Facts remained facts, but the sympathy was on the wane. Real life,
stripped of All make-believe, confronted them and began to take
revenge.
The lawyer practised his profession, but the wife's profession was
practised by a maid and a nurse. Therefore she had no occupation. The
want of occupation encouraged brooding, and she brooded a great deal
over her position. She found it unsatisfactory. Was it right that an
intellectual woman like her should spend her days in idleness? Once
her husband had ventured to remark that no one compelled her to live
in idleness. He never did it again.
"She had no profession."
"True; to be idle was no profession. Why didn't she nurse the baby?"
"Nurse the baby? She wanted a profession which brought in money."
"Was she such a miser, then? She had already more than she knew how to
spend; why should she want to earn money?"
"To be on an equal footing with him."
"That could never be, for she would always be in a position to which
he could never hope to attain. It was nature's will that the woman was
to be the mother, not the man."
"A very stupid arrangement!"
"Very likely! The opposite might have been the case, but that would
have been equally stupid."
"Yes; but her life was unbearable.
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