II. TROUBLE OF LOVE: THE WOMAN'S I. The Lady in "The Glove" 215 II. Dis Aliter Visum; or, Le Byron De Nos Jours 224 III. The Laboratory 233 IV. In a Year 237 PART IV THE WIFE I. A WOMAN'S LAST WORD 245 II. JAMES LEE'S WIFE 250 I. She Speaks at the Window 254 II. By the Fireside 256 III. In the Doorway 257 IV. Along the Beach 258 V. On the Cliff 261 VI. Reading a Book, under the Cliff 262 VII. Among the Rocks 265 VIII. Beside the Drawing-board 268 IX. On Deck 271 PART V TROUBLE OF LOVE: THE MAN'S I. THE WOMAN UNWON 277 II. THE WOMAN WON 304 PART I [Illustration: GIRLHOOD] BROWNING'S HEROINES INTRODUCTORY Browning's power of embodying in rhythm the full beauty of girlhood is unequalled by any other English poet. Heine alone is his peer in this; but even Heine's imagination dwelt more fondly on the abstract pathos and purity of a maiden than on her individual gaiety and courage. In older women, also, these latter qualities were the spells for Browning; and, with him, a girl sets forth early on her brave career. That is the just adjective. His girls are as brave as the young knights of other poets; and in this appreciation of a dauntless gesture in women we see one of the reasons why he may be called the first "feminist" poet since Shakespeare. To me, indeed, even Shakespeare's maidens have less of the peculiar iridescence of their state than Browning's have, and I think this is because, already in the modern poet's day, girlhood was beginning to be seen as it had never been seen before--that is, as a "thing-by-itself." People had perceived--dimly enough, but with eyes which have since grown clearer-sighted--that there is a stage in woman's development which ought to be her very own to enjoy, as a man enjoys _his_ adolescence. This dawning sense is explicit in the earlier verses of one of Browning's most original utterances, _Evelyn Hope_, which is the call of a man, many years older, to the mysterious soul of a dead young girl-- "Sixteen years old when she died! Perhaps she had hardly heard my name; It was not her time to love; beside, Her life had many a hope and aim, Duties enough and little cares, And now was quiet, now astir . . ."