An Anarchist Woman

's Sa

e, in which the demand of the senses and the curiosity of the mind were equally represented, impelled her to act after act of recklessness and abandon. But, as in al

took away from it all quality of joy as well as of peace. If her sensuality and her despair had been all there was in her, or if these had constituted her main characteristics, this story would never have been written.

natural that the greater quality of personality that she possessed should attract the kind of love and social support needed essentially to justify to herself her instincts. When she was very young Marie secured the genuine love of two stro

's larger life was a woman whom she had met se

country. She had only a rudimentary education, and even now speaks broken English. But she was endowed with

iers did no essential harm to her and the other young girls of the place. These things were deemed laws of nature in her community. What would have been dreadful harm to a young American girl was only an occasional moment o

e and strong and was never out of a job. She never took any "sass" from he

anished all objectionable intruders. Her mistress had a married daughter, also living in the house, who at first was wont to give orders to Katie, and to interfere with her generally. One day Kat

Katie with contemp

side against me," she said, "you bet I

e's mistress liked to stay in bed and read novels, and this experience is the one described by Marie in a

unusually instinctive nature seemed to be given to Marie. She saw that Marie was not practical or energetic, and this probably intensified the interest felt by th

ugh she had had plenty of temporary and merely instinctive relations with the other se

olence or slowness. "Marie is so young," she would say, "almost a child; and we ought to go easy on her." She also looked after Marie's morals and tr

o come to the kitchen every day with meat. He was only s

then that I had to have him. I absolutely had to, but I think I did him no harm and he was certainly my salvation. But I didn't

y, and a sober and constant labourer. Katie had saved some money, in her careful German way, had even a bank-account of several hundred dollars. It was not an exciting marriage; neither of them was very youn

by Katie, but Nick was not so cordial. They knew about the girl's looseness, and in their tolerant Southern German way, they did not so much mind t

usly. Katie would laugh and call him an old fool. She couldn't fores

who gave her a social philosophy, though to be sure what would seem to most people a thoroughly perverse and subversive social

sensitive to the injustice of organised society, he had quit work and had become what he called an anarchist. His character was at that time quite formed, while the young girl's was not. It was he w