But as life is full of
unforeseen contingencies, and as a woman may be so placed that she
cannot possibly both "guide the house" and earn her livelihood (what
leisure, for instance, could Mrs. Williams have with her eight
children?), young artists and young governesses should think twice
before they unite their destinies.
'You speak sense again when you express a wish that Fanny were placed
in a position where active duties would engage her attention, where
her faculties would be exercised and her mind occupied, and where, I
will add, not doubting that my addition merely completes your
half-approved idea, the image of the young artist would for the
present recede into the background and remain for a few years to come
in modest perspective, the finishing point of a vista stretching a
considerable distance into futurity. Fanny may feel sure of this: if
she intends to be an artist's wife she had better try an
apprenticeship with Fortune as a governess first; she cannot undergo
a better preparation for that honourable (honourable if rightly
considered) but certainly not luxurious destiny.
'I should say then--judging as well as I can from the materials for
forming an opinion your letter affords, and from what I can thence
conjecture of Fanny's actual and prospective position--that you would
do well and wisely to put your daughter out.
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