Mallard was no slave to the imbecile convention which supposes a young girl sexless in her understanding; he could not, in conformity with the school of hypocritic idealism, regard Cecily as a child of woman's growth.No.She had the fruits of a modern education; she had a lucid brain; of late she had mingled and conversed with a variety of men and women, most of them anything but crassly conventional.

It was this very aspect of her training that had caused him so much doubt.

And he knew by this time what his doubt principally meant; in a measure, it came of native conscientiousness, of prejudice which testified to his origin; but, more than that, it signified simple jealousy.

Secretly, he did not like her outlook upon the world to be so unrestrained; he would have preferred her to view life as a simpler matter.

Partly for this reason did her letters so disturb him.