I hope the French will some day get a word for it, yet,
instead of their dreadful "femme." But what do you think it comes
from?
DORA. I never did think about it.
L. Nor you, Sibyl?
SIBYL. No; I thought it was Saxon, and stopped there.
L. Yes, but the great good of Saxon words is, that they usually do
mean something. Wife means "weaver". You have all the right to
call yourselves little "housewives," when you sew neatly.
DORA. But I don t think we want to call ourselves 'little
housewives'.
L. You must either be house-wives, or house-moths; remember that.
In the deep sense, you must either weave men's fortunes, and
embroider them, or feed upon, and bring them to decay. You had
better let me keep my sewing illustration, and help me out with
it.
DORA. Well, we'll hear it, under protest.
L. You have heard it before, but with reference to other matters.
When it is said, "no man putteth a piece of new cloth on an old
garment, else it taketh from the old," does it not mean that the
new piece tears the old one away at the sewn edge?
DORA. Yes; certainly.
L. And when you mend a decayed stuff with strong thread, does not
the whole edge come away sometimes, when it tears again?
DORA. Yes; and then it is of no use to mend it any more.
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