if
they must; but at all events you will have cleared their views on the
subject of marriage, and put them in a position to judge the man who
offers himself. You will have taught them that marriage is an alliance
of intellects--not a means of support, or something more ignoble still.
But to do this with effect you must show yourself relentless to female
imbecility. If a girl gets to know that you have received back such a
person as Miss Royston she will be corrupted by your spirit of
charity--corrupted, at all events, for our purposes. The endeavour to
give women a new soul is so difficult that we can't be cumbered by
side-tasks, such as fishing foolish people out of the mud they have
walked into. Charity for human weakness is all very well in its place,
but it is precisely one of the virtues that you must _not_ teach. You
have to set an example of the sterner qualities--to discourage anything
that resembles sentimentalism. And think if you illustrate in your own
behaviour a sympathy for the very vice of character we are trying our
hardest to extirpate!'

'This is a terrible harangue,' said Miss Barfoot, when the passionate
voice had been silent for a few ticks of the clock. 'I quite enter into
your point of view, but I think you go beyond practical zeal. However,
I will help the girl in some other way, if possible.'

'I have offended you.'

'Impossible to take offence at such obvious sincerity.'

'But surely you grant the force of what I say?'

'We differ a good deal, Rhoda, on certain points which as a rule would
never come up to interfere with our working in harmony. You have come
to dislike the very thought of marriage--and everything of that kind. I
think it's a danger you ought to have avoided. True, we wish to prevent
girls from marrying just for the sake of being supported, and from
degrading themselves as poor Bella Royston has done; but surely between
ourselves we can admit that the vast majority of women would lead a
wasted life if they did not marry.'

'I maintain that the vast majority of women lead a vain and miserable
life because they _do_ marry.'

'Don't you blame the institution of marriage with what is chargeable to
human fate? A vain and miserable life is the lot of nearly all mortals.
Most women, whether they marry or not, will suffer and commit endless
follies.'

'Most women--as life is at present arranged for them. Things are
changing, and we try to have our part in hastening a new orde