"Not of so much as is naturally involved in marriage, I allow."
"Then why draw back from your engagement to Gartley?"
"Because he requires me to turn away at once, and before any necessity shows itself, from the exercise of a higher calling yet."
"I am not aware of any higher calling."
"I am. God has given me gifts to use for my fellows, and use them I must till he, not man, stops me. That is my calling."
"But you know that of necessity a woman must give up many things when she accepts the position of a wife, and possibly the duties of a mother."
"The natural claims upon a wife or mother I would heartily acknowledge."
"Then of course to the duties of a wife belong the claims Society has upon her as a wife."
"So far as I yet know what is meant in your circle by such claims, I count them the merest usurpations: I will never subject myself to such—never put myself in a position where I should be expected to obey a code of laws not merely opposed to the work for which I was made, but to all the laws of the relations to each other of human beings as human beings."
"I do not quite understand you," said Miss Vavasor.