Life, and her clear way of looking at things, had rooted in her the conviction that to a woman the preciousness of her reputation was a fiction invented by men entirely for man's benefit; a second-hand fetish insidiously, inevitably set-up by men for worship, in novels, plays, and law-courts.

Her instinct told her that men could not feel secure in the possession of their women unless they could believe that women set tremendous store by sexual reputation.

What they wanted to believe, that they did believe! But she knew otherwise.

Such great-minded women as she had met or read of had always left on her the impression that reputation for them was a matter of the spirit, having little to do with sex.

From her own feelings she knew that reputation, for a simple woman, meant to stand well in the eyes of him or her whom she loved best.