ers. They are her servants to take her out
riding,--which is driving,--to give her flowers and candy. The last two
items are expensive, and this is good for the young man, as teaching him
to value friendship that costs a little in cash and may necessitate
economy on the cigar side. As to the maiden, she is taught to respect
herself, that her fate is in her own hands, and that she is the more
stringently bound by the very measure of the liberty so freely accorded
to her. Wherefore, in her own language, "she has a lovely time" with
about two or three hundred boys who have sisters of their own, and a
very accurate perception that if they were unworthy of their trust a
syndicate of other boys would probably pass them into a world where
there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage. And so time goes till
the maiden knows the other side of the house,--knows that a man is not a
demi-god nor a mysteriously veiled monster, but an average, egotistical,
vain, gluttonous, but on the whole companionable, sort of person, to be
soothed, fed, and managed--knowledge that does not come to her sister in
England till after a few years of matrimony. And then she makes her
choice. The Golden Light touches eyes that are full of comprehension;
but the light is golden none the less, for she makes just the same
sweet, irrational choices that an English girl does. With this
advantage: she knows a little more, has experience in entertaining,
insight into the businesses, employ, and hobbies of men, gathered from
countless talks with the boys, and talks with the other girls who find
time at those mysterious conclaves to discuss what Tom, Ted, Stuke, or
Jack have been doing. Thus it happens that she is a companion, in the
fullest sense of the word, of the man she weds, zealous for the interest
of the firm, to be consulted in time of stress and to be called upon for
help and sympathy in time of danger. Pleasant it is that one heart
should beat for you; but it is better when the head above that heart has
been thinking hard on your behalf, and when the lips, that are also very
pleasant to kiss, give wise counsel.

When the American maiden--I speak now for the rank and file of that
noble army--is once married, why, it is finished. She has had her lovely
time. It may have been five, seven, or ten years according to
circumstances. She abdicates promptly with startling speed, and her
place knows her no more except as with her husband. The Queen is dead,