"It is useless to ask you not to go in such neighborhoods as you were
in this evening, but if you knew what you were doing you would stay
away."
"I know very well what I am doing. I am hardly so stubborn or wilful
as you think. But if it is unwise for me to be in the neighborhood
referred to, is it any less wise--for you?"
"Me?" The inflection in his voice was the eternal difference in a
man's and woman's privileges. "It was not a question of wisdom--my
being where you saw me. It was one of necessity. Moreover, a man
can go where he pleases. A woman can't. No purity of purpose can
overcome the tyranny of convention."
"Convention!" My hands made impatient gesture. "It's the drag-net
of human effort, the shelter within which cowards run to cover. In
its place it has purpose, but its place, for convenience sake, has
been immensely magnified. And why is convention limited to women?"
It was childish--my outburst--and, ashamed of it, I started to go in,
then turned and again looked at Selwyn. Into his face had come
something I could not understand, something that involved our future
friendship, and, frightened, I leaned against the iron railing of the
little porch and gripped it with hands behind my back.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90