Page:Saint Theresa of Avila (Gilman 1889).djvu/27

Rh ribbons and pretty gowns, and not a little vain of her pink and white cheeks and soft brown eyes. Spanish etiquette was very strict, and permitted familiar intercourse only between near relatives. But in Theresa’s case even cousins did not prove safe companions; for at fourteen we find her a pronounced flirt and coquette, secretly engaged to marry one of these relatives, who was allowed the unrestricted entrée of her father’s house.

“I had cousins,” she writes, “and to them alone was given permission to enter our home. My father was too prudent to admit other visitors, and it would have been better if he had admitted none. I see now how dangerous it is for young people to be allowed so much freedom. My cousins were near my own age. We passed much time together, and they loved me immensely. I let them talk of anything they chose. I was lively, and interested myself in their future plans, in their childish follies, and in everything which concerned them. They told me many things about the life outside my home which it would have been better for me