
husband was seized on by the relatives of the second, and she was
left penniless in the wide world. Here, as in England, women earn
large sums by their literary fame and talents; and I know a _man_
who watches the post-office, and, because the Law gives him the
power, secures the letters which contain the wages of his wife's
intellectual toil, and pockets them for his own use.

I will conclude by reading a letter from an esteemed friend, Mr.
Higginson. It proposes certain questions which I should wish to
hear our enemies answer.

WORCESTER, _Sept. 4, 1853_.

DEAR FRIEND:--You are aware that domestic duties alone prevent my
prolonging my stay in New York during the session of the Woman's
Rights Convention. But you know, also, that all my sympathies are
there. I hope you will have a large representation of the friends
of the great movement--the most important of the century; and
that you will also assemble a good many of the opposition during
the discussion. Perhaps from such opponents I might obtain
answers to cer