More than this, we cannot do without the
tender devotion, the unselfish forethought, the aspiring faith, which,
even though we seem to mock and to be blind, saves us from the world
and from ourselves. If you are to become merely men in petticoats,
what will become of us? We shall go down, down, down, like the leaden
plummet cast into the depths of the sea. We shall be snuffed out and
extinguished in sober truth. Hence, certain that the work of
emancipation is to continue, my philosophical glance follows fondly and
almost proudly the course of my second daughter, who is making a fool
of herself at the moment by practising Christian Science, because she
has beauty and grace and a knowledge of the value of colors, purity and
tenderness and aspiring faith, as her mother had before her, while at
the same time she has forsaken the beaten path of convention and turned
her brow to the morning. All of which, Josephine informs me, is
charming reasoning, provided Winona does not fall in love with
somebody. I do not understand the precise logic of this criticism;
but, on the other hand, Josephine is very apt to know what she is
talking about.
VIII
I came home one afternoon with a puckered brow.
"Has the Supreme Court decided another case against you?" asked
Josephine, with solicitude.
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