Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Women and Men

[69] putting off of that day of bliss. But it is in later life that perils begin-perils which neither the presence of geometrical knowledge nor its absence, nor even a genteel carriage of the person, can very seriously affect. “Ah, sir!” said a pretty young Irish “second-girl” to me the other day, “my aunt is always at me to be a Sister [of Charity], and not be married at all; and indeed, sir, when I think of the girls that I went to school with, and see some of them married already, and maybe with children, and maybe a husband that drinks, I think that if their example doesn't make a Sister of me, nothing of my aunt's teaching will ever do it.” Here is a glimpse, given with the stern realism of humble life, of the really formidable chances of a woman's career-chances that begin after the orange blossoms are faded, and the handfuls of rice thrown, and the guests gone home. Let us, if possible, Sir John, give to our daughters a training in character and purpose which shall enable them, with or without geometry and gymnastics, to do true women's work in the world, and make their usefulness, and even their happiness, something more than things of chance.