such and such a thing because he had been told it was right by his
parents or teachers--still more because priests or fetich-men had
commanded it--he would be regarded, not as virtuous, but as feeble
or wicked--a sort of moral idiot, unable to distinguish rationally
for himself between good and evil. That's not the sort of conduct
WE consider right or befitting the dignity of a grown man or woman,
an ethical unit in an enlightened community. Rather is it their
prime duty to question all things, to accept no rule of conduct or
morals as sure till they have thoroughly tested it."

"Mr. Ingledew," Frida exclaimed, "do you know, when you talk like
that, I always long to ask you where on earth you come from, and
who are these your people you so often speak about. A blessed
people: I would like to learn about them; and yet I'm afraid to.
You almost seem to me like a being from another planet."

The young man laughed a quiet little laugh of deprecation, and sat
down on the garden bench beside the yellow rose-bush.

"Oh, dear, no, Frida," he said, with that transparent glance of
his. "Now, don't look so vexed; I shall call you Frida if I choose;
it's your name, and I like you. Why let this funny taboo of one's
own real name stand in the way of reasonable friendship? In many
savage countries a woman's never allowed to call her husband by his
name, or even to know it, or, for the matter of that, to see him in
the daylight. In your England, the arrangement's exactly reversed:
no man's allowed to call a woman by her real name unless she's
tabooed for life to him--what you Europeans call married to him.
But let that pass. If one went on pulling oneself up short at every
one of your customs, one'd never get any further in any question