was no pretence of refinement and propriety and so forth, would be
infinitely less revolting."

"Which your language is plain," observed Lady Engleton, much amused.

"I hope so. Didn't you see how it all hurt that poor girl? One of her
training too--suspended in mid air--not an earthward glance. You know
Mrs. Jordan's views on the education of girls. Poor girls. They are
morally skinned, in such a way as to make contact with Fact a veritable
torture, and then suddenly they are sent forth defenceless into Life to
be literally curry-combed."

"They adjust themselves," said Lady Engleton.

"Adjust themselves!" Hadria vindictively flicked off the head of a
dandelion with her parasol. "They awake to find they have been living in
a Fool's Paradise--a little upholstered corner with stained glass
windows and rose-coloured light. They find that suddenly they are
expected to place in the centre of their life everything that up to that
moment they have scarcely been allowed even to know about; they find
that they must obediently veer round, with the amiable adaptability of a
well-oiled weather-cock. Every instinct, every prejudice must be thrown
over. All the effects of their training must be instantly overcome. And
all this with perfect subjection and cheerfulness, on pain of moral
avalanches and deluges, and heaven knows what convulsions of
conventional nature!"

"There certainly is some curious incongruity in our training," Lady
Engleton admitted.

"Incongruity! Think what it means for a girl to have been taught to
connect the idea of something low and evil with that which nevertheless
is to lie at the foundation of all her after life. That is what it
amounts to, and people complain that women are not logical."

Lady Engleton laughed. "Fortunately things work better in practice than
might be expected, judging them in the abstract. How bashful Professor
Theobald seems suddenly to have become! Why doesn't he join us, I
wonder? However, so much the better; I do like to hear you talk heresy."

"I do more than talk it, I _mean_ it," said Hadria. "I fail utterly to
get at the popular point of view."

"But you misrepresent it--there _are_ modifying facts in the case."

"I don't see them. Girls are told: 'So and so is not a nice thing for
you to talk about. Wait, however, until the proper signal is given, and
then woe betide you if you don't cheerfully accept it as your bounden
duty.' If _that_ does not enjoin abject slavi