"I am sure I don't know
what you mean," she replied. "'Wo' is the beginning of the word
'woman', but you can't mean woman. I know you and Polly think books of
plays and novels the greatest things in the world, but I don't and
besides I can't find the right word for them. You know what I really
like best is just cooking and cleaning up and putting flowers on the
table, stupid household things that can't have anything to do with your
wonderful word." And Mollie looked so apologetic for her own domestic
tastes that her mother took both her hands and held them tight.
"For goodness' sake, Mollie dear, even in these days of the advanced
female it is still something to be proud of, to have real womanly
tastes. Because some women go out into the world is no reason why they
should lose their womanly instincts. What we are all working for, both
men and women, is really just the making of a home, a big or a little
one. I don't know myself what word Betty is searching for, but I do
believe these very things that you like best come very close to my own
guess. For if love is the greatest thing in the world, the making of a
home to shelter it is most important. I have an idea that love would
come to a tragic end if, when it returned home to dinner, Polly should
meet it in the character of Ophelia, with wild flowers in her hair,
offering it rosemary and rue for dinner instead of meat and vegetables.
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