"What an awful idea!" laughed Brook. "Yes, but in theory--" "Oh, in theory it's all right. But in practice we men are not wrapped in cotton and tied up with pink ribbons from the day we are born to the day we are married. I--I don't exactly know how to explain what I mean, but that's the general idea. Among poor people--I believe one mustn't say the lower classes any more--well, with them it isn't quite the same. The women don't get so much care and looking after, when they are young, you know--that sort of thing. The consequence is, that there's much more equality between men and women. I believe the women are worse, and the men are better--it's my opinion, at all events. I dare say it isn't worth much. It's only what I see at home, you know." "But the working people don't flirt!" exclaimed Clare. "They drink, and that sort of thing--" "Yes, lots of them drink, men and women. And as for flirting--they don't call it flirting, but in their way I dare say it's very much the same thing. Only, in our part of the country, a man who flirts, if you call it so, gets just as bad a name as a woman. You see, they have all had about the same bringing up. But with us it's quite different. A girl is brought up in a cage, like a turtle dove, with nothing to do except to be good, while a boy is sent to a public school when he is eleven or twelve, which is exactly the same as sending him to hell, except that he has the certainty of getting away." "But boys don't learn to flirt at Eton," observed the young girl. "Well--no," answered Johnstone. "But they learn everything else, except Latin and Greek, and they go to a private tutor to learn those things before they go to the university." "You mean that they learn to drink and gamble, and all that?" asked Clare. "Oh--more or less--a little of everything that does no good--and then you expect us afterwards to be the same as you are, who have been brought up by your mothers at home. It isn't fair, you know." "No," answered Clare, yielding. "It isn't fair. That strikes me as the best argument you have used yet. But it doesn't make it right, for all that. And why shouldn't men be brought up to be good, just as women are?" Brook laughed. "That's quite another matter. Only a paternal government could do that--or a maternal government. We haven't got either, so we have to do the best we can. I only state the fact, and you are obliged to admit it. I can't go back to the reason. The fact remains. In certain ways, at a certain age, all men as a rule are bad, and all women, on the whole, are good. Most of you know it, and you judge us accordingly and make allowances. But you yourself don't seem inclined to be merciful. Perhaps you'll be less hard-hearted when you are older." "I'm not hard-hearted!" exclaimed Clare, indignantly. "I'm only just. And I shall always be the same, I'm sure."