Winona was bored."
"She will get over that as soon as she is a year older. She is shy."
"She is not shy. If she were shy I should think nothing of it. She
declares that society is all nonsense, and that she wishes never to
come out at all."
"What an egregiously sensible girl," I murmured.
"I hope you will not encourage her, Fred," pleaded my darling. "I have
counted so much on her. If Josie had taken it into her head to be
queer, I shouldn't have said a word, for I think myself that is often
for a plain girl's happiness not to have to undergo the ordeal of being
neglected; but in the case of a beauty like Winona it would be such a
waste! There is not a girl of her age who compares with her in beauty."
"What is it she wishes to do?" I asked, with a knitted brow. A man is
apt to leave the management of his own daughters to his wife, even
though he is a philosopher and prolific in theories. I had rather
taken it for granted that certain advanced notions of mine regarding
the conduct of women's lives would be allowed to lie dormant in my
brain for lack of an animating cause, or, more accurately speaking, for
lack of moral courage on my part to exploit them for the benefit of my
own flesh and blood. It is more satisfactory to try experiments in the
line of education on some one else's children.
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