AUGUST 441 



we all value what is difficult of attainment. I found 

 this well expressed in an American periodical which I 

 took up by chance last year ; it was called ' The Way of 

 Man': 



There was many a Rose in the glen to-day 



As I wandered through, 

 And every bud that looked my way 



Was rich of hue. 

 But the one in my hand, 



Do you understand T 

 Not a whit more sweet, not quite so fair, 



But it grew in the breach of the cliff up there. 



A question I have frequently heard discussed by 

 people who perhaps would be the very last to be them- 

 selves in such a situation, is whether a woman with a 

 'past' is bound to tell it to a man who has proposed to 

 her, and whom she wishes to accept. A large proportion 

 of these people who now go in for 'equalising' the sexes 

 say, 'No ; she is not bound to tell,' and they argue that 

 a man does not lay his past before a woman when he is 

 engaged to marry her. It may be very unjust, but I 

 cannot see that the cases are parallel. The woman fears 

 that if she tells her story to the man, he will not marry 

 her. If this is really the case, her acceptance of his 

 offer is a species of fraud. To begin a life of partner- 

 ship under such circumstances means that the woman 

 puts herself on the level of a man who cheats his friend 

 at cards or sells him a bad horse. The reason why the 

 position of the woman differs from that of the man is 

 due to that unwritten law accepted amongst civilised na- 

 tions. The man who does not recognise this law will be 

 unaffected by the confession of her past ; the man who 

 does recognise it ought not to be deceived. 



I think most girls of to-day understand that there is 

 a veiled side to many men's lives, and that a man's past 



