“And what do you think of the scheme of life, which almost forces upon our finest women, or tempts them to practise, this sort of opportunism?”
“I think it is simply savage,” answered Valeria.
Again a silence fell on the little group. The spoken words seemed to call up a host of words unspoken. There was to Hadria, a personal as well as a general significance in each sentence, that made her listen breathlessly for the next.
“How would you define a good woman?” she asked.
“Precisely as I would define a good man,” replied the Professor.
“Oh, I think we ask more of the woman,” said Valeria.
“We do indeed!” cried Hadria, with a laugh.
“One may find people with a fussy conscience, a nervous fear of wrong-doing, who are without intelligence and imagination, but you never meet the noblest, and serenest, and largest examples of goodness without these attributes,” said the Professor.
“This is not the current view of goodness in women,” said Hadria.
“Naturally. The less intelligence and imagination the better, if our current morality is to hold its own. We want our women to accept its dogmas without question. We tell them how to be good, and if they don’t choose to be good in that way, we call them bad. Nothing could be simpler.”