FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160  
161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   >>   >|  
he years between. I am trying to take up life where it was before I was overthrown. I can't quite get hold of things yet as a man, for when I try, I feel a man's bitterness. But the boy believes, and I have shut the man in me away, until the boy grows up. Does this sound fantastic? To whom else would I dare write such a thing, but to you? But you will understand. I feel that I need make no apology. Coming now to you and your work. I can bring no optimism to bear, I suppose I should say that it is well. But there is in me too much of the primitive masculine for that. When a man cares for a woman he inevitably wants to shield her. But what would you? Shall a man let the thing which he would cherish be buffeted by the winds? I don't like to think of you in an office, with all your pretty woman instincts curbed to meet the stern formality of such a life. I don't like to think that any chief, however fatherly, shall dictate to you not only letters but rules of conduct. I don't like to think of you as hustled by a crowd at lunch time. I don't like to think of the great stone walls which shut you in. I don't want your wings clipped for such a cage. And there is this I must say, that all men do not need wives to toast their slippers or to serve their meals piping hot, or even to smooth the wrinkles, although I confess that there's an appeal in this last. Some of us need wives for inspiration, for spiritual and mental uplift, for the word of cheer when our hearts are weary--for the strength which believes in our strength--one doesn't exactly think of Juliet as toasting slippers, or of Rosalind, or of Portia, yet such women never for one moment failed their lovers. My Cousin Patty says that work will do you good, and we have great arguments. I have told her of you, not everything, because there are some things which are sacred. But I have told her that life for me, since I have known you, has taken on new meanings. She glories in your independence and wants to know you. Some day, it is written, I am sure, that you two shall meet. In some things you are much alike--in others utterly different, with the differences made by heredity and environment. My little Cousin Patty is the composite of three generations. Amid her sweets and spices, she is as domestic as her grandmother, but her mind sweeps on to the future of women in a way which makes me gasp. Politics are the breath of her life. She com
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160  
161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

things

 

Cousin

 
strength
 

slippers

 

believes

 
failed
 

moment

 
Rosalind
 
Portia
 

lovers


arguments
 

future

 

toasting

 

Juliet

 

uplift

 

mental

 

inspiration

 

spiritual

 

hearts

 
overthrown

breath
 

Politics

 

sweeps

 
heredity
 
environment
 

differences

 

utterly

 
composite
 

spices

 

domestic


sweets
 

generations

 

sacred

 
meanings
 

written

 

independence

 

glories

 

grandmother

 

smooth

 
fantastic

cherish

 
buffeted
 

shield

 
pretty
 
instincts
 

curbed

 
office
 

inevitably

 

optimism

 
suppose