Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

'Yes,' said he, 'a thin, tall woman is a peg for clothes ; but there is all the dif- ference in the world, as the Frenchman said, between une belle taille and un beau corps.' So there are con- solations in all things, and many of the great passions of the world have been for plain women — perhaps because they themselves are so much more grateful for the affec- tion given. Beauty added to other things is a great power ; let no one despise it. It is often easier for a beautiful woman to behave well than for her plainer sisters. She has the ball at her feet, and she knows it. DAUGHTERS 343 I have been asked whether an unmarried woman is happier with a profession or without one. Without hesita- tion of course I answer — ' Yes, with a profession/ especially if it is the outcome of any particular talent. The real cause of the happiness which ensues is that it gives her the same excuse and the same ease to her conscience for selfishness as a man has. It always works round to the same thing — how much can a woman evade her home duties in order to be able to indulge in any intellectual occupation which takes up her mind, to the detriment of the ordinary, petty drudgeries such as practically absorb most women's lives ? The great difficulty for a woman who is head of a house, or even for a daughter who helps much in the management of a house, allowing herself the pleasure of any intellectual employment — be it writing, or art, or music, or even reading conducted as a study — is that the very meaning of work is absorption. Women are by their natures impressionable and too apt to become engrossed in anything they are doing, to the neglect of the claims of others. It is not exactly the time that it takes from the husband and children, but the thoughts of a woman are not quickly brought back to the level of her ceaseless duties. I heard once of the wife of an Ambassa- dor, who was devoted to drawing, having arranged for a dinner for royalties, &c., planning the details with her ser- vants in her usual careful way. The day arrived, she had time on her hands, the weather was lovely ; she took her sketching things and went out. She became so absorbed in her drawing and the beauty of the evening that the royal guests, the husband, and the dinner became abso- lutely effaced from the tablet of her memory. She arrived home at half-past nine, to find her husband agonised, her guests expectant and a little angry, all believing she must have come to some injury. This little anecdote exactly illustrates what I mean, and describes the struggle 344 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN