Theresa was irritated that Emily’s “queer ideas” were a force in her life, not a mere mask for disappointment at not having been able to marry well. And Emily could not discuss the situation with her. Theresa might admit that it was barely possible for a woman to refuse to marry except for love. But a woman disputing the necessity of marriage for any and all women, if they were not to make a disgraceful failure of life—Emily could see Theresa pooh-poohing the idea that such a creature really existed among the sane. Further, if Emily explained her point of view, she would be by implication assailing Theresa for her marriage.
“I’m sure,” Theresa went on, “that Edgar’s father would be satisfied. If he didn’t know you he wouldn’t like it. He has such strict ideas on the subject of women. He thinks a woman’s mission is to be a wife and mother. He says nature plainly intended woman to have motherhood as her mission.”
“Not any more, I should say, than she intended man to have fatherhood as his mission.”
“Well, at any rate, he thinks so, and it gives him something to talk about. He thinks a woman who is not at least a wife ought to be ashamed of herself.”
“But if no man will have her?”
“Then she ought to sit out of sight, where she will offend as little as possible.”
“But if she has to make a living?”
“Oh, she can do something quiet and respectable, like sewing or housework.”
“But why shouldn’t she work at whatever will produce the best living?”
“She ought to be careful not to be unwomanly.”