be friends of long ago of our home people. Then, too, we must remember that there is no letter of introduction equal to a pleasant manner, and no way to keep a friend so certainly as to refuse to listen to disagreeable things about her. It is possible that we may be misunderstood. People are in too much of a hurry to read carefully every life book, but we can try to do what is right, be honorable and true, and our friends will last and prove worth having.
I am only going to say to you one word about making the acquaintance of young men, and I am going to speak very plainly. Let these friends come through the women you meet, for then you will be more certain of their being proper men for you to know than if you yourself had met them in a casual manner. I think if we try, you and I, in a quiet way and without expecting to gain everything at once, we will make for ourselves a pleasant circle of acquaintances, from among whom we can cull two or three friends. Surely this would be good fortune, and having achieved this, which will, of course, take some time, we shall be in positions to put out our hands and help some other girl who is "a stranger in a strange land," remembering the day when we ourselves were strangers.
