lend;
But when the stalk is snapt, the rose must bend.
The tallest flower that skyward rears its head
Grows from the common ground, and there must shed
Its delicate petals. Cruel fate, too surely
That they should find so base a bridal bed,
Who lived in virgin pride, so sweet and purely.

She had a brother, and a tender father,
And she was loved, but not as others are
From whom we ask return of love,--but rather
As one might love a dream; a phantom fair
Of something exquisitely strange and rare,
Which all were glad to look on, men and maids,
Yet no one claimed--as oft, in dewy glades,
The peering primrose, like a sudden gladness,
Gleams on the soul, yet unregarded fades;--
The joy is ours, but all its own the sadness.

'Tis vain to say--her worst of grief is only
The common lot, which all the world have known
To her 'tis more, because her heart is lonely,
And yet she hath no strength to stand alone,--
Once she had playmates, fancies of her own,
And she did love them. They are past away
As fairies vanish at the break of day;
And like a spectre of an age departed,
Or unsphered angel woefully astray,
She glides along--the solitary-hearted.

Perhaps it is scarcely possible for you to imagine that a woman finds it
impossible to marry because of being too beautiful, too wise, and too
good. In Western countries it is not impossible at all. You must try to
imagine entirely different social conditions--conditions in which marriage
depends much more upon the person than upon the parents, much more upon
inclination than upon anything else. A woman's chances of marriage depend
very much upon herself, upon her power of pleasing and charming. Thousands
and tens of thousands can never get married. Now there are cases in which
a woman can please too much. Men become afraid of her. They think, "She
knows too much, I dare not be frank with her"--or, "She is too beautiful,
she never would accept a common person like me"--or, "She is too formal
and correct, she would never forgive a mistake, and I could never be happy
with her." Not only is this possible, but it frequently happens. Too much
excellence makes a misfortune. I think you can understand it best by the
reference to the very natural prejudice against over-educated women, a
prejudice founded upon experience and existing in all countries, even in
Japan. Men are not attracted to a woman because she