What I ought not to have said, yet now I

can never unsay it;

For there are moments in life, when the heart

is so full of emotion,

That if by chance it be shaken, or into its

depths like a pebble

Drops some careless word, it overflows, and

its secret,

Spilt on the ground like water, can never be

gathered together.

Yesterday I was shocked, when I heard you speak of Miles Standish,

Praising his virtues, transforming his very

defects into virtues,

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 subterra

nean 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 seek

ing 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 af

fronted 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

Than all the love he could give, were he twice the hero you think him."

Then she extended her hand, and Alden,

who eagerly grasped it,

Felt all the wounds in his heart, that were aching and bleeding so sorely,

Healed by the touch of that hand, and he said, with a voice full of feeling:

"Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all

who offer you friendship

Let me be ever the first, the truest, the near