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intellect is too highly cultivated, her penetration too acute, her life too active for her to form an attachment through the mere "besoin d'aimer," the longing, though often unconscious desire to be loved and protected, which is the secret spring of half the so-called love-matches in the world. A young girl's affections, like graceful tendrils formed to cling, too often twine themselves around the object nearest and most inviting, with no other vindication save that it was near and invited.

But if Miriam unconsciously admits that love is a "grand necessity" of existence, she feels that existence has other necessities. To bestow her heart, her judgment must approve the gift, and she has not encountered the being (though doubtless such exists) who could win the one with the approval of the other. This is the sole secret of her freedom.

Had Miriam been thrown upon her own resources to gain a livelihood, her energy of character, and her delight in use, would have impelled her to fill and dignify some of the few intellectual avocations which woman's hands and brains are allowed to grace. Her birth and wealth forbid, yet the current of life, with such an organization, can never become stagnant. Occupation is enjoyment.