“I do not understand,” she said. “The colors wherewith I have seen the name painted are not very attractive. If I have had a mistaken impression I would like to have my error corrected.” At this moment the old gentleman, Mr. Roland, accompanied by Miss Wood, stepped up to the little group.
“What matter of importance is being discussed here with so much interest?” broke in his pleasant voice. “I must confess to a desire to join with you, but first permit me.” Here followed the necessary introductions, then Wilbur Wallace spoke.
“Miss Ellwood being a stranger to our circle, is also a stranger to the ideas usually discussed here. Consequently she finds them not unmixed with a certain amount of gruesomeness.”
“And what particular idea, or object, or fact, is it that fills you thus with unpleasant feelings?” asked Mr. Roland of Imelda.
“I think almost everything that I have heard spoken of here today. If all I have heard here today be true, every young girl would be justified in shrinking from marriage as she would from the brink of a dark abyss.”
“That is well expressed,” said Miss Wood; “and if we could but impress that idea upon the mind of every woman there would soon be a new state of affairs. When woman learns the true worth of herself she will insist on the right to dispose of herself as she will see fit, and not as she is commanded to do by the arbitrary laws of a society that is man-made.”
For a few moments Imelda was lost in thought, then her dark eyes flashed upward.
“I understand that if woman could be successful she would be able to enjoy a glorious freedom. But would not this very freedom have some very undesirable results? Undesirable as a large family of children may be to the majority of women, as it most inevitably dooms them to a life of drudgery, yet under circumstances of unlimited freedom, such as you advocate, how long would it be until the race would begin to dwindle away? For many women, as I know them, would prefer not to be mothers at all, and very few of them would wish for a large family. We all know that the life of the infant is but a tender plant that sometimes does not long survive the hour of its birth. Do you think such a state of things would be desirable?”
“My dear Miss Ellwood,” Mr. Roland replied, “the idea of the extinction of the race would indeed not be pleasant to contemplate, but the perfect freedom of woman would naturally overcome the very dangers you fear. The desired and gladly welcomed child will of necessity be superior to that which is undesired and unwelcome. When a prospective mother is filled with thoughts of that coming event she lives during that period only for the well being of that mite of humanity. She will seek to observe, to study, the laws of nature to their fullest extent, and being in the possession of sexual freedom will soon learn to understand these glorious laws. So children will be born into the world in a more normal and healthy state than is now the case, and the result will be fewer little graves. Then again woman will develop mentally and she will bestow upon her unborn babe a legacy of brain power that at present, under our corrupt social system, is an utter impossibility. So even though there would not be so many undesired unfortunate beings called into life the quality would be so vastly superior that the loss in quantity would be anything but loss,—rather gain.”
“I agree with you,” Imelda said, “but here the question arises, How will woman be enabled to gain this freedom that is to bring about so many desirable results?”