or
young clerk. He admired Elsie and wanted to show her every attention,
but she knew his salary would not permit extravagance; so when he first
asked her to go to some public entertainment, he said he would come with
a carriage at the appointed time. At once she said decidedly, 'Then I
will not go. It is not far. If it is a fine night, we can walk. If it
rains, we can go on the street cars. You may send me a few flowers, but
we will not have an opera supper nor indulge in needless carriages!' Of
course he objected, and urged that he could afford it. 'But I can't,'
was her reply. And years after, when they were married, he confessed
that it was a great relief to him to be able to take her about in ways
that suited his purse and yet have no fear of being thought mean. Now he
can buy her everything her heart can desire; but he acknowledges that he
might not have been able to withstand the temptation had she in her
younger days desired pleasures beyond his power honorably to provide."

"Mother," said Helen after a pause, as two girls passed the house with
their arms about each other's waists. "Don't you think it silly for
girls to be so 'spooney'?"

"I certainly think it is in bad taste for them to be so publicly
demonstrative, and I could wish that girls might be friends with each
other more as boys are. Now, there are Paul and Winfield. Surely no
girls ever thought more of each other than these two boys, and yet I
fancy we would smile to see them embracing each other on all occasions,
as Lucy and Nellie do."

"I should say so! I've heard Paul say, 'Old Chap,' or seen Winfield give
Paul a slap on the shoulder; but they are never silly and they've been
friends for years. But Lucy and Nellie have only been so 'thick' for a
few weeks, and they'll fall out pretty soon. Lucy is always having such
lover-like friends and then quarreling with them. Now, she and Nellie
are going to have a mock wedding next week. They call themselves husband
and wife even now,--isn't that silly?"

"It is worse than silly,--I call it wrong," replied Mrs. Wayne. "Such
morbid friendships are dangerous, both to health and morals."

"To the health, mother? I don't see how that can be."

"No, I doubt if you can, but I hope that you will believe me when I tell
you they are dangerous. When girls are so demonstrative, when they claim
to stand to each other as man and woman, you may feel assured that the
relation is unnatural and that the drain upon th