You are seeking the fads and fancies of shallow idlers, and turning your back upon eternal facts.
You are following after silly fools who are chasing bubbles over the edge of God's good world.

Believe me, girl, I know--God! but I do know what that life, stripped of its tinseled and spangled show, means.

Take the good grain, child, and let the husks go." As the man spoke, Kitty watched him as though she were intently interested; but, in truth, her thoughts were more on the speaker than on what he said.
"You are in earnest, aren't you, Patches ?" she murmured softly.
"I am," he returned sharply, for he saw that she was not even considering what he had said.

"I know how mistaken you are; I know what it will mean to you when you find how much you have lost and how little you have gained." "And how am I mistaken?
Do I not know what I want?
Am I not better able than anyone else to say what satisfies me and what does not ?" "No," he retorted, almost harshly, "you are not.

You _think_ it is the culture, as you call it, that you want; but if that were really it, you would not go.