FOOTNOTES:
[1] China and earthenware manufactories in Staffordshire are invariably called Banks.
[THE STRONG-MINDED WOMAN.]
IN TWO CHAPTERS.—CHAPTER I.
'Do you mean to go to the Woman's Rights affair, Earle?' asked one young man of another from out a cloud of smoke. The two were sitting one evening in December in the smoking-room of Wilfred Earle, a rising young artist of the modern school of figure-painters.
'Yes, I do,' replied the one addressed, a fine-looking man of some five-and-thirty years, with thoughtful dark-blue eyes, a good forehead, from which the curly brown locks were departing fast, and a fine tawny beard and moustache. 'I shall go out of mere curiosity though, for of all offensive articles, to my taste a strong-minded woman is the worst. Just imagine the horrible bore of being tied for life to a woman who travelled about the country spouting on woman's rights! As if all women were not tyrants by nature, without developing the art into a system. Ugh!' and Earle shuddered.
'I should like to see your ideal woman, Earle,' said his companion. 'You are such a fastidious fellow.'
'Well, I suppose every man has some sort of ideal; mine is a very vague one. I should not like a heroine of romance, but a comfortable everyday wife.'
'To darn your stockings, let you smoke all over the house, give you good dinners; eh?'