Title: White Silk Gloves (A Small Steps, Small Words writing exercise)
Fandom: Little Women
Word count: 177
Rating: K +
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She has given up the dreams about white silk gloves to callused hands, hard from feeding, cleaning, washing, sowing. But it is prudent; it is right. No higher delight for a woman than to be needed, to be loved. To be a wife and a mother. Her own mother told her so.
And now Meg is a wife and a mother. It is her duty and joy to take care of her babies, her husband, her house, her garden, her pantry. To make a home of faded curtains and old creaking floors. She didn't inherit anything and nobody took her to Europe; she made everything by herself.
She takes pleasure and pride from small things, from the healthy ruddiness of her babies' cheeks, from her careful knitting, from the tidiness of her home. No higher delight -
Vanity is a sin and acting is not for women. Her sisters are the artists, the saints, the cosmopolitans. For them are the suitcases, the roses, the glittering rings, the white silk gloves.
She is the wife and the mother.