o tell the truth about
sentimental things, it is because you men have made them so,' I replied
with feeling.

"Kendall answered good-naturedly that he held no brief for his own sex,
he acknowledged that men treat women abominably--lie to them, abandon
them, and so on; but he kept to his point that women create many of
their troubles by drifting back and forth aimlessly on the changing tide
of their emotions instead of establishing some definite goal for their
lives.

"'Women yield to every sentimental impulse--that is why they weep so
easily. Watch them at a murder trial--they weep for the victim, then
they weep for the murderer. Half their tears are useless. If women would
put into constructive thinking some of the vital power they waste in
weeping and talking they could revolutionize the world.'

"'Could they reform the men?' I retorted, but when he tried to answer I
stopped him. What was the use? I knew what he would say about this, and
I really wanted to get his ideas on the other point.

"'Come back to the question,' I said. 'Take the case of a well-bred
woman surrounded by stifling, conventional influences of family and
friends, who sees lonely years slipping by while nothing comes that
satisfies her womanhood. She may have money enough, comforts, even
luxuries, but she longs for the companionship of a man. What is she to
do?'

"He answered with his usual positiveness:

"'She must take the initiative. She must go after what she supremely
wants, just as a man would, using her power--I assume that she is
reasonably attractive. She must break through restraints, and drive
ahead towards the particular kind of emotional happiness that suits her.
That is what God created her for, to achieve by her own efforts this
emotional happiness. If she wants it enough she can get it. We can all
of us do anything, have anything on condition that we want it enough to
pay the price for it. The price is usually the elimination of other
things that interfere.'

"'Suppose a woman wants a husband? Suppose she is forty--and not rich?
Do you mean to say she can get a husband?'

"Here my poet, blazing with conviction, leaned towards me, pointing an
emphatic forefinger.

"'I tell you, Penelope Wells, it is possible for any reasonably
attractive woman _up to forty-five_ to get a reasonably satisfactory
husband if she will work to get him as a man works to make money. She
can't sit on a chair and twirl her thumbs and wait for a hus