Especially it will be so, if other
good but uninformed and thoughtless women are going to cry out upon it,
as you and Julia did the other day. Whether the experiment is to succeed
or not depends, under Providence, very much on you and such as you. But
if that sort of outcry is to be raised, it will probably have the effect
of keeping out of the profession such women as, from their integrity,
ability, culture, and breeding, could be ornaments to it, and leave us
shallow and low-minded smatterers, that I wouldn't trust with the life
of a canary-bird,--who will ask which is likely to be the most lucrative
calling, medicine or millinery, and take their choice accordingly,--and,
for want of better, poor dupes will employ them. If you can't bear
female practitioners, you'll have to bear female _quack_titioners." He
paused and looked at me.
I knew how jealous he always was for the honor of his craft. He did not
often come so near giving me a scolding; and I began to be afraid I
might deserve one, though I could not see how. "I am sorry," said I; "I
did not mean--I did not think--I did not know--"
"Precisely, kitten on the hearth," returned he, good-humoredly; "and as
you _are_ sorry, and as you are besides usually rather less unmeaning
and unthinking and unknowing than most other chits of your age, I
forgive you.
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