cussed not ownership, but which museum to put them in.
When a man has nothing to give a woman, is dependent wholly on his
personal attraction, his courtship is under limitations.
They were considering these two things: the advisability of making the
Great Change; and the degree of personal adaptability which would best
serve that end.
Here we had the advantage of our small personal experience with those
three fleet forest girls; and that served to draw us together.
As for Ellador: Suppose you come to a strange land and find it pleasant
enough--just a little more than ordinarily pleasant--and then you find
rich farmland, and then gardens, gorgeous gardens, and then palaces
full of rare and curious treasures--incalculable, inexhaustible, and
then--mountains--like the Himalayas, and then the sea.
I liked her that day she balanced on the branch before me and named the
trio. I thought of her most. Afterward I turned to her like a friend
when we met for the third time, and continued the acquaintance. While
Jeff's ultra-devotion rather puzzled Celis, really put off their day
of happiness, while Terry and Alima quarreled and parted, re-met and
re-parted, Ellador and I grew to be close friends.
We talked and talked. We took long walks together. She showed me things,
explained them, interpreted much that I had not understood. Through her
sympathetic intelligence I became more and more comprehending of the
spirit of the people of Herland, more and more appreciative of its
marvelous inner growth as well as outer perfection.
I ceased to feel a stranger, a prisoner. There was a sense of
understanding, of identity, of purpose. We discussed--everything. And,
as I traveled farther and farther, exploring the rich, sweet soul of
her, my sense of pleasant friendship became but a broad foundation for
such height, such breadth, such interlocked combination of feeling as
left me fairly blinded with the wonder of it.
As I've said, I had never cared very much for women, nor they for
me--not Terry-fashion. But this one--
At first I never even thought of her "in that way," as the girls have
it. I had not come to the country with any Turkish-harem intentions,
and I was no woman-worshipper like Jeff. I just liked that girl "as a
friend," as we say. That friendship grew like a tree. She was SUCH a
good sport! We did all kinds of things together. She taught me games and
I taught her games, and we raced and rowed and had all manner o
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