are a sample of the top notch of society. All that
many of them want is just the use of a young lady as a toy. And when
they use up the flower, like the bee, they go to another. As for real
manly worth, interesting, intelligent companionship, it is badly wanting
in many of them. Some very few are much better than the rest.

"You know, dear mother, it is not that I want to know a man as a man,
but it is natural that I should want and love an interesting male
companion. When I think what Penloe is, and then think how little and
insignificant I am, a mere child beside him, and only about four years
difference in our ages, it makes me feel discouraged."

"Penloe's talk this afternoon," said her mother, "shows that he does not
look at it in that way. Don't you remember his saying, 'I have traveled
much, been among people of royalty, title and nobility, have lived among
the rich, and great society leaders, also among great politicians,
learned men, spiritual giants, business people, also among the poor,
also the illiterate, the abandoned, the offscouring, and the outcasts of
society; and I have yet to see the person that is not as good as I.' So
you see he thinks that you are just as good as he. Now, dear, don't be
discouraged in the least. I know just how my daughter feels; she wants
Penloe as her life companion and wishes she could be to Penloe what he
is to her. Stella, dear, calm your mind and remember that if Penloe is
for you, you need not have the least anxiety about the matter; for there
is no power in the universe that can hinder your being made one. But if
he is not for you, then it does not matter how good or great, how grand
or noble he may be, how intellectually brilliant he may shine, he should
be the last man in the world you should think of as a life companion.
For if there is anything that is true it is those lines of Emerson:

"'Whate'er in Nature is thine own,
Floating in air or pent in stone,
Will rive the hills and swim the sea,
And like thy shadow follow thee.'

"Also remember the saying, 'My own will come to me.'"

Nothing more was said. Stella commenced reading "Woman's Freedom in
Tiestan," by Burnette. It occupied most of her spare time the next day,
and she finished it before supper, so that evening after supper Stella
said: "O, mother, I have finished reading 'Woman's Freedom in Tiestan.'
It is most interesting. Tiestan is a place little known to the Western
world, very few travel