[Illustration: MODERN DAUGHTERS] Books by Alexander Black. MODERN DAUGHTERS. CONVERSATIONS WITH VARIOUS AMERICAN GIRLS AND ONE MAN. Fully illustrated from Photographs taken by the Author. 8vo. $2.50. MISS AMERICA. PEN AND CAMERA SKETCHES OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. With 75 illustrations. 8vo. $2.50. A CAPITAL COURTSHIP. ILLUSTRATED FROM THE AUTHOR’S CAMERA. 12mo. $1.00. MISS JERRY. A LOVE STORY. Illustrated from the Author’s Camera. _New Edition._ 12mo. $1.00. [Illustration] [Illustration] _Modern Daughters_ CONVERSATIONS WITH VARIOUS AMERICAN GIRLS AND ONE MAN BY ALEXANDER BLACK _Author of “Miss America,” “Miss Jerry,” etc._ _WITH DESIGNS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR_ CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS NEW YORK · _M DCCC XC IX_ _Copyright, 1899, by_ CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS _All rights reserved_ University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. TO _GERALDINE AND CHRISTINE BROOKS_ [Illustration] A NOTE _Which you, fair, friendly, discriminating reader (as the case may be), will please regard as properly folded, unsealed (having in mind the courteous delivery by the publisher), and running somewhat in this wise:_ _Begging your pardon for passing between you and the text proper, this is to say that if anything I have reported or confessed offends your sense of propriety, you are to read the offending passage a second time, whereupon you surely will discover evidences of an authorial humility incompatible with real irreverence. And if this apology sounds trite and lame, bear in mind that prefaces are written last, when a man (as when he has just parted from one of you) is completely quelled by a thought of the good things he might, or at least should, have said._ _As for the pictorial obligato, if it shall occasionally show a curious indifference to the tune of the text, I trust that it may appear upon consideration that there are some very good reasons why this partnership should be as indefinite as it is._ _And since you, reader, will in so many instances find yourself looking at your counterfeit presentment, I may, I hope, be allowed in this place to say this word of grateful acknowledgment to all of those daughters of the States who have permitted my camera to save my pen the impossible task of describing the beauty of the American girl._ _A. B._ [Illustration] _Contents_ I. WITH A DÉBUTANTE _Page_ 1 II. WITH A LEFT-OVER GIRL 21