“Now for Thursday. ‘At 12 o’clock, visit the hospital. Jews’ meeting in the evening.’
“‘Friday, 10 a.m. Club. Afternoon, district visiting.’
“‘Saturday, 3 p.m. Mothers’ meeting.’—Why, this mothers’ meeting is something quite new. I thought the vicar’s wife took that.”—“So she does, John; but, poor thing, she is so overworked, that I could not refuse when she asked me to take it for her during the next three months.”
“And is this sort of thing to go on perpetually?” asked the doctor in a despairing voice.
“Why should it not, dearest husband? You would not have your wife a drone in these days, when the world all round us is full of workers?”
“Certainly not; but I very much question if we have not gone mad on this subject of work—at any rate as regards female workers.”
“And would you, then, John, shut up people’s hearts and hands? I thought none knew better than yourself what a vast field there is open for noble effort and service of every kind. Surely you ought to be the last person to discourage us.”
“Nay, my beloved wife, you are not doing me justice,” said the doctor warmly. “What I am convinced of is this—and the conviction gains strength with me every day—that good and loving women like yourself are in grievous peril of marring and curtailing their real usefulness by attempting too much. If agencies for good are to be multiplied, let those who set new ones on foot seek for their workers amongst those who are not already overburdened or fully occupied. I cannot help thinking that there is often much selfishness, or, to use a less harsh word, want of consideration, in those who apply to ladies whose time is already fully and properly occupied, to join them as workers in their pet schemes; for it is easier to try and enlist those who are known to be zealous workers already, than to be at the pains of hunting out new ones. I am sure no one rejoices more than I do in the wonderful and complicated machinery for doing good which exists on all sides in our land and day—I think it one of the most cheering signs and evidences of real progress amongst us; but, for all that, if a person wants to launch a new ship, he should have reasonable grounds for trusting that he shall be able to find hands to man her without borrowing those from a neighbouring vessel, who have kept their watch through stormy winds and waves, and ought, instead of doing extra duty, to be now resting in their hammocks.”
Mrs Prosser was again silent for a while, and sat looking thoughtfully into the fire. Then, in rather a sorrowful voice, she said, “And what, then, dear John, do you think to be my duty? I can’t help feeling that there is a great deal in what you say. I have not been really satisfied with my own way of going on for some time past. But what would you have me do? What must I give up?”
“I think,” was his reply, “that the thing will settle itself, if you will only begin at the right end.”