The San Francisco call., 1904-07-24

ly feminine, modern progreas pro-
duction having the medieval knight
errant for prototype. although there is
a little of that sometimes in the mo-
tives, which are mixed. Neither is
the woman errant what is meant by
the current term an erring woman,
but that she is a woman who errs is
evidently the opinion of the author.
The girl who is the woman errant of
the story did not baptize herself by
that title, but the thing happened
thus: She started TO tell Bradford,
university professor of literature,
what she was, L am'-(here the soft
voice hesitated for word-"a woman
errant," said Bradford. So the name
donated by the professor of literature
to the woman who hesitated about her
designation stuck. and to learn its full
significance means no less than read
ing Barbaras book.
After the girl lived through her err
rantry till the issues of life have made
definite show-up. Horace Bradford is
cornered in intellectual company and
deliberately challenged by Barbara to
define what he meant by the term
woman errant''; for the term has
haunted me of late and the people to
whom it is applied seem so widely diff
ferent. Is it woman who works,
who goes out to get her living, or is
it trite name for a pose ?" Bradford
is embarrassed by the difficulty of put
ting his meaning into the form of ex-
act words and can only say: 1T is a
subtle condition that 1 mean, rather
-
term for Interpretation to DR.. Russell,
who is Barbara's father, "a country
physician of culture and experience,
also a bookworm." Bradford stipu-
hates, 1T most certainly contains no
structures upon the workers of life"
mo, not upon work" said Dr. Rus
sell. for love and work are our justif-
cation for existence, coupled with the
faith that makes either possible. Yes.
'fide, amore, labore,' that is the posi-
tive trinity of life. It is not the doing
but the way of it that marks the
distinction to me. The woman errant,
God help her, 1t seems to me, is she
who either from choice. hazard or ne
cessity seeks a cause outside the pro-
tecting wall of her natural affections!"
The particular woman errant whom
the author has chosen chiefly to
delineate and give a name to the type
is Ivory Steele. An apt name, for
she is morally as white as ivory, in
heart as cold as steel and in intellect
like rapier made of the finest tenn
per of that metal. She despises the
prospects Of domesticity, and evidently
to the heart of Barbara, who is a
hearth lover dedieating her book to
some certainly adored, but merely
initiated Brave Home Maker" the
ivory steel girl is a barbarous breaker
of hearts and preventer of home
happiness that might be but for her
perverse vagaries of "all is vanity"
ambition. 1t was the way of her
doing it, that marks the distinction
of this woman errant from those who
are non-domestic, but not because of
such love-life challenging choice. She
had a father amply able and lovingly
willing to provide for her at home;
she had a mother who needed her at
tendance and companionship; she had
a most worthy lover whom she ac-
cepted, but put off from years end to
years end until it virtually amounted
to refusal; she declined to live in COM
panionship with the girls who ad-
mired her and proffered to dwell with
her. All this because the pride of
being independent and the call of a
possible clever career was the su-
preme appeal to her nature.
Thus the author shows us a type
of woman she dubs the woman errant
who must not be taken as an example
to prove that the home renouncers are
wholesalely wrong as a class.
Aside from its treatment of what are
the sensible limits of woman's sphere,
the book has much of the interest of