Page:Live and Let Live.djvu/79

 "Oh, we may just as well save ourselves that trouble. It don't depend at all on education; for instance, you and I were brought up as much alike as two girls could be, and you are a pattern housewife, while I make no pretensions that way." Before detailing the conversation that followed, it will be but just to concede what Mrs. Hyde's modesty did not permit her to allow, that she was, in clearness of mind and force of character, greatly Mrs. Ardley's superior. Other things being equal, the woman of the highest mental endowments will always be the best housekeeper, for housewifery, domestic economy; is a science that brings into action the qualities of the mind as well as the graces of the heart. A quick perception, judgement, discrimination, decision, and order are high attributes of mind, and are all in daily exercise in the well-ordering of a family. If a "sensible woman," an "intellectual woman," a "woman of genius," is not a good housewife, it is not because she is all or either of these, but because there is some deficiency in her character, or some omission of duty which should make her very humble, instead of her indulging any secret self-complacency on account of a certain superiority, which only aggravates her fault. Many women of very inferior character make very comfortable housewives, but why? they give their whole power to a single object. All the rays of a feeble lamp thrown on one point will produce a considerable illumination.

"You say, Anne," replied Mrs. Hyde, "that you and I were 'brought up as much alike as two girls could be,' and so we were. We went to the same schools, pursued the same studies, and