plus beau et le plus précieux de leurs avantages, celui d'être
utiles.'_ But hundreds of other quotations will occur to you, written
by thoughtful men and women in all ages, and all to the same effect;
it is impossible to over-estimate their restraining and refining
influence as the companions and mothers of men--and almost equally
impossible to make them realise their responsibility or care to use
their strength. I would have every woman feel herself a power for good
in the land--and if only half of them did, what a world of difference
it would make to everybody's health and happiness! But women should,
as a rule, be silent powers. There are, of course, occasions when they
_must_ speak--and all honour to those who do so when the need
arises--but our influence is most felt when it is quietly persistent
and unobtrusive. There is no social reform that we might not
accomplish if we agreed among ourselves to do it, and then worked,
each of us using her influence to that end in her own family, and
among her own friends, only. I once induced some ladies to try a
little experiment to prove this. At that time the gentlemen of our
respective families were all wearing a certain kind of necktie. We
agreed to banish the necktie, and in a month it had disappeared, and
not one of those gentlemen was ever able to tell us why he had given
it up. We don't deserve much credit for our ingenuity, though," she
added, lightly. "Men are so easily managed. All you have to do is to
feed them and flatter them."

"I think that hardly fair," I commented.

"What? The feeding and flattering?"

"No, the conspiracy."