acquaintance with a self-styled critic.

Does this seem a small matter to you? Then you are mistaken. There are
few things more serious for a young woman than an unworthy or
undesirable acquaintance. She will be judged, not by her many correct
friends, but by her one incorrect one. Again, feeling fear of his power
to work her injury, she ceases really to be a free agent, and Heaven
knows what unwise concessions she may be flurried into; and of all the
dangers visible or invisible in the path of a good girl, the most
terrible is "opportunity." If you wish to avoid danger, if you wish to
save yourself some face-reddening memory, give no one the "opportunity"
to abuse your confidence, to wound you by word or deed. Ought I to point
out one other unpleasant possibility? Temptation may approach the
somewhat advanced young actress through money and power in the guise of
the "patron of Art"--not a common form of temptation by any means. But
what _has_ been may be again, and it is none the easier to resist
because it is unusual. When a young girl, with hot impatience, feels she
is not advancing as rapidly as she should, the wealthy "patron of Art"
declares it is folly for her to plod along so slowly, that he will free
her from all trammels, he will provide play, wardrobe, company, and
show the world that she is already an artist. To her trembling objection
that she could only accept such tremendous aid from one of her own
family, he would crushingly reply that "Art" (with a very big A) should
rise above common conventionalities; that he does not think of _her_
personally, but only the advance of professional "Art"; and if she must
have it so, why-er, she may pay him back in the immediate future, though
if she were the passionate lover of "Art" he had believed her to be, she
would accept the freedom he offered and waste no thought on "ways and
means" or "hows and whys."

Ah, poor child, the freedom he offers would be a more cruel bondage than
slavery itself! The sensitive, proud girl would never place herself
under such heavy obligations to any one on earth. She would keep her
vanity in check, and patiently or impatiently hold on her way,--free,
independent,--owing her final success to her own honest work and God's
blessing. Every girl should learn these hard words by heart, _Rien ne se
donne, tout se paye ici-bas!_ "Everything is paid for in this world!"

A number of young girls have asked me to give them some idea of the
dut