band to drop
into her lap out of the skies like a ripe plum. She must bend destiny to
her purposes. She must make sacrifices, create opportunities, move
about, use the intelligence that God has given her. The world is full of
men who are half ready to marry--_she must turn the balance!_

"'Listen! If I were a lonely woman yearning for matrimony I would pick
out one of these eligible males and make him my own. I would make him
feel that the thing he wanted above all other things was to have me for
his wife. How would I do this? I would study his desires, his needs, his
weaknesses; I would make myself so necessary to him--as necessary as a
mother is to a child--that he couldn't get along without me. I tell you
it can be done, Pen, by the resistless power of the human will. The
trouble with most of us is that we don't want things hard enough. _If a
woman wants a husband hard enough she will get him--nothing can prevent
it!_'

"I smiled at these fantastic views, although I admit, that we women
ought to be more masters of our fates than we are. In my own case I
suppose it would have been better if I had left Julian of my own
volition, because it was right to leave him, instead of waiting for an
automobile accident to separate us.

"'Please be sensible, Kendall,' I protested. 'Give me thoughts that
apply to the world as it is, not extravagant fancies. You know perfectly
well that there are thousands, tens of thousands, of fairly attractive
women in all classes of society, especially in the wage earning class,
who have no chance to marry the kind of man they wish to marry. Besides,
there are a million more women than men in American. They can't all get
husbands, can they? There aren't enough men to go around. And there are
other thousands of wretched women tied to husbands who will not consent
to a divorce. What are all these unhappy women to do?'

"'Can't they get along without men?' he laughed.

"'Can men get along without women?' I answered, rather annoyed. Kendall
saw that I was serious and changed his tone.

"'Let me get this straight, Pen. If a woman longs for the companionship
of a man--you mean the intimate companionship? You are not talking about
platonic friendship?'

"'No, I mean the intimate companionship.'

"'And she cannot marry? Then what is she to do? Is that what you mean?'

"'Yes.'

"'Ah! Now we come to the heart of the discussion. You want to know if
there are cases where self-respecting women en