But the old doctor sighed, and told himself that the girl was most
human, most affectionate; it was not impossible that, in spite of her
apparent absence of certain domestic instincts, they had only lain
dormant and were now awake. He could not bear that she should lose any
happiness which might be hers; and the tender memory of the blessed
companionship which had been withdrawn from his mortal sight only to
be given back to him more fully as he had lived closer and nearer to
spiritual things, made him shrink from forbidding the same sort of
fullness and completion of life to one so dear as Nan. He tried to
assure himself that while a man's life is strengthened by his domestic
happiness, a woman's must either surrender itself wholly, or
relinquish entirely the claims of such duties, if she would achieve
distinction or satisfaction elsewhere. The two cannot be taken
together in a woman's life as in a man's. One must be made of lesser
consequence, though the very natures of both domestic and professional
life need all the strength which can be brought to them. The decision
between them he knew to be a most grave responsibility, and one to be
governed by the gravest moral obligations, and the unmistakable
leadings of the personal instincts and ambitions. It was seldom, Dr.
Leslie was aware, that so typical and evident an example as this could
offer itself of the class of women who are a result of natural
progression and variation, not for better work, but for different
work, and who are designed for certain public and social duties.
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