g her such an individualizing name, for fear
she would grow up a fright. I little thought I was running the risk of
such a contingency as this."

"It _is_ hard, Josephine," I murmured, wishing to be sympathetic. "I
think, though, you are a little premature in taking it for granted that
Winona will not come round all right in the end."

My darling shook her head. "She may consent to go about in order to
please me, but her heart will never be in it. Oh, I know!" she added,
with another outburst, as though she were arguing with an accusing
spirit, "that society is all very frivolous in theory and a waste of
time, and that the moralists and people who never had the chance to go
anywhere would tell me I ought to be thankful to have a daughter who
cares for something besides going to balls and dinner-parties and
flirting with young men. That's the way they would look at it; but
they might argue until they were black in the face and they couldn't
make me feel otherwise than disappointed. And, what is more, I believe
that Winona will be very sorry herself ten years hence if she
perseveres in her present determination."

These last words were spoken by my wife almost tragically, and it was
evident to me that they proceeded from the heart. I am free to confess
that when Josephine gives utterance to opinions with so much
earnestness as this I cannot help feeling that there must be more or
less truth in them. She may be no philosopher, but she is a sensible
woman. And especially in a matter where another woman, and one of her
own flesh and blood, besides, is concerned, it would certainly seem as
though she would be apt to be right. This whole business of the
emancipation of woman is one well adapted to drive a philosopher, to
say nothing of the father of a family, crazy. Naturally I wish my
daughters to become all that they ought to be. On the other hand, if a
paterfamilias cannot trust his better half on this particular subject,
he may as well imitate the example of certain savage tribes, and make
mince-meat of the girls. Perhaps I seem to be worked up on the
subject? Well, I am. The din of the moralists, and of the people who
have never had a chance to go anywhere, is in my ears, and I cannot get
altogether rid of it. Let us start afresh and attack the question from
another point of view.

There is no doubt, even to the average masculine mind, although the
possessor of the mind may not publish the fact on the