"Whether it is or not, I am living it and I rather enjoy it. Your vexing
problems of life never disturb me. I do not think I am called to turn
this great world 'right side up with care,' and so I float along singing
as I go,

"I'd be a butterfly born in a bower
Kissing every rose that is pleasant and sweet,
I'd never languish for wealth or for power
I'd never sigh to have slaves at my feet."

"Such a life would never suit me, life must mean to me more than ease,
luxury and indulgence, it must mean aspiration and consecration,
endeavor and achievement."

"Well, Belle, should we live twenty years longer, I would like to meet
you and see by comparing notes which of us shall have gathered the most
sunshine or shadow from life."

"Yes Jeanette we will meet in less than twenty years, but before then
your glad light eyes will be dim with tears, and the easy path you have
striven to walk will be thickly strewn with thorn; and whether you
deserve it or not, life will have for you a mournful earnestness, but
notwithstanding all your frivolity and flippancy there is fine gold in
your character, which the fire of affliction only will reveal."




Chapter III