A
notion flashed across her that Lady Angleby might be talking nonsense,
but as her grandfather seemed to listen with deference, she could not be
sure.
"Girls ought to be trained in logic, geometry, and physical science to
harden their mental fibre; and how can they be so trained if their
education is to cease at eighteen?" Then with a modest tribute to her
own undeveloped capacities, the great lady cried, "Oh, what I might have
done if I had enjoyed the advantages I claim for others!"
"You don't know. You have never yet been thrown on your own resources,"
said Bessie with an air of infinite suggestion.
Lady Angleby stared in cold astonishment, but Bessie preserved her gay
self-possession. Lady Angleby's cold stare was to most persons utterly
confusing. Miss Burleigh, an inattentive listener (perhaps because her
state of being was always that of a passive listener), gently observed
that she had no idea what any of them would do if they were thrown on
their own resources.
"No idea is ever expected from you, Mary," said her aunt, and turned her
stony regard upon the poor lady, causing her to collapse with a silent
shiver. Bessie felt indignant. What was this towering old woman, with
her theory of feminine freedom and practice of feminine tyranny? There
was a momentary hush, and then Lady Angleby with pompous complacency
resumed, addressing the squire:
"Our large scheme cannot be carried into effect without the general
concurrence of the classes we propose to benefit, but our pet plan for
proving to what women may be raised demands the concurrence of only a
few influential persons.
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