So, too, it can be safely predicated that continuous
exalted fellowship with the dregs of the population on the part of
women weaned from the lap of luxury, and a consequent sacrifice of
almost every form of creature comfort, barring a tooth-brush, a small
piano, a few books, and an etching or two, will be likely to create a
sterner and sterner disrelish for the ice-cream and mushrooms vista of
life at the end of which stands a husband with a newly furnished house
and an ample income. My wife is ready to admit that purely from the
point of view of common sense she would have preferred to have the
child do almost anything peculiar rather than engage in her present
mummery, because some people will consider her crazy; but, on the other
hand, she maintains that the chances of losing her altogether are much
less serious than if she had become a Toynbee Haller, for instance.
"Mind you," said Josephine, "however much I might have fumed, I should
really have been very, very proud if she had gone in for that. I can
imagine, if you once got used to the idea, feeling quite as happy over
it as if one's son had become a clergyman, which of course," she added,
meditatively, "is a peculiar kind of happiness not just like any other.
But it would have meant separation forever, to all intents and
purposes, for I am too old to change my interests now, however much I
may disapprove of them in theory, and though I should very likely go in
for something of the same kind in case I were to begin life over again.
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