Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/32

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Side Talks with Girls

which they have ignored heretofore, but which have seemed so easy to you. A clever man once said that he could always tell from a young man's manners the sort of women with whom he associated, and really I think this was one of the best tributes ever paid to the influence of woman.

I do not believe in allowing men to conclude that because you know them well and like them, they can do as they please before you. I saw one man subdue a familiarity on the part of another one evening in a way that was a delight to my soul. There had been a good bit of fun and laughter, and the young man, who was rather lively, said, taking out his cigarette case and looking inquiringly at the young man who had brought him, "I don't suppose Miss Stuart would mind our smoking." Before the embarrassed hostess could do anything more than blush, the other man said, "I have known her for five years and I have never even had the impertinence to ask her." That was a friend in need. Months afterward the young man made his apology, and said that up to that time he had gone among women whom he had treated as if they were all good comrades. Again I repeat that if one wishes a friendship to last, a woman must be a man's companion and not his comrade.