ringed round with thorns. And the thorns of the womanly rose are nothing but reticence, modesty, and purity." "A Girl's Musings"

And in her eyes a thousand wonderments and a question... and in her ear a thousand perplexities and an answer... As for her nerves, they are strung taut, quivering like an echo... and the visions add to her misery... So she writhed, feeling with man... how he suffers and gives pain... how he hungers and is filled... how he doubts and believes... She kept pace with existence... and in every step there was hope and gladness... and in every step disappointment and grief... Weary she is... her depths cried out, and she took refuge at a turning, and there appeared before her the passing away of the past and the frozen stillness of the present... The phantoms burst out cackling... her steps faltered and she dragged sickness behind her — "I have preferred to die the swift, delivering death of suicide rather than die a death filled with the rattle of despair"... So she rose up to seek some far-off bend... and after she awoke she said:

"... and my heart wept within me at what I had

witnessed of empty pretension and vexing prattle, of false acting and sickly sentiment."

more affecting than joy... and joy is quicker to vanish than sorrow!!"

... She walked with bowed head, and the yellow leaves of the trees scattered, and the winds of death blew, strewing the grains of dust... It is the month of graves... in autumn the leaves die... but the months of man are all autumn... The poor and the rich... the children and the aged... the learned and the ignorant: they have died... and they go on dying... How do they live and die..? From where...? And to where...? One answer only: "He lived, and loved, and suffered, and struggled... then he passed away."

***

... May walked on, and the current flung her into the very midst of the ocean of life...