Volume Ii Part 33 (2/2)
Stackpole.
” 'That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain,' ” said Mrs. Evelyn.
”Yes, to flood and lay waste the fair growth of nature,” said Fleda, with a little energy, though her colour rose and rose higher. ”Did it never occur to you, Mrs. Evelyn, that the streams which fertilize as they flow, do but desolate if their course be checked?”
”But your objection lies only against the author's figure,”
said Mr. Stackpole ? ”come to the fact.”
”I was speaking as he did, Sir, of the fact under the figure ?
I did not mean to separate them.”
Both the gentlemen were smiling, though with very different expression.
”Perhaps,” said Mr. Carleton, ”the writer was thinking of a gentler and more diffusive flow of kind feeling, which, however it may meet with barren ground and raise no fruit there, is sure, in due time, to come back, heaven-refined, to refresh and replenish its source.”
”Perhaps so,” said Fleda, with a very pleased answering look ?
”I do not recollect how it is brought in ? I may have answered rather Mrs. Evelyn than Mr. Longfellow.”
”But granting that it is an error,” said Mr. Stackpole, ”as you understood it ? what shows it to have been made by a man?”
”Its utter ignorance of the subject, Sir.”
”You think _they_ never waste their affections?” said he.
”By no means! but I think they rarely waste so much in any one direction as to leave them quite impoverished.”
”Mr. Carleton, how do you bear that, Sir?” said Mrs. Evelyn.
”Will you let such an a.s.sertion pa.s.s unchecked?”
”I would not, if I could help it, Mrs. Evelyn.”
”That isn't saying much for yourself,” said Constance; ”but Fleda, my dear, where did you get such an experience of waste and desolation?”
”Oh, 'man is a microcosm,' you know,” said Fleda, lightly.
”But you make it out that only one-half of mankind can appropriate that axiom,” said Mr. Stackpole. ”How can a woman know _men's_ hearts so well?”
”On the principle that the whole is greater than a part?' said Mr. Carleton, smiling.
”I'll sleep upon that, before I give my opinion,” said Mr.
Stackpole. ”Mrs. Evelyn, good evening!” ?
”Well, Mr. Carleton!” said Constance, ”you have said a great deal for women's minds.”
”Some women's minds,” he said, with a smile.
”And some men's minds,” said Fleda. ”I was speaking only in the general.”
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