"
"I am very pleased to hear you speak so sensibly, my dears. I certainly
think that she is a woman whom you may very well take as your model.
The more intimate you are with her the better pleased I shall be."
"Then that is settled," said Clara demurely, and the talk drifted to
other matters.
All the morning the two girls sat extracting from Mrs. Westmacott her
most extreme view as to the duty of the one sex and the tyranny of the
other. Absolute equality, even in details, was her ideal. Enough of
the parrot cry of unwomanly and unmaidenly. It had been invented by man
to scare woman away when she poached too nearly upon his precious
preserves. Every woman should be independent. Every woman should learn
a trade. It was their duty to push in where they were least welcome.
Then they were martyrs to the cause, and pioneers to their weaker
sisters. Why should the wash-tub, the needle, and the housekeeper's
book be eternally theirs? Might they not reach higher, to the
consulting-room, to the bench, and even to the pulpit? Mrs. Westmacott
sacrificed her tricycle ride in her eagerness over her pet subject, and
her two fair disciples drank in every word, and noted every suggestion
for future use.
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