"Yes. The world was not made for the gratification of our own feelings."
"So you are fond of saying, Robert. But, as a matter of fact, I'm not trying to gratify my feelings. I'm trying to carry out my principles."
"The world isn't a grindstone to sharpen our principles on, either," said Robert, with prompt conclusiveness.
"From watching you, I rather thought it was," said Janet, stung into sudden irony.
There was a pause. He tried to take her hand, but she drew it sharply away, with difficulty repressing her tears. After a while, he began again, with impetuous candor:
"Janet, don't go into this adventure with your eyes shut. Remember, you can't give yourself up to an experiment in free love without giving up everything else. That is the strongest argument against the step. All your gifts, all your energy, all your purpose will be consumed in explaining, defending, evading. Your whole life will be one long course of swallowing the consequences and warding off criticism. Do you wish to be a life-long martyr to free love, like Cornelia?"
"I've never posed as a martyr to anything—not even to drink," said Janet, recovering her good humor.
"Then why become one? Martyrdom is all very well for fanatics like your mother who enjoy it, or for idlers like Cornelia who have nothing better to do. But you are neither a fanatic nor an idler; you are a worker."
"But when one believes that an institution has served its turn, isn't it one's duty to destroy it?"
"Institutions are never destroyed. They are sometimes transformed, as tadpoles are into frogs."