“I think it’s a shame that girls are not allowed to go to the university; don’t you?”
“Really, I never gave any thought to the subject, and I am not quite prepared to say.”
“Well, I think it most unfair. The university is supported by the Government, is it not? Then why should half of the population be shut out from its advantages?”
“I’m afraid it wouldn’t do, you know.”
“Why?”
“There are many reasons,” he replied evasively.
“What are they? Do you think girls could not learn, or are not as capable of hard study as well as——”
“It isn’t that,” he interrupted; “there are plenty of girls’ schools in the country, you know. Some very good ones in Toronto itself, for that matter.”
“Yes; but why shouldn’t I go to the university with my brother? There are plenty of boys’ schools, too, but the university is the university. I suppose my father helps to support it. Why, then, should one child be allowed to attend and the other not? It isn’t at all just.”
“It wouldn’t do,” said the professor more firmly, the more he thought about it.