"It is a big problem, and must be gripped. I have many invitations, enough to fill six months at least, but I've refused them all! I can't frivol with that big question unsolved, so I'm going away quietly by myself to think it out. The friends here are keenly interested, and proffer advice, tinctured with consolation as follows: `Have you ever thought of dispensing? I knew a girl who had such a good post, and married the doctor. Of course you will marry, too, dear!'--`I'm told there's quite a big income to be made out of fashion designing' (Can't draw a line!). `Then you could go on with it at home if you married a poor man. Of course you'll marry.' ... `You might be a matron at Eton...' (Might I?) `How would you like to be a Cookery Demonstrator?' (Not at all!) `So useful when you marry.'--`Charity Organisation Offices need Secretaries. Couldn't you get your brother to get the Bishop to write to say you'd be suitable?' (Story-teller if he did! I shouldn't. Too much sympathy, and too little judgment, I'd give them money on the sly!) "`Dear Katrine! promise me _one_ thing,--that you will _not_ be tempted to go on the stage!' (Vicar's wife having seen me act charades at a mild tea fray.) `Wait patiently and trustfully, performing faithfully the little duties that arise, and in good time...' (_She means the curate_!!) "Oh, dear, it's funny, but I'm not laughing. I'm trying not to cry. In the horrid, ungrateful way we have, I realise for the first time how well off I've been; how comfortable, and snug, and independent, and--_necessary_! That's the crux of it all. I _was_ necessary--now I'm superfluous! "Well! here I am, you see, for the first time in twenty-six years really at grips with life, about to experience for myself the troubles and perplexities which so far have been mere matters of hearsay! I growsed and grizzled about the dulness of monotony, now I'm to taste uncertainty for a change. It may be very good for me; the vicar's wife says-- confidently!--that it will be. I can imagine myself pouring forth the most inspiriting sentiments to my next-door neighbour, similarly bound, but when _You_ write to me, _don't_ be inspiriting! I pray you, _don't_ make the best of it! Say that it's an unjust world; that brothers have _no right_ to get married, and chuck their sisters; that it's confoundedly hard lines, and that I'm a hardly used, unappreciated, despised, abandoned angel and martyr. That will buck me up, and give me courage to go on!