I Would Give Up The Unessential; I

The Mother-women Seemed To Prevail That Summer At Grand Isle. It Was Easy To Know Them, Fluttering About With Extended, Protecting Wings When Any Harm, Real Or Imaginary, Threatened Their Precious Brood. They Were Women Who Idolized Their Children, Worshiped Their Husbands, And Esteemed It A Holy Privilege To Efface Themselves As Individuals And Grow Wings As Ministering Angels.

It Was Not Despair, But It Seemed To Her As If Life Were Passing By, Leaving Its Promises Broken And Unfulfilled. Yet There Were Other Days When She Listened, Was Led On And Deceived By Fresh Promises Which Her Youth Had Held Out To Her.

And Nature Takes No Account Of Moral Consequences, Of Arbitrary Conditions Which We Create, And Which We Feel Obliged To Maintain At Any Cost.

She's Got Some Sort Of Notion In Her Head Concerning The Eternal Rights Of Women.

I Would Give Up The Unessential; I Would Give My Money, I Would Give My Life For My Children; But I Wouldn't Give Myself.