shall be with a respect so sincere and an homage so true as to rob my
thoughts and quest of bold irreverence or of mere selfishness. Suppose
I am seeking my own good, my own salvation it may be, I am not seeking
to wrong her. Are not heaven's best gifts best won by giving all for
them? I would lay my manhood at her feet. I do not expect to earn her
or buy her, giving a quid pro quo. A woman's love is like the grace of
heaven--a royal gift; and the spirit of the suitor is more regarded
than his desert. Moreover, I do not propose to soil her life with the
evil world that I must daily brush against, but through her influence
to do a little toward purifying that world. Since this is but a dream,
I shall dream it out to suit me.

"That stalwart and elderly Friend who led me to this choice point of
observation is her father. The plump and motherly matron on the high
seat, whose face alone is a remedy for care and worry, is her mother.
They will invite me home with them when meeting is over. Already I see
the tree-embowered farmhouse, with its low, wide veranda, and old-
fashioned roses climbing the lattice-work. In such a fragrant nook, or
perhaps in the orchard back of the house, I shall explore the
wonderland of this maiden's mind and heart. Beyond the innate reserve
of an unsophisticated womanly nature there will be little reticence,
and her thoughts will flow with the clearness and unpremeditation of
the brook that I crossed on my way here. What a change they will be
from the world's blotted page that I have read too exclusively of
late!

"Perhaps it will appear to her that I have become smirched by these
pages, and that my character has the aspect of a printer at the close
of his day's tasks.