"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,

"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 interrupted 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 complimentary phrases

1

Most men think so fine, in dealing and speaking 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 pro

fessions 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.