Or she may have loved
truly some man who loved another. Or nothing may ever have happened
to awaken conscious love in her, in which case it is still possible
that her nature may cry out at times for the satisfaction of its
primary needs. And while all this is true, she is conventionally
supposed never to show by any sign that she would have liked to be
married. However much she may suffer it is held unseemly for her to
show that she suffers, or to ask for sympathy. She is often, and I
think quite indefensibly, denied by social convention the stimulus of
any really intimate friendships with men. She is made the subject of
uncounted third-rate jokes. And if, as life goes on, she develops
peculiarities of manner or asperities of temper--if she begins to lose
vitality and grace, these things are noted with contempt by people who
little imagine how much real heroism may lie concealed in the object of
their scorn. I believe, however, that I speak for a very large number
of men when I confess that nothing kindles in me quite the same
flame of resentment at things as they are, as just this fact that so
many gracious and kindly women, plainly made for motherhood and fitted
for a fine part in life, should find themselves held in the clutches of
this insistent problem.
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