I won't say that every girl can safely be left so free as I have left Cecily; but when one has to deal with exceptional intelligence, why not yield it the exceptional advantages?
Then again, I had to bear in mind that Cecily has strong emotions.

This seemed to me only another reason for releasing her mind from the misconceptions it is usual to encourage.

I have done my best to help her to see things as they _are_, not as moral teachers would like them to be, and as parents make-believe to their girls that they are indeed." Mrs.Lessingham ended on a suave note of triumph, and smiled very graciously as Eleanor looked approval.
"The average parent says," she pursued, "that his or her daughter must be kept pure-minded, and therefore must grow up in a fool's paradise.

I have no less liking for purity, but I understand it in rather a different sense; certain examples of the common purity that I have met with didn't entirely recommend themselves to me.

Then again, the average parent says that the daughter's lot in life is marriage, and that after marriage is time enough for her to throw away the patent rose-coloured spectacles.