232 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



ments made in this remarkable letter are so clear and 

 convincing that every j)arent ought to read it: 



''I will venture to lay bare a young girl's heart and 

 mind by giving my own experience in the days when 

 I waltzed. 



''In those days I cared little for polka or Varsovi- 

 enne, and still less for the old-fashioned 'Money Musk' 

 or 'Virginia Reel,' and wondered what people could 

 find to admire in those 'slow dances.' But in the soft 

 floating of the waltz I found a strange pleasure, rather 

 difficult to intelligibly describe. The mere anticipa- 

 tion fluttered my pulse, and when my partner ap- 

 proached to claim my promised hand for the dance, I 

 felt my cheeks glow a little sometimes, and I could not 

 look him in the eyes with the same frank gayety as 

 heretofore. 



"I am speaking openly and frankly, and when I 

 say that I did not understand what I felt, or what 

 were the real and greatest pleasures I derived from 

 this so-called dancing, I expect to be believed. But if 

 my cheeks grew red with uncomprehended pleasure 

 then, they grow pale with shame to-day when I think 

 of it all. It was the physical emotions engendered by 

 the contact of strong men that I was enamored of,— , 

 not of the dance, nor even of the men themselves. 



"Girls talk to each other. I was still a schoolgirl, 

 although mixing so much with the world. We talked 

 together. We read romances that fed our romantic 

 passions on seasoned food, and none but ourselves knew 

 what subjects we discussed. Had our parents heard 

 us, they would have considered us on the high road to 

 ruin. 



"Yet we had been taught that it was right to dance ; 

 our parents did it, our friends did it, and we were per- 



