And in Cecily's case, I
believe I have vindicated my theory. She respects herself; she knows all that
lack of self-respect involves. She has been fed on wholesome victuals, not on
adulterated milk. She is not haunted with that vulgar shame which passes for
maiden modesty. Do you find fault with her, as a girl?«
    »I should have to ponder long for an objection.«
    »And what is the practical result? In whatever society she is, I am quite
easy in mind about her. Cecily will never do anything foolish. It's only the
rose-coloured spectacles that cause stumbling. And I mean by stumbling all the
silliness to which girls are subject. Ah! if I could live my girlhood over
again, and with some sensible woman to guide me! If I could have been put on my
guard against idiotic illusions, as Cecily is!«
    »We mustn't expect too much of education,« Eleanor ventured to remark.
»There is no way of putting experience into a young girl's head. It would say
little for her qualities if a girl could not make a generous mistake.«
    »Such mistakes are not worthy of being called generous, as a rule. They are
too imbecile. That state of illusion is too contemptible. There is very little
danger of Cecily's seeing any one in a grossly false light.«
    Eleanor did not at once assent.
    »You seem to doubt that?« added the other, with a searching look.
    »I think she is as well guarded as a girl can be; but, as I said before,
education is no substitute for experience. Don't think me captious, however. I
sympathize entirely with the course you have taken. If I had a daughter, I
should like her to be brought up on the same principles.«
    »Cecily is very mature for her age,« continued Mrs. Lessingham, with evident
pleasure in stating and restating her grounds of confidence. »She feels
strongly, but never apart from judgment. Now and then she astonishes me with her
discernment of character; clearness of thought seems almost to anticipate in her
the experience on which you lay such stress. Have you noticed her with Mr.
Mallard? How differently many girls would behave! But Cecily understands him so
well; she knows he thinks of her as a child, and nothing could be more simply
natural than her friendship for him. I suppose Mr. Mallard is one of the artists
who never marry?«
    »I don't know