"Nonsense, my dear child!" he replied. "You do not know what that means."
"I do know," she responded excitedly. "It must be a splendid life. Think what it is to stand before such an audience and know that every eye is on you, everyone admiring you and listening spellbound to your voice. Did you hear that gentleman behind us say, when she had finished singing 'Home, sweet home,' that he should think she would make home sweet?"
"Humph," said her uncle slowly, in the tone of one who will not utter all his mind; "I daresay it seems very fine to you, my dear, but you speak in ignorance. Such women are far from being so happy as you suppose. You see the glamour and glitter, you hear the applause, but you do not know what lies behind—the heartache and jealousy and bitterness."
"Oh, of course there are drawbacks," said Juliet loftily; "but that is the kind of life I should like."
"My dear, I hope that yours will be a far happier lot. I do not like the idea of a public life for a woman. Home is the woman's true sphere."
"Oh, uncle, excuse me, but that is a terribly old-fashioned idea—quite an exploded one, in fact. A woman has as much right to make a career for herself as a man. For my part, I have no wish for a happy lot, if it must be a humdrum and commonplace one. I want to live."
"So you shall, Juliet, but not by acting or singing in public, I trust. You must be patient, and wait till the prince comes who shall reconcile you to a home life."
He turned to Juliet with a smile on his wrinkled, parchment face, and a merry twinkle in his eyes.
But a disdainful frown sat on that young lady's brow, and she responded impatiently, "Really, uncle! Do you think I want to be married? I assure you that is the last thing that enters into my aspirations for the future."
He felt himself snubbed, and was silent. He was beginning to find his young niece somewhat of a puzzle, and even a perplexity. She did not agree with the notions of womanhood which he had held all his days, without ever harbouring a doubt of their truth. The wife whose early death was the most bitter grief of his life, had been a gentle, loving, domesticated woman, who had had no ambition beyond that of performing in the best possible manner those duties of her sex which he believed to be the whole end and aim of womanhood!