"That was
quite natural, and not at all what I call unwomanly. In fact, most
women would have acted just as she did in that respect. What I was
thinking of was those famous lines of Sir Walter Scott's. You
recollect the ones I mean, I suppose?"
"No; I don't."
"'Oh woman,'" said Meldon, "'in our hours of ease'--that's now, Major,
so far as we're concerned--'uncertain, coy, and hard to please.'
That's what Miss King ought to have been, but wasn't. Nobody can say
she was coy about the lobsters. 'When pain and anguish wring the
brow.' That's the position in which Simpkins finds himself. 'A
ministering angel thou.' That's what Miss King should be if she's what
I call a true woman, a womanly woman. But she evidently isn't. She
hasn't the maternal instinct at all strongly developed. If she had,
her heart would bleed for a helpless, unprotected creature like
Simpkins, whose brow is being wrung with the most pitiable anguish."
"Do you mean to say," said the Major, "that you think she ought to take
a pleasure in holding that beast Simpkins' head?"
"That, though you put it coarsely, is exactly what I do mean. Any true
woman would.
Pages:
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180