The house-mother! what a beautiful, comprehensive word it is! how suggestive of all that is wise and kindly, comfortable and good! Surely, whether the lot comes to her naturally, in the happy gradations of wifehood and motherhood—or as the maiden-mistress of an adopted family,—or, as one could find many instances in this our modern England, when the possession of a large fortune, received or earned, gives her, with all the cares and duties, many of the advantages of matronhood—every such woman must acknowledge that it is a solemn as well as a happy thing to be the mistress of a family.

Easy, pleasant, and beautiful as it is to obey, development of character is not complete when the person is fitted only to obey. There comes a time in most women's lives when they have to learn how to govern—first, themselves, then those about them. I say, to learn; because it has to be learnt. Love of arbitrary power may come by instinct; as in the very youngest children you may see one fierce little spirit to which all the rest, whether older or younger, succumb: but to domineer and to rule are two distinct arts, proceeding often from totally opposite characters.

The most of women are, in their youth at least, by both habit and temperament, as I once heard it expressed by a very acute thinker—decidedly “adjective.”