dria, "and
against _those_ one may surely be allowed to beat."

"Of human construction?"

"I mean that prejudice, rather than instinct, has built up the system
that Mrs. Gordon so amiably represents."

"Prejudice has perhaps taken advantage of instinct to establish a
somewhat tyrannical tradition," Miss Du Prel admitted, "but instinct is
at the bottom of it. There is, of course, in our society, no latitude
for variety of type; that is the fault of so many institutions."

"The ordinary domestic idea may have been suitable when women were
emerging from the condition of simple animals," said Hadria, "but now it
seems to me to be out of date."

"It can never be entirely out of date, dear Hadria. Nature has asked of
women a great and hard service, but she has given them the maternal
instinct and its joys, in compensation for the burden of this task,
which would otherwise be intolerable and impossible. It can only be
undertaken at the instigation of some stupendous impetus, that blinds
the victim to the nature of her mission. It must be a sort of obsession;
an intense personal instinct, amounting to madness. Nature, being
determined to be well served in this direction, has supplied the
necessary monomania, and the domestic idea, as you call it, grows up
round this central fact."

Hadria moved restlessly to and fro by the river bank. "One presumes to
look upon oneself, at first--in one's earliest youth," she said, "as
undoubtedly human, with human needs and rights and dignities. But this
turns out to be an illusion. It is as an _animal_ that one has to play
the really important part in life; it is by submitting to the demands of
society, in this respect, that one wins rewards and commendation. Of
course, if one likes to throw in a few ornamental extras, so much the
better; it keeps up appearances and the aspect of refined sentiment--but
the main point----"

"You _are_ extravagant!" cried Miss Du Prel. "That is not the right way
to look at it."

"It is certainly not the convenient way to look at it. It is doubtless
wise to weave as many garlands as you can, to deck yourself for the
sacrifice. By that means, you don't quite see which way you are going,
because of the masses of elegant vegetation."

"Ah! Hadria, you exaggerate, you distort; you forget so many
things--the sentiments, the affections, the thousand details that hallow
that crude foundation which you see only bare and unsoftened."

"A repulsive object tas