which ours is absorbed, will evolve an abnegation and a humility that
will lend a perfect Poise. The Gentleman is a man with perfect Sympathy,
Knowledge, and Poise.



Love and Faith

No woman is worthy to be a wife who on the day of her marriage is not
lost absolutely and entirely in an atmosphere of love and perfect trust;
the supreme sacredness of the relation is the only thing which, at the
time, should possess her soul. Is she a bawd that she should bargain?

Women should not "obey" men anymore than men should obey women. There
are six requisites in every happy marriage; the first is Faith, and the
remaining five are Confidence. Nothing so compliments a man as for a
woman to believe in him--nothing so pleases a woman as for a man to
place confidence in her.

Obey? God help me! Yes, if I loved a woman, my whole heart's desire
would be to obey her slightest wish. And how could I love her unless I
had perfect confidence that she would only aspire to what was beautiful,
true and right? And to enable her to realize this ideal, her wish would
be to me a sacred command; and her attitude of mind toward me I know
would be the same. And the only rivalry between us would be as to who
could love the most; and the desire to obey would be the one controlling
impulse of our lives.

We gain freedom by giving it, and he who bestows faith gets it back with
interest. To bargain and stipulate in love is to lose.