used to think ladies and gentlemen never told stories; it was only the
common people who were dis-honourable, and that was what made them
common. _Hélas_! one lives and learns!"

"I don't think the world is worse than it ever was," I said, drily.

"Not worse, when we know so much better!" she answered with scorn.
"Not worse when we have learnt to see so clearly, and most of us
acknowledge that

It is our will
Which thus enchains us to permitted ill!

It is nearly two thousand years since Christianity began its work, and
it is still unaccomplished. Do you know, I sometimes think that all
this talk of virtue, and teaching of religion, is a kind of practical
joke, gravely kept up to find a church parade of respectability for
States, a profession for hundreds, and a means of influencing men by
making a tender point in their nervous system to be touched, as with a
rod, when necessary--a rod that is held over them always _in terrorem_!
We all talk about morality; but try some measure of reform, and you
will find that every man sees the necessity of it for his neighbour
only. Goodness is happiness, and sin is disease. The truism is as old
as the hills, and as evident; but if men were in earnest, do you
suppose they would go on for ever choosing sin and its ghastly
companion as they do? Do you know, there are moments when I think that
even their reverence for the purity of women is a sham. For why do
they keep us pure? Is it not to make each morsel more delicious for
themselves, that sense and sentiment may be satisfied together, and
their own pleasure made more complete? Individuals may be in earnest,