"
"And suppose she repeats her mother's experience," suggested Joan.
"There were the Norton-Browns," answered Madge. "Impossible to have
found a more evenly matched pair. They both write novels--very good
novels, too; and got jealous of one another; and threw press-notices at
one another's head all breakfast-time; until they separated. Don't know
of any recipe myself for being happy ever after marriage, except not
expecting it."
"Or keeping out of it altogether," added Joan.
"Ever spent a day at the Home for Destitute Gentlewomen at East Sheen?"
demanded Madge.
"Not yet," admitted Joan. "May have to, later on."
"It ought to be included in every woman's education," Madge continued.
"It is reserved for spinsters of over forty-five. Susan Fleming wrote an
article upon it for the _Teacher's Friend_; and spent an afternoon and
evening there. A month later she married a grocer with five children.
The only sound suggestion for avoiding trouble that I ever came across
was in a burlesque of the _Blue Bird_. You remember the scene where the
spirits of the children are waiting to go down to earth and be made into
babies? Someone had stuck up a notice at the entrance to the gangway:
'Don't get born.
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