Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ WOMAN—THROUGH A MAN’S EYEGLASS WOMAN—THROUGH A MAN’S EYEGLASS BY MALCOLM C. SALAMAN WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY DUDLEY HARDY NEW YORK, 1892 PUBLISHED BY LOVELL, CORYELL & COMPANY 43, 45 AND 47 EAST TENTH STREET _To_ _HER WHO FIRST TAUGHT ME THE LOVABLENESS OF WOMAN_ _MY MOTHER_ _Several of these Ladies were informally and appropriately presented by the “Gentlewoman.” In somewhat new attire, however, they make their reappearance, joined by my Lady Fin-de-Siècle._ _CONTENTS_ PAGE PREAMBLE 1 THE LITTLE WIDOW 14 MY MOTHER 26 THE SOCIALLY AMBITIOUS WOMAN 38 THE DOMESTIC WOMAN 51 A MODERN LADY-NOVELIST 64 THE DISAPPOINTED SPINSTER 75 THE INDIVIDUAL WOMAN 86 THE SUBMISSIVE WOMAN 98 THE “AWFULLY JOLLY” GIRL 109 THE NUN 120 THE CHEERY WOMAN 132 THE UNCONJUGAL WOMAN 144 THE BUSY-IDLE WOMAN 156 THE SKITTISH OLD MAID 166 THE “SMART” WOMAN 177 THE GAMBLING WOMAN 189 A SINGER—AND HER MOTHER 201 THE “DEAREST FRIEND” 213 A “FIN-DE-SIÈCLE” WOMAN 224 WOMAN— THROUGH A MAN’S EYEGLASS _PREAMBLE_ Without woman man is nought; and the proverb, _Cherchez la femme_, though commonly urged with a cynical sneer, is as full of humane wisdom as any saying of Solomon. When I contemplate woman in the abstract, with all her divine gentleness and sympathy, and her essential spirituality, I feel that I must kneel and worship her from afar; but when I regard her in the concrete, with all those little weaknesses and vanities and sleight-of-mind tricks, which are as the electric wires through which man is brought into familiar and continuous communion with her then I feel that she is near to me, that we can meet on a common plane of humanity, and that the privilege of loving her is not beyond my reach. And to love woman is surely the highest privilege of life, and the noblest duty.