“Oh! I hate qualifying arguers--plump assertion or plump denial for me: you sha’n’t get off so. I say shame is the cause of all women’s vices.” “False shame, I suppose you mean?” said Mr. Percival. “Mere play upon words! All shame is false shame--we should be a great deal better without it. What say you, Miss Portman?--Silent, hey? Silence that speaks.” “Miss Portman’s blushes,” said Mr. Vincent, “speak _for her_.” “_Against_ her,” said Mrs. Freke: “women blush because they understand.” “And you would have them understand without blushing?” said Mr. Percival. “I grant you that nothing can be more different than innocence and ignorance. Female delicacy--” “This is just the way you men spoil women,” cried Mrs. Freke, “by talking to them of the _delicacy of their sex_, and such stuff. This _delicacy_ enslaves the pretty delicate dears.” “No; it enslaves us,” said Mr. Vincent. “I hate slavery! Vive la liberté!” cried Mrs. Freke. “I’m a champion for the Rights of Woman.” “I am an advocate for their happiness,” said Mr. Percival, “and for their delicacy, as I think it conduces to their happiness.” “I’m an enemy to their delicacy, as I am sure it conduces to their misery.” “You speak from experience?” said Mr. Percival. “No, from observation. Your most delicate women are always the greatest hypocrites; and, in my opinion, no hypocrite can or ought to be happy.” “But you have not proved the hypocrisy,” said Belinda. “Delicacy is not, I hope, an indisputable proof of it? If you mean _false_ delicacy----” “To cut the matter short at once,” cried Mrs. Freke, “why, when a woman likes a man, does not she go and tell him so honestly?” Belinda, surprised by this question from a woman, was too much abashed instantly to answer. “Because she’s a hypocrite. That is and must be the answer.” “No,” said Mr. Percival; “because, if she be a woman of sense, she knows that by such a step she would disgust the object of her affection.” “Cunning!--cunning!--cunning!--the arms of the weakest.” “Prudence! prudence!--the arms of the strongest. Taking the best means to secure our own happiness without injuring that of others is the best proof of sense and strength of mind, whether in man or woman. Fortunately for society, the same conduct in ladies which best secures their happiness most increases ours.” Mrs. Freke beat the devil’s tattoo for some moments, and then exclaimed, “You may say what you will, but the present system of society is radically wrong:--whatever is, is wrong.” “How would you improve the state of society?” asked Mr. Percival, calmly. “I’m not tinker-general to the world,” said she. “I’m glad of it,” said Mr. Percival; “for I have heard that tinkers often spoil more than they mend.” “But if you want to know,” said Mrs. Freke, “what I would do to improve the world, I’ll tell you: I’d have both sexes call things by their right names.”