Harry spoke, trembling with emotion; and Rose felt almost terrified with the storm she had raised.

“O Mr. Endicott!” she said, “was this worthy of you? was there nothing better, higher, more manly than this poor revenge?  You men are stronger than we:  you have the world in your hands; you have a thousand resources where we have only one.  And you ought to be stronger and nobler according to your advantages; you ought to rise superior to the temptations that beset a poor, weak, ill-educated woman, whom everybody has been flattering from her cradle, and whom you, I dare say, have helped to flatter, turning her head with compliments, like all the rest of them.  Come, now, is not there something in that?”

“Well, I suppose,” said Harry, “that when Lillie and I were girl and boy together, I did flatter her, sincerely that is.  Her beauty made a fool of me; and I helped make a fool of her.”

“And I dare say,” said Rose, “you told her that all she was made for was to be charming, and encouraged her to live the life of a butterfly or canary-bird.  Did you ever try to strengthen her principles, to educate her mind, to make her strong?  On the contrary, haven’t you been bowing down and adoring her for being weak?  It seems to me that Lillie is exactly the kind of woman that you men educate, by the way you look on women, and the way you treat them.”

Harry sat in silence, ruminating.

“Now,” said Rose, “it seems to me it’s the most cowardly and unmanly thing in the world for men, with every advantage in their hands, with all the strength that their kind of education gives them, with all their opportunities,—­a thousand to our one,—­to hunt down these poor little silly women, whom society keeps stunted and dwarfed for their special amusement.”

“Miss Ferguson, you are very severe,” said Harry, his face flushing.

“Well,” said Rose, “you have this advantage, Mr. Endicott:  you know, if I am, the world will not be.  Everybody will take your part; everybody will smile on you, and condemn her.  That is generous, is it not?  I think, after all, Noah Claypole isn’t so very uncommon a picture of the way that your lordly sex turn round and cast all the blame on ours.  You will never make me believe in a protracted flirtation between a gentleman and lady, where at least half the blame does not lie on his lordship’s side.  I always said that a woman had no need to have offers made her by a man she could not love, if she conducted herself properly; and I think the same is true in regard to men.  But then, as I said before, you have the world on your side; nine persons out of ten see no possible harm in a man’s taking every advantage of a woman, if she will let him.”

“But I care more for the opinion of the tenth person than of the nine,” said Harry; “I care more for what you think than any of them.  Your words are severe; but I think they are just.”

“O Mr. Endicott!” said Rose, “live for something higher than for what I think,—­than for what any one thinks.  Think how many glorious chances there are for a noble career for a young man with your fortune, with your leisure, with your influence! is it for you to waste life in this unworthy way?  If I had your chances, I would try to do something worth doing.”