The question is—­Do you care to know if Dexie has chosen her life as wisely as she might have done?  Would her married life have been happier if she had married Lancy Gurney?  The affection they had for each other was akin to love; there was a sympathy between them which those who have an intense love for music can alone understand, and which might have proved a source of happiness, even during a life-long existence.  They might not have experienced the rapture of heartfelt love, but their lives might have been more peaceful and contented without it, for deep love often means keen sorrow.

Or would it have been better if she had accepted the love as well as the money which Hugh McNeil was so anxious to lay at her feet?  She might have learned to care for him in time, and to have found pleasure in a life surrounded by all the joys that wealth can bestow.  To have an abundance of worldly goods, and to be exempt from the petty cares and economies which a limited income necessitates, is a condition much to be desired, even where no love exists to soften the heart of husband and wife, and in this case Hugh McNeil could not be charged with possessing an unloving heart.

Dexie thinks she has made the wisest choice in accepting Guy Traverse and marrying for love, but she has yet to face the question—­Is mutual love alone essential to secure a happy married life? or in the language of the world: 

“Does it pay to marry for love alone?”

* * * * *

ABOUT SHORTHAND!

The need of a simpler and swifter mode of writing is felt by all who have much writing to do—­by newspaper men, by legal gentlemen, by clergymen, by students in taking class lectures and making notes of many things valuable for future “refreshment,” authors and scientific men in recording important facts.

Amanuenses are in demand as corresponding clerks and secretaries in all important mercantile and literary offices, at salaries much higher than is paid in any similar employment.  Indeed, many of the leading business and professional men owe their prosperity to their knowledge of Shorthand and Typewriting.

If a young man or woman desires a business or profession, light, pleasant, what is more congenial than stenography?  Other occupations are crowded, and the income for years is small.  But stenography, on the other hand, is an opening through which one can enter any business or profession with rewards equal to ability and capacity.

Which System?

There are a dozen or more different systems of shorthand.  Each one is best to somebody.  Which is best for you?  Eleven are hard to learn, and harder to practise; who will learn them?  One is simple and easy—­children learn it.  The one is

Simple Shorthand

best, because simplest, easiest, quickest learned, most legible of all, and fully answers every purpose for which shorthand is desired.