Part 55 (2/2)
”Strength should marry strength, and weakness should never marry,”
persisted Maude Schofield. ”Nothing short of that will satisfy the true eugenist.”
”Theoretically,” objected Crafts. ”But Atherton was going to marry, anyhow. The only thing for me to do was to lay down a rule which he might follow safely. Besides, any other rule meant sure disaster.”
”It was the only rule with half a chance of being followed and at any rate,” drawled Kennedy, as the eugenists wrangled, ”what difference does it make in this case? As nearly as I can make out it is Mrs.
Atherton herself, not Atherton, who is ill.”
Maude Schofield had risen to return to supervising a clerk who needed help. She left us, still unconvinced.
”That is a very clever girl,” remarked Kennedy as she shut the door and he scanned Dr. Crafts' face dosely.
”Very,” a.s.sented the Doctor.
”The Schofields come of good stock?” hazarded Kennedy.
”Very,” a.s.sented Dr. Crafts again.
Evidently he did not care to talk about individual cases, and I felt that the rule was a safe one, to prevent Eugenics from becoming Gossip.
Kennedy thanked him for his courtesy, and we left apparently on the best of terms both with Crafts and his a.s.sistant.
CHAPTER x.x.xIII
THE s.e.x CONTROL
I did not see Kennedy again that day until late in the afternoon, when he came into the laboratory carrying a small package.
”Theory is one thing, practice is another,” he remarked, as he threw his hat and coat into a chair.
”Which means--in this case?” I prompted.
”Why, I have just seen Atherton. Of course I didn't repeat our conversation of this morning, and I'm glad I didn't. He almost makes me think you are right, Walter. He's obsessed by the fear of Burroughs.
Why, he even told me that Burroughs had gone so far as to take a leaf out of his book, so to speak, get in touch with the Eugenics Bureau as if to follow his footsteps, but really to pump them about Atherton himself. Atherton says it's all Burroughs' plan to break his will and that the fellow has even gone so far as to cultivate the acquaintance of Maude Schofield, knowing that he will get no sympathy from Crafts.”
”First it was Edith Atherton, now it is Maude Schofield that he hitches up with Burroughs,” I commented. ”Seems to me that I have heard that one of the first signs of insanity is belief that everyone about the victim is conspiring against him. I haven't any love for any of them--but I must be fair.”
”Well,” said Kennedy, unwrapping the package, ”there IS this much to it. Atherton says Burroughs and Maude Schofield have been seen together more than once--and not at intellectual gatherings either. Burroughs is a fascinating fellow to a woman, if he wants to be, and the Schofields are at least the social equals of the Burroughs. Besides,” he added, ”in spite of eugenics, feminism, and all the rest--s.e.x, like murder, will out. There's no use having any false ideas about THAT. Atherton may see red--but, then, he was quite excited.”
”Over what?” I asked, perplexed more than ever at the turn of events.
”He called me up in the first place. 'Can't you do something?' he implored. 'Eugenia is getting worse all the time.' She is, too. I saw her for a moment, and she was even more vacant than yesterday.”
The thought of the poor girl in the big house somehow brought over me again my first impression of Poe's story.
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