“Ah! there comes the hit. I wondered if you would get through without it.”
“It was not meant as a hit. Men are as apt to publish what is not worth saying as women can be, and some women are so conscientious as only to put forth what is of weight and value.”
“And you are above wanting to silence them by palaver about unfeminine publicity?”
“There is no need of publicity. Much of the best and most wide-spread writing emanates from the most quiet, unsuspected quarters.”
“That is the benefit of an anonymous press.”
“Yes. The withholding of the name prevents well-mannered people from treating a woman as an authoress, if she does not proclaim herself one; and the difference is great between being known to write, and setting up for an authoress.”
“Between fact and pretension. But write or not write, there is an instinctive avoidance of an intellectual woman.”
“Not always, for the simple manner that goes with real superiority is generally very attractive. The larger and deeper the mind, the more there would be of the genuine humbleness and gentleness that a shallow nature is incapable of. The very word humility presupposes depth.”
“I see what you mean,” said Rachel. “Gentleness is not feebleness, nor lowness lowliness. There must be something held back.”
“I see it daily,” said Colonel Keith; and for a moment he seemed about to add something, but checked himself, and took advantage of an interruption to change the conversation.