"THE FAIR
THE CHASTE
THE UNEXPRESSIVE SHE"_
_GREETING
To those dear girls who honour me with their liking and their
confidences, greetings first, then a statement and a proposition.
Now I have the advantage over you of years, but you have the advantage
over me of numbers. You can ask more questions in an hour than I can
answer in a week. You can fly into a hundred "tiffs" of angry
disappointment with me while I am struggling to utter the soft answer
that turneth away the wrath of one.
Now, you eager, impatient young damsels, your name is Legion, and your
addresses are scattered freely between the two oceans. Some of you are
grave, some gay, some well-off, some very poor, some wise, some very,
very foolish,--yet you are all moved by the same desire, you all ask,
very nearly, the same questions. No actress can answer all the girls who
write to her,--no more can I, and that disturbs me, because I like
girls and I hate to disappoint them.
But now for my proposition. Why not become a lovely composite girl, my
friend, Miss Hope Legion, and let me try to speak to her my word of
warning, of advice, of remonstrance? If she doubts, let me prove my
assertions by incident, and if she grows vexed, let me try to win her to
laughter with the absurdities,--that are so funny in their telling,
though so painful in their happening.