Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Women and Men

[115]

XXIII. the independent Purse.

Where I asked what change would make most difference in the happiness of married pairs, it would not be hard to answer. The change would not relate to the laws of divorce, whether loosened or tightened; it would not even he in conceding to women the right of the separate boudoir, though it has always seemed to me that it would enhance the dignity and delicacy, and therefore the happiness, of wedded life, if every woman had an apartment of which she might turn the key, even against her husband, as freely as he may turn the key of his study or his office. But the change now meant is one already effected in many families, and always, I suspect, with happy results — the introduction, under some form, of the Independent Purse.

By this institution is meant something quite beyond that mere allowance for dress, or for household expenses, which is so often made in families. That is usually based on sheer convenience. There is no more thought of justice in it than in the sum allowed to Bridget to buy yeast, or to Michael for