“Yes,” Barfoot assented, in his smoothest and most graceful tone. “That completes the system. Unless you like to add that no engagement is permitted except between people who have passed a certain examination; equivalent, let us say, to that which confers a university degree.”
“Admirable. And no marriage, except where both, for the whole decennium, have earned their living by work that the State recognizes.”
“How would that affect Mr. Micklethwaite’s betrothed?” asked Miss Barfoot.
“I believe she has supported herself all along by teaching.”
“Of course!” exclaimed the other impatiently. “And more likely than not, with loathing of her occupation. The usual kind of drudgery, was it?”
“After all, there must be some one to teach children to read and write.”
“Yes; but people who are thoroughly well trained for the task, and who take a pleasure in it. This lady may be an exception; but I picture her as having spent a lifetime of uncongenial toil, longing miserably for the day when poor Mr. Micklethwaite was able to offer her a home. That’s the ordinary teacher-woman, and we must abolish her altogether.”
“How are you to do that?” inquired Everard suavely. “The average man labours that he may be able to marry, and the average woman certainly has the same end in view. Are female teachers to be vowed to celibacy?”
“Nothing of the kind. But girls are to be brought up to a calling in life, just as men are. It’s because they have no calling that, when need comes, they all offer themselves as teachers. They undertake one of the most difficult and arduous pursuits as if it were as simple as washing up dishes. We can’t earn money in any other way, but we can teach children! A man only becomes a schoolmaster or tutor when he has gone through laborious preparation—anything but wise or adequate, of course, but still conscious preparation; and only a very few men, comparatively, choose that line of work. Women must have just as wide a choice.”
“That’s plausible, cousin Mary. But remember that when a man chooses his calling he chooses it for life. A girl cannot but remember that if she marries her calling at once changes. The old business is thrown aside—henceforth profitless.”