Until this moment I didn't realise how much I do like her--how pleasant it is to be with a girl who is absolutely fearless, clever, witty, intelligent, and unspoiled." "Are there no girls in your own set who conform to this standard ?" "Plenty.

But their very environment and conventional traditions kill them--make them a nuisance." "Louis!" "That's more plain truth, which no woman likes.

Will you tell me what girl in your world, who approaches the qualitative standard set by Valerie West, would go about by day or evening with any man except her brother?
Valerie does.

What girl would be fearless enough to ignore the cast-iron fetters of her caste?
Valerie West is a law unto herself--a law as sweet and good and excellent and as inflexible as any law made by men to restrain women's liberty, arouse them to unhappy self-consciousness and infect them with suspicion.

Every one of you are the terrified slaves of custom, and you know it.