Not long since she had received an anonymous letter, written by some clerk out of employment, abusing her roundly for her encouragement of female competition in the clerkly world.

The taste of this epistle was as bad as its grammar, but they should hear it; she read it all through.

Now, whoever the writer might be, it seemed pretty clear that he was not the kind of person with whom one could profitably argue; no use in replying to him, even had he given the opportunity.

For all that, his uncivil attack had a meaning, and there were plenty of people ready to urge his argument in more respectable terms.

'They will tell you that, in entering the commercial world, you not only unsex yourselves, but do a grievous wrong to the numberless men struggling hard for bare sustenance.