thinking among your acquaintances, and yet behave in private like the
most narrow of men?"

"That is your misrepresentation. Of course, if you refuse to understand
me--"

He broke off, and went to another part of the room.

"Shall I tell you what all this means, Reuben?" said Cecily, turning
towards him. "We have lived so long in solitude, that the common
circumstances of society are strange and disturbing to us. Solitary
people are theoretical people. You would never have thought of
forbidding me to read such and such a book, on the ground that it took
me into doubtful company; the suggestion of such intolerance would have
made you laugh scornfully. You have become an idealist of a curious
kind; you like to think of me as an emancipated woman, and yet, when I
have the opportunity of making my independence practical, you show
yourself alarmed. I am not sure that I understand you entirely; I
should be very sorry to explain your words of the other night in the
sense they would bear on the lips of an ordinary man. Can't you help me
out of this difficulty?"

Reuben was reflecting, and had no reply ready.

"If there is to be all this difference between theory and practice,"
Cecily continued, "it must either mean that you think otherwise than
you speak, or else that I have shown myself in some way very
untrustworthy. You say you have been angry with me; I have felt both
angry and deeply hurt. Suppose you had known certainly that Mrs. Travis
was not an honourable woman, even then it was wrong to speak to me as
you did. Even then it would have been inconsistent to forbid me to see
her. You put yourself and me on different levels. You make me your
inferior--morally your inferior. What should you say if I began to warn
you against one or other of the men you know--if I put on a stern face,
and told you that your morals were in danger?"

"Pooh! what harm can a man take?"

"And pray what harm can a woman take, if her name happens to be Cecily
Elgar?"

She drew herself up, and stood regarding him with superb
self-confidence.

"Without meaning it, you insult me, Reuben. You treat me as a vulgar
husband treats a vulgar wife. What harm to me do you imagine? Don't let
us deal in silly evasions and roundabout phrases. Do you distrust my
honour? Do you think I can be degraded by association? What woman
living has power to make me untrue to myself?"

"You are getting rhetorical, Cecily. Then at this rate I should _never_
be