Part 98 (1/2)
”Fancy you being like this,” said Mavis, when she had dried her eyes.
”Like what?”
”Not minding my having a baby without being married.”
”I'm not such a fool as to believe in that 'tosh,'” declared Miss Toombs.
”What 'tosh,' as you call it?”
”About thinking it a disgrace to have a child by the man you love.”
”Isn't it?”
”How can it be if it's natural and inevitable?”
Mavis looked at Miss Toombs wide-eyed.
”Does the fact of people agreeing to think it wrong make it really wrong?” asked Miss Toombs, to add, ”especially when the thinking what you call 'doing wrong' is actuated by selfish motives.”
”How can morality possibly be selfish?” inquired Mavis.
”It's never anything else. If it weren't selfish it wouldn't be of use; if it weren't of use it couldn't go on existing.”
”I'm afraid I don't follow you,” declared Mavis, as she lit a cigarette.
”Wait. What would nearly all women do if you were mad enough to tell them what you've done?”
”Drop on me.”
”Why?”
”Because I've done wrong.”
”Are women 'down' on men for 'getting round' girls, or forgery, or anything else you like?”
Mavis was compelled to acknowledge her s.e.x's lack of enthusiasm in the condemnation of such malpractices.
”Then why would they hunt you down?” cried Miss Toombs triumphantly.
”Because, in doing as you've done, you've been a traitress to the economic interests of our s.e.x. Women have mutually agreed to make marriage the price of their surrender to men. Girls who don't insist on this price choke men off marrying, and that's why they're never forgiven by other women.”
”Is it you talking?”
”No, my dear Keeves; women, in this world, who look for marriage, have to play up to men and persuade them they're worth the price of a man losing his liberty.”
”But fancy you talking like that!”
”If they're pretty, and play their cards properly, they're kept for life. If they're like you, and don't get married, it's a bad look-out.
If they're pretty rotten, and have business instincts, they must make hay while the sun s.h.i.+nes to keep them when it doesn't.”