Some men fail to win the woman they love, because they are physically too
strong and powerful. Some women love to cling, as a vine, to the man who
resembles the sturdy oak, but not all of them do—not even half the women
do the clinging act. I know of a case where a strong man proposed to a
beautiful girl who had entered a hospital to become a nurse. She did not
appear quite strong enough to endure the strenuous duties of a nurse, but
she insisted that she loved the work and would stick to it. Her lover
sought to turn her from her chosen profession and become his wife, but
she frankly told him that she did not love him enough to become his wife.
People without imagination and without a proper conception of what true
love really is, wondered why the girl did not marry the man, for he
was quite wealthy, handsome, and of good character. Some even alluded
to his good family, but the nurse declared that a man was good through
education, and not through inheritance. She referred to the case of a
child taken from a large family of children and placed in the home of
a rich man who gave her many educational advantages. She outgrew the
daughter even in intelligence and beauty, while all the other brothers
and sisters left in the home nest grew up in ignorance and immoralities
and did not resemble their educated sister at all. It was all the effect
of education and not of blood or inheritance.
And the strong man gave up the girl and went away to a distant town to
go into business. Bad investments swept his fortune away and he fell
ill. His last dollar was gone and his health so bad that he no longer
resembled the physical giant of former years.
At last he became so ill that he was taken to the hospital for treatment,
where in his delirium he called for “Agnes, Agnes!” all the time. The
physician declared that this Agnes must be found, or the man would surely
die. His old town was located and old acquaintances consulted, and the
Agnes called for was the girl in the hospital learning to become a
trained nurse.
When told who it was that was calling for her she said she would go to
him. All her nature seemed changed. Harry was no longer the physical
giant inviting her to cling to his sturdy frame for support. He was now
lying helpless on his back, his fortune and physical strength all gone.
She would be the strong uplifter and the inspiration that would bring him
back to health. She was now in her proper sphere. She was all woman, all
sympathy and affection. She who could not cling to the strong man, now
gave her strength to assist the weak.
“Agnes, Agnes!” he called one night, and when she went to him and placed
her cool hand on his feverish brow and asked tenderly: “What is it,
Harry? I am your Agnes—don’t you know me?” He looked up with a world of
joy in his eyes and exclaimed: “Thank God, Agnes! I have wanted you so
badly! I was going to die. I shall now get well!”
And he fell asleep while she watched. Was it strange that she now loved
the man better than her own life? How weak and helpless he was; only the
shadow of his former physical strength and beauty. And yet, as she looked
upon his helplessness, and realized that his fortune was gone, and that
he was now even poorer than herself, her heart and soul went out to him,
and all missions in life narrowed down to a resolve to nurse him back to
health and happiness.
When he recovered sufficiently to sit up, and noticed the changed look
in her beautiful eyes, he one day asked: “Agnes, dear Agnes, is it
possible that since my health and wealth are gone you can love me?” She
dropped her head and remained silent. “Forgive me,” he said sadly, “I was
foolishly mistaken in what I saw in your eyes. I was looking through my
love. Nobody could love a wreck like me.”
She looked up with a world of love in her eyes and cried: “You were not
mistaken, Harry! I do love you! and all the more because you need me now.
I could not be a vine, but I can be your support and guide!”