“Ah, Justin, I grew up both in feelings and in principles a man-hater. My narrow personal experiences gave strength, bitterness and intensity to my feelings, and the frequent discussions of the topic of the day, ‘Woman’s Rights,’ gave form, shape and consistency to my opinions. And I became a very perfect man-hater.” She paused and looked at him. He was contemplating her with deep tenderness, but he made no observation, and she continued: “It was at this very flood tide of my young soul’s life that I first met you, Justin. And soon, to my consternation, I found that I—a pledged man-hater—was loving you, Justin! loving you with my whole heart, just as all the women of my race had loved men, to their own destruction. How I hated and scorned myself for this love! how I struggled against it, battled with it, trampled on it, tried to tear it up, root it out, and utterly destroy it, you well know.” “Ah!” smiled Justin. “Because you see I did not believe in man’s love. When you said to me, ‘I love you—I want you for my wife,’ I interpreted your words to mean just this—‘like your looks, and I want you for my slave.’ Can you wonder that I resisted my own love and resented yours?” He did not answer. He was still contemplating her with ineffable tenderness and infinite love. And as she met his eyes, her eyes softened, beamed and dilated, her cheeks and lips glowed, and her whole countenance grew beautiful and radiant from the soul’s inner light and life. “But oh, Justin!” she murmured, “as my knowledge of you grew, and my love deepened, what a change came over my spirit! First I learned that, though all other men might be false and base, you were true and noble. Next came the lesson learned on the Desert Island, where I found by experience how utterly helpless woman was without her brother man. I saw that though in civilized countries, which men had already made habitable for women, by the building of cities, houses and roads; the manufacture of furniture, clothing and utensils; and the promotion of arts, sciences and education,—a single woman might live well enough; yet, in a wilderness, where nothing had been done—where there were no habitations, no manufactures, no planted crops—woman could not possibly exist without man; though he might live without her. This was a humiliating truth to the proud man-hater; but it _was_ truth, and as such she accepted it.” “But man would have no motive to live or to labor, if it were not for his sister, woman,” answered Justin. “Then,” she continued, “the war broke out. And that glorious, awful trial brought out all the grandest traits of manhood—his patriotism, courage, fortitude, self-devotion—until oh, Justin, from being a man-hater, I have almost become a man-worshipper!”