"No girl knows how to take care of herself—till it's too late."
"And yet you would deliberately deny her the surest means of self-defence?"
"What do you call the surest means of self-defence?"
"Some preliminary knowledge of human nature in its relation to the marriage tie."
She made an impatient gesture. "How should you like to marry that kind of a girl?"
"Immensely—if she were my kind of girl in other respects."
She took up the argument at another point.
"You are quite mistaken if you think such talk does not affect young girls. Una was in a state of the most absurd exaltation—" She broke off, wondering why she had spoken.
Westall reopened a magazine which he had laid aside at the beginning of their discussion. "What you tell me is immensely flattering to my oratorical talent—but I fear you overrate its effect. I can assure you that Miss Van Sideren doesn't have to have her thinking done for her. She's quite capable of doing it herself."
"You seem very familiar with her mental processes!" flashed unguardedly from his wife.