be
secluded in a room apart from the rest of the family. You will be
better able to judge of him if you see him with your brothers, if you
note his manner towards your mother, if you hear him converse with
your father, if you mark his conduct towards the younger children. He
will talk sense, if he can, when he meets your family, while in a
_tete-a-tete_ conversation with yourself he may be able to hide his
lack of wisdom under the glamour of sweet nothings and soft nonsense.

Then be yourself when he comes. Let him see you in your home life, at
your domestic duties, sewing, helping mother, reading to father,
caring for the little ones. Be an honest, free-hearted, companionable
girl, and put sentimentality out of mind. You can have many such
friends, and by and by, out of these you will probably find one whom
you admire more and more as time goes on. You hear his sentiments
always expressed in favor of truth and probity. You come to know
something of his business principles, you see his courtesy to old and
young, you learn of his home, his family, his social position, and out
of this intimate knowledge there springs the attachment, blended with
deep respect, which assures you that he is worthy of your heart and
hand, and indeed of your whole life.

Little by little the comradeship has grown more intimate. You have not
been sentimental. You have treated each other with respect, you have
maintained your self-respect, you have held a tight rein over your
fancies and emotions, but now you are convinced that you may allow
them to have sway. You begin to acknowledge to yourself that you love.

And he, too, begins to manifest a deeper interest in you. You see this
with a certain pride in the fact that he is not self-deceived He
knows you, has seen you in your daily life, has sounded the depth of
your intellect, knows of your religious beliefs, and in all he has
found you coming up to his ideals. His eye meets yours with a new
tenderness in its glance that touches you, because you know it is not
an earthly fire of passion that glows therein. It is you, the real,
immortal you, that he seeks; not merely the pleasures of sense through
you; and feeling the response in your own heart, your glance kindles
with the same divine fire, and your true selves have spoken to each
other. You have gradually grown into the knowledge of love. You have
not fallen in love. And yet there have been no words, and in maiden
shyness you await his sp