The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 4

by Beth Brower

I decided to spend half an hour examining my character with the aim of improving what I found there. I persisted twenty minutes.

“LET HIM BE TO THEE FOR EVER A SORT OF BEAUTIFUL ENEMY, UNTAMABLE, DEVOUTLY REVERED, AND NOT A TRIVIAL CONVENIENCY TO BE SOON OUTGROWN AND CAST ASIDE.” “Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.”

It was weather ordained for a walk.

“You’re not half so bad once you get dolled up a bit, love.” Clearly the epitaph on my future gravestone. Emma M. Lion RIP Not Half So Bad Once Dolled Up

The dreaded cancan of days gone by.

“Am I correct in guessing you were the woman who nearly fell off the stage?” “It was deliberate!” (It wasn’t.) (He never need know.)

Is it immoral to marry a man solely to gain a library? And if that man happens to be tremendously good looking, is it more or less of a sin?

“Of course I’m coming with you. Don’t be daft. My friends do not go to war alone.”

Bless a man who knows how to keep his own counsel when you can’t bear to speak.

I retired to bed early this evening. An effort to manifest unto the Powers That Be that I intend to lead a life of pious solitude,

all arrows filling the sky to a tremendous amount. Yet here I was, determined to fight in the shade.