there is the strain of
the pose of saintly resignation. It is bad enough to pose to other
people, but when we pose to other people and to ourselves too the
strain is twice as bad.

Imagine a nerve specialist saying to his patient, "My dear madam, you
really must stop being a hypocrite. You have not the nervous strength
to spare for it." In most cases, I fear, the woman would turn on him
indignantly and go home to be more of a hypocrite than ever, and so
more nervously ill.

I have seen a woman cry and make no end of trouble because she had to
have a certain relative live in the house with her, simply because her
relative "got on her nerves." Then, after the relative had left the
house, this same woman cried and still kept on making no end of trouble
because she thought she had done wrong in sending "Cousin Sophia" away;
and the poor, innocent, uncomplaining victim was brought back again.
Yet it never seemed to occur to the nervous woman that "Cousin Sophia"
was harmless, and that her trouble came entirely from the way in which
she constantly resented and resisted little unpolished ways.

I do not know how many times "Cousin Sophia" may be sent off and
brought back again; nor how many times other things in my nervous
friend's life may have to be pulled to pieces and then put together
again, for she has not yet discovered that the cause of the nervous
trouble is entirely in herself, and that if she would stop resisting
"Cousin Sophia's" innocent peculiarities, stop resisting other various
phases of her life that do not suit her, and begin to use her will to
yield where she has always resisted, her load would be steadily and
happily lifted.

The nervous strain of doing right is very painful; especially so
because most women who are under this strain do not really care about
doing right at all. I have seen a woman quibble and talk and worry
about what she believed to be a matter of right and wrong in a few
cents, and then neglect for months to pay a poor man a certain large
amount of money which he had honestly earned, and which she knew he
needed.

The nervous conscience is really no conscience at all. I have seen a
woman worry over what she owed to a certain other woman in the way of
kindness, and go to a great deal of trouble to make her kindness
complete; and then, on the same day, show such hard, unfeeling cruelty
toward another friend that she wounded her deeply, and that without a
regret.

A nervous woman's