n
usefully. I'm thankful to say my old dad and I see eye to eye about my
future, but if he didn't--it would be trying! I hate to see girls
disloyal to their parents, and if the `revolt of the daughters' were the
only outcome of higher education I should say the sooner we got back to
deportment and the use of the globes the better for all concerned. But
it wasn't all peace and concord even in the old days. Don't tell me
that half a dozen daughters sat at home making bead mats in the front
parlour, and never had ructions with their parents or themselves! They
quarrelled like cats, my dears, take my word for it, and were ever so
much less happy and devoted than girls are now, going away to do their
work, and coming home with all sorts of interesting little bits of news
to add to the general store. It's impossible to lay down the law on
such a question, for every case is different from another, but I think a
great deal depends on the work waiting at home. If a girl is an only
daughter, or the only strong or unmarried one, there is no getting away
from it that her place is with her parents. We don't want to be like
the girl in _Punch_, who said, `My father has gout, and my mother is
crippled, and it is so dull at home that I am going to be a nurse in a
hospital!' _That_ won't do! If you have a duty staring you in the face
you are a coward it you run away from it. An only daughter ought to
stay at home; but when there are two or three, it's different. It
doesn't take three girls to arrange flowers, and write notes, and pay
calls, and sew for bazaars; and where there is a restless one among
them, who longs to do something serious with her time, I--I think the
parents should give way! As you say, we have to live our own lives,
and, as boys are allowed to choose, I think we should have the same
liberty. I don't know how large your family is, Bertha, or--"

"Three sisters at home. One engaged, but the other two not likely to
be, so far as I can see, and Mother quite well, and brisk, and active!"

"Well, don't worry! Don't force things, or get cross, and they'll give
in yet, you'll see. Put your view of the case before them, and see if
you cannot meet each other somehow. If they find that you are quiet and
reasonable they will be far more inclined to take you seriously, and
believe that you know your own mind. That's all the advice I can give
you, my dear, and I'm afraid it's not what you wanted. Perhaps someon