Thirteen Years of a Busy Woman's Life

“Existence became utterly unendurable,” he continued, “worries heaped upon one another until the strain was unbearable, and then, to crown all, a terrible disease took possessio...

But how is one to be interesting about such commonplace events as being born and vaccinated, cutting one’s first tooth or having measles and whooping-cough? They are all so unev...

Looking back, over thirteen years of exacting professional work, beginning in 1896—the sad cause and necessity for which will be told later—my destiny seems to have been that of...

My brother was ill after completing his medical education, and wanted a holiday. Not having the slightest idea where to go, Iceland was suggested. To Cook’s I then went. The you...

After he took his degree, Vaughan had worked with Pasteur in Paris for some time at the table next Professor Sophus Torop. They thus became friends, and when my brother wished t...

Those early days of married life were very gay. We entertained tremendously. We went out enormously. We lived in a perfect social whirl. I enjoyed the privilege of wearing prett...

Schopenhauer says happiness is only a delusion of youth and childhood; anyway, my work now began. Hard work; collar-work, uphill and unceasing. The work of a professional woman,...

Number 25, Harley Street, is the residence of Doctor George Harley, F.R.S., the mention of whose name will at once recall to the readers of _Home_ “My Ghost Story”—so weird a na...

Sir Walter Besant was the very embodiment of this spirit of helpfulness, not only to me personally, but also to the literary world at large, and it was he who conceived the idea...

To would-be scribblers I would say journalism is a bagatelle in comparison with the production of a book. The main axiom for a book is _Write what you know about_. If you live w...

Once I thought the grandest thing in the world would be to write a book. It appeared the acme of desire. To see one’s name on a cover, oh, the joy of it! I trembled with fear an...

The close of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth was the subject of much notice both in drawing-room talks and articles in the papers. The latter recapitul...

One day in July, 1900, I was explaining to my small boys that I was going off through Canada and America to Mexico to write a new book, to make some more money for bread and but...

The fact of having committed a book into printer’s ink lays one open to curious correspondence. I am sure there are autograph hunters who seek the appearance of each new writer,...

It has been rather amusing to sit to various artists; they have such different ways of working. When Herbert Schmalz did my portrait (1894) he was busy upon those enormous relig...

Few experiences are more interesting than sitting for a bust. There is something enthralling in seeing great lumps of clay flung about in a promiscuous manner, and then gently m...

James Mcneill Whistler was a foremost figure in the artistic world, and he always struck me as the most curiously satanic gentleman I ever saw. He cultivated an upward turn of h...

But even that is capable of explanation. The man on the doorstep held a letter in his hand addressed to me by name, but only vaguely “Glasgow” otherwise. With the usual brillian...

The “late” (or, as diplomacy ungraciously calls such, “ancient”) Chinese Minister to London, Lord Li Ching Fong, did much to cement a friendly feeling between the East and the W...

This was amusingly borne in on me just after my boy had gone to Cambridge. A particular play with a particularly fascinating actress in the principal part was announced for prod...

Woman nowadays. Poor dear! How she is abused, derided, called this, that, and the other—but she goes steadily on her own way, and she is forging ahead. This will be woman’s cent...

America is a vast country, likewise a vast subject to tackle. Everything there is vast, its mercantile projects, its successes, its catastrophes—but, above all, it possesses a v...

On September 1st, 1900, I landed at Quebec, with introductions from the late Governor-General of Canada (the Earl of Aberdeen), to be warmly welcomed by the great historian of t...

Half the public dinners are attended by women nowadays, and yet women did not even dine at the tables of their lords and masters in the eighteenth century. They then took a back...

My dinner slips and their history would fill a volume, therefore they must be laid aside just now. Suffice it to say that as a bride I conceived the idea of asking celebrated me...

A truce to work. Even adversity has its sweets. After tasks should come whatever pleases best, the toiler has earned a play-hour. A lover of pageant, I will now describe what to...

Do you ever jot? If not, pray allow me to introduce you to one of the least expensive and most repaying domestic hobbies. I am myself a most inveterate jotter, both by pen and b...

Naturally, nurse’s breath was somewhat taken away, and she did not know what to answer, when suddenly reassurance came from the small boy. “It is all right. We are connected aga...

This was an inspiration, and accordingly one hundred and ninety-six parcels were packed up against the side of a London house. They stood four or five feet high. Having told the...

A deal of ink had run from my pen in thirteen years—thirteen books had been turned out, and thousands of odd articles, there was hardly a paper or magazine in the country to whi...

Does the hand lose its cunning? I had practically given up all forms of rapid journalism, when, on November 24th, 1910, I was suffering from a cold (which had, by the way, preve...