through to him—he listened with admiration—with words of tender flattery, precious to her who was weak enough to care for such a rascal; and then he took it away to be "transcribed," as he said, and set out for the orchestra. He loved her, so the poor credulous soul thought!—and she trusted him—such an old story! He copied her opera in his own manuscript—stole it, in short, and left for the Continent, where he had it produced as his own composition. Had she complained, the law would have gone against her. She had no proof save that of her love. Before a grinning, jesting court of law she would have had to publish the secret of her heart. People would have shaken their heads and said, "Poor thing! A case of self-delusion and hysteria!" He himself would have shaken his dirty pate and said, "Poor soul! Mad—quite mad! Many women have had their heads turned likewise for love of me!" So it chances that only those "in the know" are aware of the story, and the man-Fraud is left unmolested; but it is a curious and suggestive fact that he produces no more operas.
There is one thing that women generally, in the struggle for intellectual free life, should always remember—one that they are too often apt to forget—namely, that the Laws, as they at present exist, are made by men, for men. There are no really stringent laws for the protection of women's interests except the Married Woman's Property Act, which is a great and needful boon. But take the following instances of the eccentricities of English law, both of which have come under my own knowledge as having occurred to personal
