On this subject she was passionately in earnest; she knew
to a farthing the amount of her loss, and when I persisted in telling
her how you and I had parted, she only reiterated in a more angry manner
her former directions and assurances on this subject.
"After a very spare dinner she was more attentive to my trouble. She
said it had become a serious question in nearly all married lives--"
"I deny that, Jane. The large majority of women, I am sure, when they
marry do not hold themselves outraged and degraded by the consequences,
nor do they consider natural functions less honorable than social ones.
Money can release a woman from work, but it cannot release her from any
service of love."
"Men forget very easily the physical sufferings of wives. I love our
little Martha as well as, perhaps better than, you do, but I remember
clearly that for nearly a whole year I endured the solitude, sickness,
and acute suffering of maternity. And whatever else you do, you will
_never_ persuade me to like having children.
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