Wellesley College - Legenda Yearbook (Wellesley, MA)

Page 16 text:

4 At Wellesley thermometer after dinner and her con- science was tender even in the matter of ' ' domestic work. There was a great yellow moon in the sky ; trees hung up- side-down about the edges of the lake ; and lights were projected like long red rockets into the deeps below. The dark indefiniteness of trees and hills shut out the world beyond. Now and then the ghost of a boating-song came to them across the silence, or laughter that might have been Puck ' s own. The girls had been discussing a story in the Magazine. They were silent now. Nell ' s thoughts were with the tentative chicks in the incubator. Ruth was drink- ing in the night with eyes and ears and heart. But the girl in the bow was less fickle. ' Do you really mean that you would not have married him ? she persisted, referring to their recent conversation. Nell awoke from her troubled thoughts and replied with energy. My dear, I mean to say that I don ' t

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A Question of Science 3 How can you spend so much time over those ? she asked one day, as a friend boxed a new butterfly and swung her net over her shoulder. They are interesting, I suppose, but they are so small. Now I like the higher animals ; they are nearer to Man. Oh, I ove Man ! Four merry laughs broke the June still- ness and Nell looked from one of her friends to another, making a vain effort to understand. ' ' Pity they are so few here, sighed a coquettish maiden ; and Nell understood. Bah ! she said with scorn, ' ' I mean Ma7i, embracing Woman, of course ! The silence rang again, and a crew of ram-rod maidens on the lake nearly dislo- cated their eyes in the vain endeavor to gain a clew to so huge a joke. That same evening Ruth lay in the stern of a cedar boat and a girl with senti- mental eyes occupied the bow. Nell rested her oars and mentally considered the tem- perature of the incubator in the Zoology Office. She had forgotten to read the

Page 17 text:

A Question of Science care for the modern story. The girl al- ways gets herself married unless her lover dies and no one is left to console her. Then they call it a tragedy. If the girl has a profession of her own it is the same. It does n ' t seem to count that she has taken up a work in the world and has spent years in learning the best ways to accomplish it. All that goes for nothing, and it is a matter of course that she will marry the first man who falls in love with her and whom she finds passably agree- able. And yet there are more than enough women without professions to marry all the men in the world. This particular girl had no time to marry. More people needed her than just that man, but of course she sacrified them all. ' ' I suppose you will never marry, pur- sued the other. Have you a grudge against men in general? Oh, no, said Nell, in a lighter tone. They are agreeable enough, I dare say. Still, I think I can make shift to do with- out them.