ese days, when the world all round us is full of workers?"

"Certainly not; but I very much question if we have not gone mad on this
subject of work--at any rate as regards female workers."

"And would you, then, John, shut up people's hearts and hands? I
thought none knew better than yourself what a vast field there is open
for noble effort and service of every kind. Surely you ought to be the
last person to discourage us."

"Nay, my beloved wife, you are not doing me justice," said the doctor
warmly. "What I am convinced of is this--and the conviction gains
strength with me every day--that good and loving women like yourself are
in grievous peril of marring and curtailing their real usefulness by
attempting too much. If agencies for good are to be multiplied, let
those who set new ones on foot seek for their workers amongst those who
are not already overburdened or fully occupied. I cannot help thinking
that there is often much selfishness, or, to use a less harsh word, want
of consideration, in those who apply to ladies whose time is already
fully and properly occupied, to join them as workers in their pet
schemes; for it is easier to try and enlist those who are known to be
zealous workers already, than to be at the pains of hunting out new
ones. I am sure no one rejoices more than I do in the wonderful and
complicated machinery for doing good which exists on all sides in our
land and day--I think it one of the most cheering signs and evidences of
real progress amongst us; but, for all that, if a person wants to launch
a new ship, he should have reasonable grounds for trusting that he shall
be able to find hands to man her without borrowing those from a
neighbouring vessel, who have kept their watch through stormy winds and
waves, and ought, instead of doing extra duty, to be now resting in
their hammocks."

Mrs Prosser was again silent for a while, and sat looking thoughtfully
into the fire. Then, in rather a sorrowful voice, she said, "And what,
then, dear John, do you think to be my duty? I can't help feeling that
there is a great deal in what you say. I have not been really satisfied
with my own way of going on for some time past. But what would you have
me do? What must I give up?"

"I think," was his reply, "that the thing will settle itself, if you
will only begin at the right end."

"And which is that, dearest?"

"The home end. Let your first and best energies be spent on the home;
it wil