AN AUTHORESS ENTERTAINED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5667, 11 September 1896, Page 6 (Supplement)

AN AUTHORESS ENTERTAINED.

o When the Authors' Club was first started in London, it was decided that only men should be invited to become members. This appears to have caused some bitterness among women writers, it is uncertain whether from the desire of the hitter to take part in the promised socialities, or from their more impersonal feeling that an "Authors' Club" which included men only was a Blight on women's work in literature. In any case the ladies formed a " Writers' Club " of their own and have been successful in making it as popular as the other. Overtures of friendship have since been made, and the hatchet was finally buried a few weeks ago when the "Authors' Club" invited lira Hodgson Burnett, a vice-president of the " Writers' Club," to dine with them at the Holborn Eestaurant. The choice of Mrs Burnett was a very happy one. One can hardly imagine Mrs Humphry Ward toeing quite at home at such a gathering, and it would have been a little inconsistent with the dignity of the occasion to entertain, say, the authoress of "Molly Bawn" or of "Lady Audiey's Secret." Mrs Burnett come3 between the two, without either the flippancy of the second or the more sombre genius of the first. In replying to the toast of her health, the guest of the evening, who is described as being "dressed in masse? of fluffy chiffon, and with a tall osprey ' rising from her fair hair," showed herself anything but a "new woman" in the cant acceptance of the phrase. " I have never," she said, " yet discovered a good quality or a bad one which seemed to have a' gender. I have found, for instance, that if a man can be selfish, a woman (by paying strict attention to business) can be selfish also ; that if a man can break hi3 word, there are women who do not always keep theirs to the letter; that if there are women who are weak and illogical, there exist men who do not exactly embody perfect strength of mind and infallibility of reason. And I have found just as many men who keep all the commandments at once, and live simply and truly according to the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount — just as many men as women, and just as many women as men." Mrs Burnett drew a picture of a woman of the future who would combine the wisdom and * virtues of both sexes. " She will know all the things I have not learned, and she will be a woman wiser and more stately of mind than I could ever hope to be." In regard to this paragon one is inclined to agree with the Daily News in expressing pleasure that the present generation will adt be " there to see/j