you can, why I should be afraid."

"Oh, I don't know! really I don't!" There was a troubled, perplexed note
in the English voice now. "Such notions are apt to get girls into
trouble, and lead them to some unhappy fate. Too much 'life'--as you
call it--must mean suffering, and sorrow, and many tears--and maybe,
_sin_!"

There was a shocked note in the voice of the young English matron as
she added the last word, and her voice sank to a whisper. But Paul
Zalenska heard, and smiled.

"Suffering, and sorrow, and many tears," repeated the American girl,
musingly, "and maybe--sin!" Then she went on, firmly, "Very well,
Alice, give me the suffering and sorrow, and many tears--and the sin,
too, if it must be, for we are all sinners of greater or less
degree--but at any rate, give me life! My life may still be far off in
the future, but when the time comes, I shall certainly know, and--I
shall _live_!"

"You are a peculiar girl, Opal, and--we don't say those things in
England."

"No, you don't say those things, you cold English women! You do not even
_feel_ them! As for sin, Alice, to my mind there can be no worse sin
under heaven than you commit when you give yourself to a man whom you do
not love better than you could possibly love any other. Oh, it is a
sin--it _must_ be--to sell yourself like that! It's no wonder, I think,
that your husbands are so often driven to 'the women we do not talk
about' for--consolation!"