ure you they are very happy in it. It
seems to us that women were more than any other class the victims of
your civilization. There is something which, even at this distance of
time, penetrates one with pathos in the spectacle of their ennuied,
undeveloped lives, stunted at marriage, their narrow horizon, bounded
so often, physically, by the four walls of home, and morally by a petty
circle of personal interests. I speak now, not of the poorer classes,
who were generally worked to death, but also of the well-to-do and
rich. From the great sorrows, as well as the petty frets of life, they
had no refuge in the breezy outdoor world of human affairs, nor any
interests save those of the family. Such an existence would have
softened men's brains or driven them mad. All that is changed to-day.
No woman is heard nowadays wishing she were a man, nor parents desiring
boy rather than girl children. Our girls are as full of ambition for
their careers as our boys. Marriage, when it comes, does not mean
incarceration for them, nor does it separate them in any way from the
larger interests of society, the bustling life of the world. Only when
maternity fills a woman's mind with new interests does she withdraw
from the world for a time. Afterward, and at any time, she may return
to her place among her comrades, nor need she ever lose touch with
them. Women are a very happy race nowadays, as compared with what they
ever were before in the world's history, and their power of giving
happiness to men has been of course increased in proportion."

"I should imagine it possible," I said, "that the interest which girls
take in their careers as members of the industrial army and candidates
for its distinctions might have an effect to deter them from marriage."

Dr. Leete smiled. "Have no anxiety on that score, Mr. West," he
replied. "The Creator took very good care that whatever other
modifications the dispositions of men and women might with time take
on, their attraction for each other should remain constant. The mere
fact that in an age like yours, when the struggle for existence must
have left people little time for other thoughts, and the future was so
uncertain that to assume parental responsibilities must have often
seemed like a criminal risk, there was even then marrying and giving in
marriage, should be conclusive on this point. As for love nowadays, one
of our authors says that the vacuum left in the minds of men and women
by the ab