"Yes Jeanette, I confess, it was like tearing up the roots of my life to
look at this question fairly and squarely in the face, and to say, no;
but I must learn to suffer and be strong, I am deeply pained, it is
true, but I do not regret the steps I have taken. The man who claims my
love and allegiance, must be a victor and not a slave. The reeling
brain of a drunkard is not a safe foundation on which to build up a new
home."

"Well Belle, you may be right, but I think I would have risked it. I
don't think because Mr. Romaine drinks occasionally that I would have
given him up. Oh young men will sow their wild oats."

"And as we sow, so must we reap, and as to saying about young men sowing
their wild oats, I think it is full of pernicious license. A young man
has no more right to sow his wild oats than a young woman. God never
made one code of ethics for a man and another for a woman. And it is the
duty of all true women to demand of men the same standard of morality
that they do of woman."

"Ah Belle that is very fine in theory, but you would find it rather
difficult, if you tried to reduce your theory to practice."

"All that may be true, but the difficulty of a duty is not a valid
excuse for its non performance."

"My dear cousin it is not my role to be a reformer. I take things as I
find them and drift along the tide of circumstances."

"And is that your highest ideal of life? Why Jeanette such a life is not
worth living."