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Praising his courage and strength, and even his fighting in Flanders,

As if by fighting alone you could win the heart of a woman,

Quite overlooking yourself and the rest, in exalting your hero.

Therefore I spake as I did, by an irresistible impulse.

You will forgive me, I hope, for the sake of

the friendship between us,

Which is too true and too sacred to be so

easily broken!"

Thereupon answered John Alden, the scholar,

the friend of Miles Standish:

"I was not angry with you, with myself alone I was angry,

Seeing how badly I managed the matter I had

in my keeping."

"No!" interrupted the maiden, with answer prompt and decisive;

"No; you were angry with me, for speaking

so frankly and freely.

It was wrong, I acknowledge; for it is the

fate of a woman

Long to be patient and silent, to wait like a

ghost that is speechless,

Till some questioning voice dissolves the spell of its silence.

Hence is the inner life of so many suffering

women

Sunless and silent and deep, like subterranean

rivers

Running through caverns of darkness, unheard, unseen, and unfruitful,

Chafing their channels of stone, with endless

and profitless murmurs."

Thereupon answered John Alden, the young

man, the lover of women:

"Heaven forbid it, Priscilla; and truly they seem to me always

More like the beautiful rivers that watered the garden of Eden,

More like the river Euphrates, through deserts

of Havilah flowing,

Filling the land with delight, and memories

sweet of the garden!"

"Ah, by these words, I can see," again inter

rupted the maiden,

"How very little you prize me, or care for

what I am saying.

When from the depths of my heart, in pain

and with secret misgiving,

Frankly I speak to you, asking for sympathy only and kindness,

Straightway you take up my words, that are plain and direct and in earnest,

Turn them away from their meaning, and

answer with flattering phrases.

This is not right, is not just, is not true to the best that is in you;

For I know and esteem you, and feel that your nature is noble,

Lifting mine up to a higher, a more ethereal level.

Therefore I value your friendship, and feel it

perhaps the more keenly

If you say aught that implies I am only as

one among many,

If you make use of those common and com

plimentary phrases

Most men think so fine, in dealing and speak

ing with women,

But which women reject as insipid, if not as insulting."

Mute and amazed was Alden; and listened and looked at Priscilla,

Thinking he never had seen her more fair, more divine in her beauty.

He who but yesterday pleaded so glibly the cause of another,

Stood there embarrassed and silent, and seeking in vain for an answer.

So the maiden went on, and little divined or imagined

What was at work in his heart, that made him

so awkward and speechless.

"Let us, then, be what we are, and speak

what we think, and in all things

Keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the sacred

professions of friendship.

It is no secret I tell you, nor am I ashamed to declare it:

I have liked to be with you, to see you, to

speak with you always.

So I was hurt at your words, and a little

affronted to hear you

Urge me to marry your friend, though he were

the Captain Miles Standish.

For I must tell you the truth: much more to me is your friendship

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