a woman willing to know.
Behind the confusion of such terms as ignorance and innocence most
women continue their irresponsibility in certain directions. They
have accepted man's decree that certain evils, having always
existed, must always exist, and they have made little effort to
test the truth of the assertion. Lillie Pierce and the women of
her world are largely the product of the attitude of good women
toward them. To the sin of men good women shut their eyes, pretend
they do not know. They do not want to know."

"They not only do not want to know, themselves--that is, many of
them--but they would keep others from knowing. Perhaps it is
natural. So many things have happened to life in the past few
years that even clever, able women are still bewildered, still
uncertain what is right to do. Life can never be again what it
once was, and still, most of us are trying to live a new thing in
an old way. We have so long been purposely kept ignorant, so long
not permitted to have opinions that count, so long been told our
work is elsewhere, that cowardice and indifference, the fear of
inability to deal with new conditions, new obligations, new
responsibilities, still holds us back. I get impatient, indignant,
and then I realize--"

David Guard laughed. "That many are still in the child class?"
His head tossed back the long lock of hair that fell over his
forehead. "It is true, but certainly you do not think because I
see the backwardness, the blindness of some women, I do not see the
forwardness, the vision of others? Men have hardly guessed as yet
that it is chiefly due to women that the world is now asking
questions it has never asked before, beginning to look life in the
face where once it blinked at it. Because of what women have
suggested, urged, insisted on, and worked for, the social
conscience all over the earth has been aroused, social legislation
enacted, and social dreams stand chance of coming true. Certain
fields they have barely entered yet, however. It is easy to
understand why. When they realize what is required of them, they
will not hold back. But as yet, among the women you know, how many
give a thought to Lillie Pierce's world, to the causes and
conditions which make her and her kind?"

I shook my head. "I do not know. I've never heard her world
discussed."

"I suppose not. In this entire city there are few women who think
of girls like Lillie Pierce, or care to learn the trut