"I don’t. In fact, like every healthy young human being, I am by nature something of a varietist myself. But, as a civilized member of society, I’m bound to take the institutions of my country and generation as I find them. I believe Janet will be better off, if she does so too. Let her set out to alter or revolutionize our institutions, but not to defy them." "My poor Cato! Don’t you know that numbers of the young women of today are quietly doing what numbers of the young men have always done?" "Living in illicit relations, you mean?" "That is what a ridiculous man-made custom calls it." "But, Cornelia, although many of the Lorillard girls have admittedly flung a glove in the face of social conventions—" "I’m not talking of Lorillard girls, Robert. I’m talking of teachers, lawyers, stenographers—the ’respectable’ girls who remain in their schools and offices without any loss of self-respect or public esteem, and who merely do what the ’respectable’ men do, that is, pay a mock tribute to outward appearances, and go scot free." "Exactly, Cornelia," said Robert, triumphantly. "They pay a tribute to appearances. They quietly disobey existing conventions. But they don’t defy them, much less try to alter them. They are frequently their staunchest supporters." "Just like the men." "Just like the men. But you are wrong when you say they go scot free. You are wrong again when you say that the tribute they pay is a mock tribute. It is anything but that. It is an endless payment by installments, a payment in degrading stealth and harassing secrecy." "What are you driving at?" "Janet is not the girl to pay a tribute of this kind," he said, with emphasis. "If she champions the cause of free love, she won’t do so merely to experience the ups and downs of an underground existence. She will do so, believing it to be a wise or progressive departure. And she will defend her championship in the teeth of the whole world, regardless of its effect on her future." Cornelia received this speech unmoved. "Well, why shouldn’t she?" she said. "Others have endured much more for their beliefs. To be candid, I really don’t see how Janet’s behavior concerns you, any way." "You forget, Cornelia, that I, too, talked modernism in a blue streak to her before she broke with her people. And so I feel that I share with you the responsibility for her present course." "Oh, do you?" "Yes. There’s a lot of moonshine in Kips Bay that passes for modernity. I think the least we can do is to show Janet that modernity is not simply a new watchword for moonshine. We ought to prevent her from being taken in by the illusion which the Outlaws produce of easy, satisfying intimacies between the sexes." A stream of silvery laughter escaped Cornelia. Then, in a studied tone of superiority, she replied: