The idea prevalent among men that the woman to be beautiful must be
hedged about and protected from the facts of life has done something
more than produce a race of women not physically vigorous. It has made
them deficient in strength of soul also. After the evening when she
stood facing Edith and when she had been unable to arise to the
challenge flung at her by the little milliner Margaret Ormsby was
forced to stand facing her own soul and there was no strength in her
for the test. Her mind insisted on justifying her failure. A woman of
the people placed in such a position would have been able to face it
calmly. She would have gone soberly and steadily about her work and
after a few months of pulling weeds in a field, trimming hats in a
shop or instructing children in a school
