“When two people have decided that they love each other so well that they are willing to leave all friends and ties of home, and in the presence of witnesses promise to live together always, and a clergymen has conducted a solemn ceremony and pronounced them husband and wife, it is perfectly proper for them to do what before would not have been proper.
“They may go and live in a house by themselves, occupy the same room, bear the same name and be, in the eyes of the community, as one person.
“If they desire to call into life a little child of their own, it is fully in accordance with the laws of God and man, and no one can criticise them. They have violated no ideas of purity 64 or propriety. But you can understand that if an unmarried woman has a child, every one knows that she has had, with some man, an intimate relation to which they had no right, either moral or legal. They have sacrificed modesty and purity, and the child is a badge of disgrace, rather than of honor.”
“Isn’t it just as much of a disgrace to him as to her?”
“Yes, dear, I think it is, and so do many of the best people; but, unfortunately, there are many who do not think so, and blame the woman or girl altogether. And the man, very likely, does not blame himself. He says, ‘Well, she ought not to have permitted it,’ and so he gets out of the way and leaves her to bear the shame alone. It is a cowardly thing to do, for in all probability he was the one who made the first advances and, had she been wise, she would have shunned the man who tried to lead her into wrong, into doing that which would forfeit her self-respect and the respect of the world. Even the man scorns the woman whom he leads into disgrace.”
“I suppose girls don’t understand it, do they? Now, I did not understand, until just now as you have told me about it, and I believe lots of the girls are going into danger and don’t know it. I must tell you something. Yesterday as I was walking home from school with Belle Dane—you know her, don’t you? Isn’t she pretty?”
“Yes, she is pretty, and I should imagine pert also. She has no mother.”
“Well, as we were walking along, a young man passed us. Belle smiled and bowed, and he bowed too. I said, ‘Who is that?’ She said, ‘I don’t know, but isn’t he handsome? I shouldn’t wonder if he’d turn back and walk with us!’ And sure enough, in a moment he was walking at her side, saying, ‘What a lovely day? Do you walk here every day?’ and she said, ‘Yes, as I go from school. On Saturdays I walk by the lake.’
“‘Ah,’ he said, ‘I am thinking of walking there to-morrow. At what hour do you walk?’ ‘About 4 o’clock,’ she said. Then he looked at me. ‘Does your friend walk there, too? I have a friend who’d be glad to come.’ Then I broke in—‘No, I never walk by the lake.’ Then he bowed and left, and Belle said, ‘O, you little goose! Why did you say you didn’t walk by the lake? He’d have brought his friend and we’d have had such a good time. Ten to one he’ll bring flowers or candy, and we could take a boat ride. You were foolish.’ And I said, ‘I don’t want to walk with young men, especially if I don’t know them.’ And she laughed and said, ‘O, you’ll get over that when you’re older and learn what fun it is. My, he’s a gentleman! See how nice he dressed and what pretty teeth he had and what nice words he used.’ Now, I thought maybe I was silly, but after what you have told me to-day, I think she is 66 going in dangerous places and maybe don’t know it. I am so glad you told me.”