"Were you mad, Doris? Why, don't you know that many girls are simply crooked while they call themselves emancipated? I am amazed at you. How did you dare! Have you thought what an injustice you've done the girl? Keeping her in cotton wool, feeding her on specialized food, and then letting her loose among—among garbage pails?"
Nancy fled from the room. The operation was on!
Doris got up and linked her arm in David's—they paced the floor slowly, getting control of themselves as they went. Presently Doris spoke:
"You see, dear, I have always held certain beliefs—I have always been willing to test them—and pay."
"But dare you let Joan pay?" Martin was calm now.
"Not for mine, but for her own—yes. Aren't you going to let this boy of yours try his own flight, David?"
"That's different."
"It won't be always, David, dear—someone must make the break—our dear young things in the big cities are breasting the waves, David. I glory in them, and even while I tremble, I urge them on. You should have seen Joan when she came to me with her great desire burning and throbbing. Why, it would have been murder to kill in her what I saw in her eyes then. It was her Right demanding to be free."
"It's the maddest thing I ever heard of!" Martin broke in. "I wonder if you have counted the cost, Doris?"
"Yes, David, through many long days and wakeful nights. I have shuddered and felt that it was different for Joan; that she should have been kept in—in bondage. It would have been bondage for her. But, David, the only thing I dared not do was to keep freedom from the child."