Page:My Dear Cornelia (1924).pdf/28

 which no one but the novelist betrays much curiosity or provides much light. And so, for novelists, I wish freedom to confess, and, for myself, freedom to comment on their confessions—though, since they have become so desperately confessive, it seems frequently indelicate to do so. If they are, as you assert, definitely challenging the idea of chastity, the matter is indeed of more than merely literary interest. I should like to know whether our standards are undergoing revolutionary change. Won't you please go out and 'call a halt,' while I go home and inquire in my own fashion whether anything is going on; whether the idea of chastity has actually been challenged; if so, what idea of chastity, why, where, when, in what manner, and with what results?"

"You are hopeless," said Cornelia, rising. "I shall ask the Bishop to make this the subject of one of his Lenten discourses."

"That will be just the thing," I rejoined, "to induce profound reflection in our novelists."