21.  I would give you a wrong idea of Sylvia if I did not make clear that along with this sophistication as to the play-aspects of sex, there went the most incredible ignorance as to its practical realities.  In my arguments I had thought to appeal to her by referring to that feature of wage-slavery which more than even child-labour stirs the moral sense of women, but to my utter consternation I discovered that here was a woman nearly a year married who did not know what prostitution was.  A suspicion had begun to dawn upon her, and she asked me, timidly:  Could it be possible that that intimacy which was given in marriage could become a thing of barter in the market-place?  When I told her the truth, I found her horror so great that it was impossible to go on talking economics.  How could I say that women were driven to such things by poverty?  Surely a woman who was not bad at heart would starve, before she would sell her body to a man!

Perhaps I should have been more patient with her, but I am bitter on these subjects.  “My dear Mrs. van Tuiver,” I said, “there is a lot of nonsense talked about this matter.  There is very little sex-life for women without a money-price made clear in advance.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“I don’t know about your case,” I replied, “but when I married, it was because I was unhappy and wanted a home of my own.  And if the truth were told, that is why most women marry.”

“But what has THAT to do with it?” she cried.  She really did not see!

“What is the difference—­except that such women stand out for a maintenance, while the prostitute takes cash?” I saw that I had shocked her, and I said:  “You must be humble about these things, because you have never been poor, and you cannot judge those who have been.  But surely you must have known worldly women who married rich men for their money.  And surely you admit that that is prostitution?”

She fell suddenly silent, and I saw what I had done, and, no doubt, you will say I should have been ashamed of myself.  But when one has seen as much of misery and injustice as I have, one cannot be so patient with the fine artificial delicacies and sentimentalities of the idle rich.  I went ahead to tell her some stories, showing her what poverty actually meant to women.

Then, as she remained silent, I asked her how she had managed to remain so ignorant.  Surely she must have met with the word “prostitution” in books; she must have heard allusions to the “demi-monde.”

“Of course,” she said, “I used to see conspicuous-looking women at the race-track in New Orleans; I’ve sat near them in restaurants, I’ve known by my mother’s looks and her agitation that they must be bad women.  But you see, I didn’t know what it meant—­I had nothing but a vague feeling of something dreadful.”

I smiled.  “Then Lady Dee did not tell you everything about the possibilities of her system of ‘charm.’”