exture of his coat and of his see in a mist the separate hairs lous moustache and the colors s eyes; her nostrils expanded in nt exciting masculine odor. She d, if not panicstruck, by the viorst kiss; but her consternation to her." n and most men know, I fancy, first proximity to the man who magination was of precisely that ction was probably not precisely ven the impersonal machinery of al laboratory would have regisdistinct recoil. The microscope er has been, the lover's favorite s doubtful if even the man hime been allured by the accurate perception of the coarseness of xin. One thinks a little, in spite of Gulliver and Glumdalclitch. and rather amusing, all things at none of the men in these novthe sensations that crowd the [128] honor, of ever and physical, t sider their mas who has the ba common breac and decency an has, for his o that justifies th These auth temporaries in ments of a gi the sheer simil beth, in The writes to Davi "Dear' (s 'dear, I hope am tired of wa when she wro denly shy; 'U my birthdaywant to be ma my soul, and have nothing money is your nonor, or every reticence, moral, intellec and physical, than these men whom they sider their masters? It is in each case the who has the bad quarters of an hour over common breaches, real or fancied, of lov and decency and public opinion; the man has, for his own peace, to find a philoso that justifies them both. These authors are not alone among temporaries in recording such heightened ments of a girl's life. One calls to mind, the sheer similarity of the mental plight, E beth, in The Iron Woman. Thus Eliza writes to David: "Dear' (she stopped to kiss the pap 'dear, I hope you won't burn it up becau am tired of waiting, and I hope you are toc when she wrote those last words, she was denly shy; 'Uncle is to give me the money my birthday let us be married that da want to be married. I am all yours, David my soul, and all my mind, and all my boc have nothing that is not yours to take; sa money is yours. No, I will not even give spoken, need to follow further Mrs. = of the situation: the proud ly from David, which the girl ; her sudden marrying of the - love—as sheer expression of v, and recoil from the man vn how to treat her confession. no wisdom in comparing The m any other point of view, e have been mentioning. This eresting simply as a different ing record of the frank young o her own frankness, and of of that frankness; pages of in which the girl nearly dies f her own explicitness. One ver to protest against ElizaFoolish act in marrying Blair; at mood with the raw inev s of the new school may to base a general accusation [130] all of us. As f brilliancy of sty need of adding monious and a there the need, But the cont "do" a new ty considers impo even the air of with whom int future will h their salvation Woman." The crux reader, is the r the man and spite of her in of that relation mate, the hig serves, and m from every po realistic point method these telling the tru brilliancy of style-one simply does not see need of adding one piping voice to the h monious and already deafening chorus. W there the need, one would do it. But the contemporary school has set out "do" a new type of woman: a type which considers important, if not dominant. It even the air of saying: "This is the kind of with whom intelligent men in the immedi future will have overwhelmingly (and their salvation !) to deal. Behold the New Woman." The crux in each book, for the aver reader, is the maturing of the relation betw the man and the girl. The girl exists only, spite of her intellectual qualities, for the st of that relation. In each case, she is the ic mate, the high exponent of her sex. She serves, and must bear, serious considerat from every point of view. One has chosen realistic point of view because realism is method these authors abide by. They aim telling the truth as it is; therefore, they st ence to exhibit exceptions to , in the person of the girl or neurotic: such cases are ientists than these. But it is ng to insist on the niceness, e uninterruptedly respectable reeding of a girl to exhibit in other words-and then actions that do not belong to oint in preaching against a t is going to develop Anns Isabels ad libitum. The cons heroines may be a sign of ney themselves are not yet to be a sign of the times. It novelists can do in a decade never shown any sign of lazy evolutionary progress: natural feminine instincts. f Ann Veronica is that she's complained to me, not long has always been there, one sists on is that neither Ann |