e heard
married women talk."

"Not the same; they haven't the heart. People cannot talk if their
own hearts are sore. That's why we want to keep you light-hearted and
carefree. I wish you would promise me, Pearl, that you won't marry."

Pearl hesitated, hardly knowing how to meet this.

"That's asking a lot, Mrs. Paine. Every girl hopes to marry some
time," she said, at last, and if the light had been better Mrs. Paine
would have seen the color rising in Pearl's cheeks; "And you are wrong
in thinking that all men are mean and selfish. My father is not. We've
been poor and all that, but we're happy. My father has never shirked
his share of the work, and he has only one thought now, and that is to
do well for us. There are plenty of happy marriages. I--can't promise
not to but there's no danger yet--I have no notion of it."

"All right, Pearl," said Mrs. Paine, "keep away from it. Some way I
can't bear to think of you tied down with a bunch of kids, and all
your bright ways dulled with hard work and worry. Well, anyway, you'll
talk about it--about the vote I mean."

"All the time," Pearl laughingly responded. "Wherever two or three
gather Pearl Watson will rise and make a few remarks unless some one
forcibly restrains her. I will promise that--that's easy."

When Pearl walked home that night the moon was trying to shine through
a gray rag of a cloud that was wrapped around its face. The snow on
the road caught the muffled rays of light, and she could see her way
quite well after her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness. There was
a close, protecting feeling about the gray darkness that suited her
mood. It was a comfortable, companionable night, with a soft air full
of pleasant sounds of dogs barking, and sleigh-bells, and with the
lights in the neighbors' houses for company. Pearl was not conscious
of fear. All her life she had gone about in the night as fearlessly as
by day.

Mrs. Paine's words troubled her. Was it possible life could be as dull
and drab a thing as it seemed to her. Perhaps, though, she had never
been in love! She had married because she did not want to be an old
maid. Only love can redeem life from its common-place monotony. Maybe
that was why things had gone wrong.

She thought about Mrs. Paine's words about being tied down with
children and hard work, and how she had pleaded with her to be warned!
Pearl tried to make the warning real and effective--tried to harden
her heart and fill it with