gentlemen. Maybe not. But we are men, and
we should find in you the true womanhood which is our salvation.'

"I can see him now, as he stood up so proudly, forgetting his
bashfulness in his righteous indignation,--and we all applauded him, I
am glad to say. The girl was offended with us all, and left the house
and sought another boarding place. In her stead came a real, true,
womanly girl. Full of fun, a real comrade, ready to join our sports, to
help us in every way possible, but always making us feel that we were
in honor bound to protect her from even a flirtatious thought. Every man
in the house was her friend, some of them, I am sure, her adorers, but
none ever ventured to approach her with familiarity. If she should meet
any of us to-day, she would not have to blush in the presence of her
husband and children at the memory of any happening of those days.

"This is the kind of a woman I want you to be, my daughter dear, a woman
realizing a woman's true place and power, as Ruskin says, 'Power to
heal, to redeem, to guide, to guard!' Just hand me the book and let me
read you a few words from his essay on War. 'Believe me!' he says, 'the
whole course and character of your lovers' lives is in your hand. What
you would have them be they shall be, if you not only desire but deserve
to have them so; for they are but mirrors in which you will see
yourselves imaged. If you are frivolous, they will be so also; if you
have no understanding of the scope of their duty, they will also forget
it; they will listen,--they can listen--to no other interpretation of it
than that uttered from your lips. Bid them be brave;--they will be brave
for you; bid them be cowards, and how noble soever they be, they will
quail for you. Bid them be wise, and they will be wise for you; mock at
their counsels and they will be fools for you, such, and so absolute is
your rule over them.' Isn't that a wonderful power that is in woman's
hands? And it is true, as he further says, just here: 'Whatever of the
best he can conceive, it is her part to be; whatever of the highest he
can hope, it is hers to promise; all that is dark in him she must purge
into purity; all that is failing in him she must strengthen into truth;
from her, through all the world's clamour, he must win his praise; in
her, through all the world's warfare, he must find his peace.'"

Helen sighed. "It is so much to ask," she said. "Has nothing been
written to the men, how they must he