“Very true,” replied Mr. Wayne, “but that is because the men and boys set higher standards for the women and girls than they in turn set for the men and boys. No boy would be seen in the street with a girl who was smoking a cigar; yet girls, good girls too, let boys smoke in their company. No matter how immoral a man may be, he always demands that the women who belong to him, his wife, mother, sister or sweetheart, shall be pure and above reproach. He will even claim that a wife’s misconduct sullies his honor; but she never claims that his immorality is her responsibility. She will even marry a man whom she knows to be dissipated, foolishly trusting that her love will reform him. A broken heart and degenerate children too often prove how seriously she has failed. Yes, dear, I am right in saying that women are to blame that men do not have higher ideals and live up to them. Ruskin says, ‘The soul’s armor is never well set to a heart unless a woman’s hand has braced it; and it is only when she braces it loosely that the honor of manhood fails.’”
“It’s putting a great responsibility on women, isn’t it?” sighed Helen.
“Yes, daughter, but no greater than is placed on man. Each sex should be the protector and inspirer of the other. But instead of that, they often tempt and mislead each other.”
“Good girls don’t tempt boys, father.”
“I’m afraid that they do, dear. They may not be aware of what they are doing, but nevertheless they may be sources of temptation.”
“I really don’t see how.”
“Probably not, but I can tell you, for I remember my own youth and know how girls may tempt boys unwittingly. When in college I was a boarder in a family where there were several other students, and two or three pretty High School girls. One of them was very coquettish, and was always ‘making goo-goo eyes,’ at the boys, as they say now-a-days. She couldn’t talk in a straightforward manner, but always with sidewise glances from downcast lids that seemed invitations to a nearer approach.
“Among the students was one who was very retiring and bashful. He rarely spoke to the girls and seemed quite embarrassed if they spoke to him. This girl seemed to set herself to work to flirt with him. She would glance up at him so appealingly that we boys couldn’t help guying him about it. One evening when she was plying her arts—not with evil intent, but she loved to flirt and did not understand 35 what that might mean to a young man—all at once he seized her around the waist and kissed her furiously. She was in a rage in a moment, and said some pretty sharp things about his lack of gentlemanliness.
“He stood his ground without flinching. ‘I’m as much of a gentleman as you are a lady,’ he said. ‘I have let you alone, but you have been tormenting me for weeks. You liked to try how far you could go, and thought yourself virtuous because you felt no temptation. You didn’t care how you tempted me, or the other boys. You have tried your powers in public. O, yes, you are too good to be sly! And so I determined to give you a public lesson, and everybody here, I am sure, is thankful to me for it. Now, perhaps, you will let us alone. We want to be good, we want to treat all women with respect; yet, when you pretty pink-and-white creatures smile and smirk and set us on fire, then you say we are bad, we are not gentlemen. Maybe not. But we are men, and we should find in you the true womanhood which is our salvation.’