What was it all worth, this wilderness of men and women as monotonous as the brown stone houses they lived in?
In her despair she had resorted to desperate measures.

She had read philosophy in the original German, and the more she read, the more she was disheartened that so much culture should lead to nothing--nothing.
After talking of Herbert Spencer for an entire evening with a very literary transcendental commission-merchant, she could not see that her time had been better employed than when in former days she had passed it in flirting with a very agreeable young stock-broker; indeed, there was an evident proof to the contrary, for the flirtation might lead to something--had, in fact, led to marriage; while the philosophy could lead to nothing, unless it were perhaps to another evening of the same kind, because transcendental philosophers are mostly elderly men, usually married, and, when engaged in business, somewhat apt to be sleepy towards evening.

Nevertheless Mrs.Lee did her best to turn her study to practical use.

She plunged into philanthropy, visited prisons, inspected hospitals, read the literature of pauperism and crime, saturated herself with the statistics of vice, until her mind had nearly lost sight of virtue.

At last it rose in rebellion against her, and she came to the limit of her strength.