"
I had hardly finished speaking when her manner of drawing away became so
pronounced that I feared I might lose my race by going too fast, so I
quickly sought to right myself by saying with marked emphasis:--
"I am not going to pry into your affairs."
A telltale blush came to her cheek as she interrupted me with a touch of
warmth: "I have no affairs."
"I am sure you have not," I answered soothingly, "though a girl as
beautiful as you are is sure to attract men, and is quite as sure to have
little affairs. But they are of no more importance than a laugh and a
sigh."
"Yes, yes, of course. Of no importance--not the least," she answered,
blushing exquisitely, and unconsciously telling me there was an affair.
"No, no," I continued earnestly. "I do not want to pry. I am simply going
to suggest a project which perhaps you may turn to your advantage.
Marriage has no part in it save that the greatest good fortune that can
befall a woman is to marry well, which I hope will be the ultimate result
of what I shall propose. If a young woman's friends do not put her in a
position to marry the right sort of a man, they fail in their duty to
her."
"I hate the word 'marriage,'" returned Frances, impatiently.
"Ah, but it is a woman's privilege, the one great purpose of her life," I
insisted. "Why pretend otherwise? I don't believe in the drag-net process
of getting a husband, but in England a girl must be seen before she is
married, and her chief concern should be to be seen by the right man.
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