ump upon the hard
world of fact was an atrociously hard one. Some women pour passer le
temps find pleasure in playing thus with young hopes and hearts as
carelessly as though they were mere tennis-balls, to be whacked about
and rallied, and volleyed hither and yon, without regard to their
constituent ingredients, and then when trouble comes, and a catastrophe
is imminent, the refuge of "only a boy" is sought as though it really
afforded a sufficient protection against "responsibility." The most of
us would regard the hopeless infatuation of a young girl committed to
our care, either as parents or as guardians, for a middle-aged man of
the world with such horror that drastic steps would be taken to stop it,
but we are not so careful of the love-affairs of our sons, and view with
complaisance their devotion to some blessed damozel of uncertain age,
comforting ourselves with the reflection that he is "only a boy"
and will outgrow it all in good time. (There's another mem. for
my legislative career--a Bill for the Protection of Boys, and the
Suppression of Old Maids Who Don't Mean Anything By It.)

I don't mean, in saying all this, to reflect in any way upon the many
helpful friendships that exist between youngsters developing into
manhood and their elders among women who are not related to them. There
have been thousands of such friendships, no doubt, that have worked
for the upbuilding of character; for the inspiring in the unfolding
consciousness of what life means in the young boy's being of a deeper,
more lasting, respect for womanhood than would have been attained to
under any other circumstances, but that has been the result only when
the woman has taken care to maintain her own dignity always, and
to regard her course as one wherein she has accepted a degree of
responsibility second only to a mother's, and not a by-path leading
merely to pleasure and for the idling away of an unoccupied hour.
Potential manhood is a difficult force to handle, and none should embark
upon the parlous enterprise of arousing it without due regard for the
consequences. We may not let loose a young lion from its leash, and,
when dire consequences follow, excuse ourselves on the score that we
thought the devastating feature was "only a cub."

These things flashed across my mind as I sat in Goward's room watching
the poor youth in his nerve-distracting struggles, and, when I thought
of the tangible evidence in hand against Aunt Elizabeth, I