go I read in the newspaper some foolish letters written by a
girl to a man. She never imagined that any one else would read them. Yet
here they were, in print, and the whole country was commenting on them.
They were all signed by some soubriquet such as 'Your darlingest Babe,'
or 'Little Jimmy,' and under the shield of such a signature she no doubt
felt safe. But a dark tragedy tore away the flimsy protection and every
one saw all her foolishness and sin."

Helen shuddered. "I believe I'll make it a rule," she said, soberly, "to
write only such things in my letters that I'd be willing to have printed
over my own name."

"That's a good resolution, and I hope you'll keep it. You can feel quite
certain that if you don't want to sign your own name to your letter
you'd better not write it.

"There are a number of suggestions I would like to make to you along the
line of your association with young men," said Mr. Wayne, after a pause.
"You have had no experience as yet, but in a few years you will be a
woman and maybe then you'll have no father or mother to give you
counsel. As you know, I don't want to shut you away from the society of
young men, but I want you to know how to make it of the greatest
advantage to you and to them.

"Do you know, dear, that women and girls always make the moral
standards which maintain in the society of which they form a part?"

Helen shook her head doubtfully. "I don't see how that can be," she
said, "for everybody says that women are better than men; and I am sure
boys do lots of things that we girls would never think of doing."

"Very true," replied Mr. Wayne, "but that is because the men and boys
set higher standards for the women and girls than they in turn set for
the men and boys. No boy would be seen in the street with a girl who was
smoking a cigar; yet girls, good girls too, let boys smoke in their
company. No matter how immoral a man may be, he always demands that the
women who belong to him, his wife, mother, sister or sweetheart, shall
be pure and above reproach. He will even claim that a wife's misconduct
sullies his honor; but she never claims that his immorality is her
responsibility. She will even marry a man whom she knows to be
dissipated, foolishly trusting that her love will reform him. A broken
heart and degenerate children too often prove how seriously she has
failed. Yes, dear, I am right in saying that women are to blame that men
do not have higher ideals and live