Ernestine looked at him with surprise. "But how can this ability avail us, if we are not allowed to enlarge the bounds of the sphere within which we are so unkindly confined at present?"
"That sphere does not seem to me contracted. I think it so noble, so elevated, that the loftiest talent may well content itself within it, if it be rightly understood."
"But if a woman, if I--forgive my presumption,--am especially endowed beyond other women, should I not, with the power, possess also the privilege of transcending the usual bounds?"
"You would then possess the privilege of ennobling your sex, of showing it what it could accomplish within its own sphere,--you would possess the power to be first among women, but not to become a man."
Ernestine looked down sadly. "Have you read my essay?"
"Yes."
"Do you think it deserved the prize?"
"Yes."
"And yet you would deny me the right to accomplish tasks usually assigned to men."
"You have accomplished one such. How far your kind uncle may have assisted you in your labor we will not ask."