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

by Beth Brower

“Strange is that unexpected moment that stays with you, that makes you think about it again. Strange is memorable, and compelling.”

“You are wise in this thing. However, if the right man should come along, and money looks more like love than one would initially suppose, don’t turn your back on a chance for happiness merely because he has the means to save you.” It was the most fiscally romantic thing I had ever heard.

Miss Lion, Foolish men have been wasting women’s money for years. And our financial system so often gives them the right to do so. I hope you enjoyed the tea, and that Mr. Penury was helpful. Rebecca Penury

This too shall pass.

Perhaps I should marry Roland. He would buy me an entire library. It couldn’t be more than a year before he gifted me a book I hadn’t read. Later 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?

Father always liked fall best. Mother claimed it was his natural melancholy.

As if the four of us created a room not having previously been in existence before.

“We must be our own before we can be another’s.”

Come to me in the silence of the night; Come in the speaking silence of a dream; Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright As sunlight on a stream; Come back in tears, O memory, hope, love of finished years.

My feelings for October are fierce: a sharp love of cool air, a season transforming the landscape towards, and through, death. I’ve always loved it.

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