Part 35 (1/2)

_Matt._ I think you ought to hear what Mrs. Sturgess has to say----

_Renie._ [_Through her tears._] What would be the use? With such a nature as his he could never begin to understand the loyal and exalted devotion which Captain Wentworth feels for me! No, all my life I have been misunderstood, misjudged, condemned! Let it be so till the end!

Dolly, come and help me pack!

[_Exit_. MATT _goes up to table and takes up proofs of_ PROFESSOR'S _book and looks through them._

_Dolly._ You're really too severe with poor Renie----

_Prof._ I am not severe. I simply register the inevitable sentence of the husband upon the wife who misconducts herself!

_Dolly._ Misconducts herself! She has merely had a little harmless flirtation----

_Prof._ In my wife a flirtation of this character [_pointing to letter in his hand_] const.i.tutes grave misconduct.

_Dolly._ But that's perfectly ridiculous! Why it might happen to any woman! Dad, explain to him----

_Matt._ Professor, you're taking altogether a wrong view of this. Now this case you were pointing out to me in your own book [_pointing to proofs_]--Number forty-nine, Mrs. Copway. Remarkably handsome woman too!--[_reading_] ”The injustice and cruelty of condemning this poor lady must be apparent to all.” My dear Professor, before publis.h.i.+ng this book you'll have to modify your theory.

_Prof._ I cannot modify my theory. I have spent ten years in collecting facts which prove it.

_Matt._ Then, pardon me, you must really look over Mrs. Sturgess's little indiscretion.

_Prof._ That is equally impossible----

_Matt._ But you say that her action in receiving my nephew's letter was entirely due to the activity of certain atoms in the gray matter of her brain.

_Prof._ Undoubtedly that is so.

_Dolly._ Very well then, if her gray matter keeps on working wrong, what's the use of blaming her? You say yourself there's no such thing as free will----

_Prof._ Precisely, but I have always allowed that in the present low moral and intellectual condition of the herd of mankind, free will is a plausible working hypothesis.

_Dolly._ But it doesn't work! Free will won't work at all! Look at my own case! Do you suppose I should go on all my life having bills if I could help myself? [_Catching_ MATT'S _eye, who looks at her gravely and holds up his finger._] Never mind my bills! Do make him see how wrong and absurd it is to punish poor Renie when there's no such thing as free will!

_Matt._ Dolly's right! She's only saying what you have so admirably laid down here. My dear Professor, you cannot possibly publish this book!

_Prof._ But it has been announced! I must publish it.

_Matt._ You cannot. Read that. [_Giving the_ PROFESSOR _the book and pointing out pa.s.sage._] Surely after that you cannot condemn Mrs.

Sturgess.

_Prof._ [_Taking book, glancing at the pa.s.sage._] Really, it's most annoying when one's own wife upsets----

_Matt._ Oh! they're always making hay of our theories one way or the other.

_Prof._ Of course, if one presses the matter home to first principles----

_Dolly._ Yes! Yes! Well, why not act on your own first principles! You ought to be very sorry for poor Renie, considering all she has suffered.