... taught to curtsy and to dance because it pleased him to have a woman walk well and he believed dancing kept the figure supple. She was taught needlework because he thought it seemly for a woman to sew and he liked the line of the head and neck bent over an embroidery frame. She was taught to knit because he remembered that his mother had told him that delicate finger tips were daintily polished by an hour's knitting a day. He was—though he wouldn't have admitted it—proud of her slender hands—they looked exactly as his wife's had looked. ... — Little Miss By-The-Day • Lucille Van Slyke