"A FOOLISH WOMAN, THAT CAN'T LOOK BEYOND MY OWN FIRESIDE?

"Oh yes, I can; quite as far as you, and a great deal farther. But I
can't go out shopping a little with my dear friend Mrs. Wittles--what
do you laugh at? Oh, don't they? Don't women know what friendship
is? Upon my life, you've a nice opinion of us! Oh yes, we can--we
can look outside of our own fenders, Mr. Caudle. And if we can't,
it's all the better for our families. A blessed thing it would be
for their wives and children if men couldn't either. You wouldn't
have lent that five pounds--and I dare say a good many other five
pounds that I know nothing of--if you--a lord of the creation!--had
half the sense women have. You seldom catch us, I believe, lending
five pounds. I should think not.

"No: we won't talk of it to-morrow morning. You're not going to
wound my feelings when I come home, and think I'm to say nothing
about it. You have called me an inhuman person; you have said I have
no thought, no feeling for the health and comfort of my fellow-
creatures; I don't know what you haven't called me; and only for
buying a--but I sha'n't tell you what; no, I won't satisfy you there-
-but you've abused me in this manner, and only for shopping up to ten
o'clock. You've a great deal of fine compassion, you have! I'm sure
the young man that served me could have knocked down an ox; yes,
strong enough to lift a house: but you can pity him--oh yes, you can
be all kindness for him, and for the world, as you call it. Oh,
Caudle, what a hypocrite you are! I only wish the world knew how you
treated your poor wife!

"What do you say?