e of life underlying intimate acquaintance
with grief and poverty which he would not have believed to be possible.
And oh, sexually, how it redoubled her beauty and charm! Yes, he could
not deny that so unnatural a combination attracted him, and yet it
enraged him also. A few moments ago he had heard from this woman's lips
a declaration that no help could come till half and half made up one
whole in knowledge and understanding; and yet there she stood--if his
guess was right--hesitant and bashful on the borders of that great
central problem about which parental authority had decreed she was to
know nothing; an example set before him of that idealistic waste of
womanhood which is for ever going on, and which for bad practical
reasons society is always encouraging. For depend upon it the practical
social result is what we men are really afraid of--not lest our women
should lose either modesty or charm, but lest with knowledge they should
apply themselves too ruthlessly to practical ends, and set upon their
charm a price which hitherto we have avoided having to pay. And as he so
moralized upon the relations of sex, a sentimental desire grew in him to
kneel down there and then at her feet and tell her how good a young man
from his point of view he had always been--and how bad a one from hers.

For the time being he resisted that temptation; other things that he was
not yet sure of must come first; for before we can allow the beloved to
think ill of us at all she must first think far better of us than we
deserve. Then for the letting-down process there is a safe margin left,
and confession becomes a luxury with no danger involved; since to see
himself retrospectively pardoned by a heart virginally pure has surely
restored to many a weary and disillusioned sensualist a better opinion
of himself than he could ever have hoped to refurbish by his own
efforts. That, oh ye men about town, is a good woman's mission in life;
that is what she is for--when the watch has run down she winds it up
again and sets it domestically ticking. And that she may continue to do
so, let us keep her from all knowledge independently acquired. When we
ourselves bring her the evidence, having first packed her fond jury of a
heart, then we can also dictate verdict and sentence, and the world will
run on in the grooves to which we have accustomed it.

All of which is a digression, and not in the least intended as being
applicable to Max, unless, indeed,