130 HOME BEAUTY 



courage, will be needed in dealing with ever- 

 recurring, complicated, painful, and nerve-straining 

 situations. Even in their attitude towards one 

 another as they gradually come together the finest 

 address will be required. For each has necessarily 

 to be comparing himself and comparing the object 

 of his love with others ; and each feels that he is 

 being similarly compared. There can be no final 

 assurance till the union is completed. A single ill- 

 judged word or action may ruin all. At any 

 moment another may be preferred — or at least one 

 of the two may find the other inadequate or de- 

 ficient. 



All this wall afford the highest stimulus to 

 emulation. Each will strive to excel in what the 

 other approves and appreciates — or at any rate to 

 excel in what is his own particular line. He will 

 be incited to show himself at his best and to be 

 his best. 



But before the bliss of completest union is 

 attained anguish and rapture in exquisite extremes 

 will be experienced. For the soul of each will be 

 exposed in all its quivering sensitiveness, and any 

 but the most delicate touch will be a torture to it. 

 Fortitude of the firmest will be required to bear 

 the wounds which must necessarily come from this 

 exposure. Each, too, will have to bear the pain 

 of the suffering they must inevitably be causing 

 to some few others — and those others among their 

 very dearest. 



As the intimacy of union becomes closer and 

 closer the call for bodily union will become more and 

 more insistent. In the first instance — and this is 



