y shares the same fate. That is to say,
the topmost card overbalances the whole structure. It is usually the
hand of Reason that topples over Love's romantic tenement by crowning it
with the card of Common Sense. When we find Love has become a practical
reality, the discovery is often very unpleasant. We would rather not be
unhappy if we had the choice. Unfortunately, we haven't, and find
ourselves in that condition without exactly knowing how we drifted into
it. Drifters often discover Love to be a very practical reality, because
of unpleasant consequences. It is decidedly humiliating to find
ourselves in the toils of a siren the very reverse of our high ideal of
the personage who is to have the honour and glory of subjugating us.
This is one of Love's amusing little ways of proving that ideals are
really not important. The best and safest test of the reality of Love is
to ask yourself how much you have suffered on account of it. I don't
speak of such trifles as tears, heartaches, sleepless nights, fevers of
jealousy and despair, sacrifices, or discomforts, but of _real_ genuine
self-torment and mental torture which only this passion is capable of
inflicting on its victims. The most sceptical will acknowledge that its
powers in this line are only excelled by its apparent animosity. To
discover the life that completes and contents our own is not given to
many of us poor mortals. Here and there some fortunate individuals have
made that discovery--but they are rare--and not given to boasting on the
subject; yet though worldly wise folk scoff at love as a myth, I
question whether they could name any other passion of the heart which
has occupied so important a place in the world's history, which has
given life to all that is great and divine in art, or inspired such
deeds of heroism, self-sacrifice, and martyrdom. Before its patient
strength men have stood mute and wondering, and proud heads have bent in
reverence, and stern eyes grown dim. For Love is beautiful, despite
faults, and wise, despite follies. It alone of all human emotions can
lift our souls heavenwards, and make even life's thorny path a thing
of beauty.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: John Strange Winter's opinions.]

Love may be classed under several heads. The first, the great, the
unattainable, the one-sided, and the worn-out. They are all real! What
can be more real than the perhaps not very practical passion which first
makes you