THE FIRST VOLUME.

PAGE
THE GIRL OF THE PERIOD[1]
MODERN MOTHERS (I.)[10]
MODERN MOTHERS (II.)[19]
PAYING ONE'S SHOT[27]
WHAT IS WOMAN'S WORK?[37]
LITTLE WOMEN[48]
IDEAL WOMEN[58]
PINCHBECK[69]
AFFRONTED WOMANHOOD[79]
FEMININE AFFECTATIONS[88]
INTERFERENCE[99]
THE FASHIONABLE WOMAN[109]
SLEEPING DOGS[119]
BEAUTY AND BRAINS[128]
NYMPHS[137]
MÉSALLIANCES[147]
WEAK SISTERS[157]
PINCHING SHOES[167]
SUPERIOR BEINGS[176]
FEMININE AMENITIES[184]
GRIM FEMALES[193]
MATURE SIRENS[203]
PUMPKINS[213]
WIDOWS[223]
DOLLS[234]
CHARMING WOMEN[244]
APRON-STRINGS[254]
FINE FEELINGS[264]
SPHINXES[273]
FLIRTING[281]
SCRAMBLERS[290]
FLATTERY[299]
LA FEMME PASSÉE[309]
SPOILT WOMEN[317]
DOVECOTS[325]
BORED HUSBANDS[335]

ESSAYS
UPON
SOCIAL SUBJECTS.

THE GIRL OF THE PERIOD.

Time was when the phrase, 'a fair young English girl,' meant the ideal of womanhood; to us, at least, of home birth and breeding. It meant a creature generous, capable, modest; something franker than a Frenchwoman, more to be trusted than an Italian, as brave as an American but more refined, as domestic as a German and more graceful. It meant a girl who could be trusted alone if need be, because of the innate purity and dignity of her nature, but who was neither bold in bearing nor masculine in mind; a girl who, when she married, would be her husband's friend and companion, but never his rival; one who would consider his interests as identical with her own, and not hold him as just so much fair game for spoil; who would make his house his true home and place of rest, not a mere passage-place for vanity and ostentation to pass through; a tender mother, an industrious housekeeper, a judicious mistress.

We prided ourselves as a nation on our women. We thought we had the pick of creation in this fair young English girl of ours, and envied no other men their own. We admired the languid grace and subtle fire of the South; the docility and childlike affectionateness of the East seemed to us sweet and simple and restful; the vivacious sparkle of the trim and sprightly Parisienne was a pleasant little excitement when we met with it in its own domain; but our allegiance never wandered from our brown-haired girls at home, and our hearts were less vagrant than our fancies. This was in the old time, and when English girls were content to be what God and nature had made them. Of late years we have changed the pattern, and have given to the world a race of women as utterly unlike the old insular ideal as if we had created another nation altogether. The Girl of the Period, and the fair young English girl of the past, have nothing in common save ancestry and their mother-tongue; and even of this last the modern version makes almost a new language, through the copious additions it has received from the current slang of the day.

The Girl of the Period is a creature who dyes her hair and paints her face, as the first articles of her personal religion—a creature whose sole idea of life is fun; whose sole aim is unbounded luxury; and whose dress is the chief object of such thought and intellect as she possesses. Her main endeavour is to outvie her neighbours in the extravagance of fashion. No matter if, in the time of crinolines, she sacrifices decency; in the time of trains, cleanliness; in the time of tied-back skirts, modesty; no matter either, if she makes herself a nuisance and an inconvenience to every one she meets;—the Girl of the Period has done away with such moral muffishness as consideration for others, or regard for counsel and rebuke. It was all very well in old-fashioned times, when fathers and mothers had some authority and were treated with respect, to be tutored and made to obey, but she is far too fast and flourishing to be stopped in mid-career by these slow old morals; and as she lives to please herself, she does not care if she displeases every one else.