You know very well what I mean," replied Lizzy.

"It is so forlorn for a woman not to have anybody need her, not to have anybody to love her more than he loves all the rest of the world, and not to have anybody to love herself.

Oh, Mercy, I don't see how any woman lives without it!" The tears came into Mercy's eyes.

There were depths of lovingness in her soul of which a woman like Lizzy could not even dream.

But she spoke in a resolute tone, and she spoke very honestly, too, when she said,-- "Well, I don't see how any woman can help living very well without it, if it doesn't come to her.