Part 42 (1/2)
”Oh, thank you! (Infant, I implore!)”
”The baby ably impersonates Society with all its sentiments and laws, written and unwritten.”
”Ah!--and my impounded property?”
”Woman's life and freedom.”
”Ingenious! And the chain? (Oh, inexorable babe, have mercy on the sufferings of imprisoned vigour!)”
”Her affections, her pity, her compunction, which forbid her to wrench away her rightful property, because ignorant and tender hands are grasping it. The a.n.a.logy is a little mixed, but no matter.”
”I should enjoy the intellectual treat that is spread before me better, in happier circ.u.mstances, Mrs. Temperley.”
”Apply your remark to your prototype--intelligently,” she added.
”My intelligence is rapidly waning; I am benumbed. I fail to follow the intricacies of a.n.a.logy, in this constrained position.”
”Ah, so does she!”
”Oh, pitiless cherub, my muscles ache with this monotony.”
”And hers,” said Hadria.
”Come, come, life is pa.s.sing; I have but one; relax these fetters, or I die.”
Martha frowned and fretted. She even looked shocked, according to Hadria, who stood by laughing. The baby, she pointed out, failed to understand how her captive could so far forget himself as to desire to regain his liberty.
”She reminds you, sternly, that this is your proper sphere.”
”Perdition!” he exclaimed.
”As a general rule,” she a.s.sented.
The Professor laughed, and said he was tired of being a Type.
At length a little gentle force had to be used, in spite of furious resentment on the part of the baby. A more injured and ill-treated mortal could not have been imagined. She set up a heaven-piercing wail, evidently overcome with indignation and surprise at the cruel treatment that she had received. What horrid selfishness to take oneself and one's property away, when an engaging innocent enjoys grasping it and stuffing it into its mouth!
”Don't you feel a guilty monster?” Hadria enquired, as the lament of the offended infant followed them up the road.
”I feel as if I were slinking off after a murder!” he exclaimed ruefully. ”I wonder if we oughtn't to go back and try again to soothe the child.” He paused irresolutely.
Hadria laughed. ”You _do_ make a lovely allegory!” she exclaimed. ”This sense of guilt, this disposition to go back--this att.i.tude of apology--it is speaking, inimitable!”
”But meanwhile that wretched child is shrieking itself into a fit!”
cried the allegory, with the air of a repentant criminal.
”Whenever you open your mouth, out falls a symbol,” exclaimed Hadria.
”Be calm; Hannah will soon comfort her, and it is truer kindness not to remind her again of her grievance, poor little soul. But we will go back if you like (you are indeed a true woman!), and you can say you are sorry you made so free with your own possessions, and you wish you had done your duty better, and are eager to return and let Her Majesty hold you captive. Your prototype always does, you know, and she is nearly always pardoned, on condition that she never does anything of that kind again.”