"

A challenge to outraged virtue was in her tone, and all eyes turned
instinctively to the psychic who was still rocking placidly.

"Poor woman!" Seraphine said simply, which seemed to annoy Miss Vallis.

"Why do you say that? Why is she a poor woman? She has everything she
wants."

"No! No indeed," was the grave reply. "She has nothing that she really
wants. She has cut herself off from the operation of God's love. She is
surrounded by forces that--Oh!" the medium's eyes closed for a moment
and she drew a long breath, "my control tells me these forces of
evil--they will destroy this girl."

Roberta essayed to answer mockingly, but the words died on her lips, and
there fell a moment of shivery silence until Kendall Brown broke the
spell.

"That story of Dora is a precious human document," was the poet's
ponderous pronouncement. "It is unpleasant, painful, but--what is the
lesson? The lesson is that infinite trouble grows out of our rotten
squeamishness about sex facts. This girl craved a reasonable amount of
pleasure after her work, and she got it. She refused to spend her
evenings alone in her room reading a book. She wanted to dance, to enjoy
the society of men--their intimate society. That brings us to the oldest
and most resistless force in the world, a blessed force, a God-given
force upon which all life depends--you know what I mean. And how do we
deal with this most formidable of forces? Are we grateful for it? Do we
acknowledge its irresistible supremacy? No! We deal with it by
pretending that it doesn't exist. We say to Friend Dora that, being
unmarried, she has nothing whatever to do with sex attraction, except to
forget it. Does she forget it? She does not. Do the men allow her to
forget it? They do not. And one fine day Friend Dora has a baby and
everybody says horrible, disgraceful! Rubbish! I maintain that the state
should provide homes and proper care for the children we call
illegitimate! What a word! I say _all_ children are legitimate, all
mothers should be honored, yes, and financially protected. A woman who
gives a child to the nation, regardless of who the father is, renders a
distinguished service. She is a public benefactor."

"Hear, hear!" approved several, but the little grey-haired woman
objected that this meant free love, whereupon Kendall was off again on
his hobby.

"Love _is_ free, it always has been and always will be free. If you
chain love down under smug rules you only kill i