d on Rose
this morning," she said, "and I heard from Antony that she had come
here, so I guessed what she had come to say. Now, Yanna, we are going
to have some straight, sensible talk, and then, if you make a little
fool of yourself afterwards, it will not be Alida Van Hoosen's fault.
Rose told you about Harry's fondness for certain society?"

"Yes."

"And made more of her information than there was need to--that of
course. What have you been telling Cousin Peter?"

"I said to father that Harry would make a great complaint if I behaved
with certain gay men as he behaves with certain gay women. I told him
I thought the sin in both cases just alike, and that I was tired of
bearing wrongs which would send Harry to the divorce court."

"Hum--m--m! What did your father say?"

"He said Harry's sin towards God was the same as my sin would be in
like circumstances; but that Harry's sin to me was less than the same
sin on my part would be towards him. And he told me to pray, and
forgive, and hope, and wait, and so on," she added with a weary sigh.

"Good, as far as it goes. We are going further, and we must not look
in a one-eyed manner at the question. To begin at the beginning, none
of us supposed, not you, nor I, not yet your father, that Harry was
before his marriage to you, a model of morality. Before your marriage,
antecedent purity was not pretended on Harry's side; and your family
never inquired after it, I dare say. Unfortunately, though early
marriage is rare, early depravity is not rare; and I will venture to
doubt if one youth in one hundred struggles unpolluted out of the
temptations that assail youth. Whatever future obligations were
imposed on Harry by his marriage, nobody thought of blaming him for
the past."

"I do not permit myself to consider Harry's past. In our marriage he
was bound by the same vows and obligations as I was. When he breaks
them he is precisely as guilty as I would be if I should break them."

"Not quite so. The offence of a married woman changes purity to
impurity; the offence of a married man usually only makes what was
impure a little more so. That is one difference. Your father
pointed out the social difference--pity for the woman, scorn and
derision for the man. I will go still further, and remind you that
society in blaming the woman so much more than the man acts on a
great physiological truth, affecting not only racial and family
characteristics, but the proper heirship of