touch of the crushing bodies of sweating humanity; in the coarse, low,
jest; she felt again the demon that she had heard in the laughter of
the crowd. She saw again the horror of that which had leered at her
from out the disfigured, drunken, faces of the poor creatures taken by
the police.

Must she--must she learn to laugh that laugh with the crowd? Must she
gain knowledge of the unclean, the vicious, the degrading things of
life by actual contact? Was it not enough for her to know that those
things were in the world as she knew that there was fever in the marsh
lands; or must she go in person into the muck and mire of the swamps?

So it was that this woman, who knew herself to be a woman, did not
crave Knowledge, but Ignorance. She prayed to be kept from knowing too
much. And it was well for her so to pray. It was the highest wisdom.
Because she knew her womanhood, she was afraid. She feared for her
dream life that was to be beyond the old, old, door. She feared for
that one who, perhaps, would come to cross with her the threshold for
it was given this woman to know that only with one in whose purity of
life she believed could she ever enter into the life of her dreams.
The Master of Life, in His infinite wisdom, made the heart of
womanhood divinely selfish. This woman knew that her dreams could
never be for her save through her belief in the one who should ask her
to go with him through that old, old, door. And the things that the
woman found herself learning made it hard for her to believe in any
man. The knowledge that was forced upon her was breeding doubt and
distrust and denial of good. The realization of her womanhood's
beautiful dream was possible only through wise Ignorance. She must
fight to keep from learning too much.