Yes, women must solidify their love into such a concrete form
that men can weigh and measure it, and decide for themselves whether
they want to--to climb to Heaven for it, or remain comfortable old
bachelors. We mustn't any more lead them into marriage blinded by the
overpowering gaseous fragrance called romantic love.
But, suppose I should lose all love for everybody in this queer quest
for enlightenment I have undertaken? Please, God, let a good man be in
Glendale, Tennessee, who will understand and protect me--no, that's the
wrong prayer! Protect him--no--both of us!
CHAPTER II
THE MAIDEN LANCE
A woman may shut her eyes, and put a man determinedly out of her heart,
and in two minutes she will wake up in an agony of fear that he isn't
there. Now, as I have decided that Glendale is to be the scene of this
bloodless revolution of mine--it would be awful to carry out such an
undertaking anywhere but under the protection of ancestral traditions--I
have operated Richard Hall out of my inmost being with the utmost
cruelty, on an average of every two hours, for this week Jane and I have
been in New York; and I have still got him with me.
I, at last, became determined, and chose the roof-garden at the Astor to
tell him good-by, and perform the final operation. First I tried to
establish a plane of common citizenship with him, by telling him how
much his two years' friendship across the waters had meant to me, while
we studied the same profession under the same masters, drew at the same
drawing-boards and watched dear old Paris flame into her jeweled
night-fire from Montmarte, together.
Pages:
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26