take a right view of," Dan protested.

"According to custom," said Beth. "Anything that might prevent a woman
accepting a man is carefully concealed from her. That kind of cant is
wearisome. You did not think me too young to put at the head of a
house, or to run the risk of becoming a mother, although I have heard
you dilate yourself on the horrors of premature motherhood. But that
is the way with men. For anything that suits their own convenience
they are ingenious in finding excuses. As a rule, they see but one
side of a social question, and that is their own. I cannot understand
any but unsexed women associating with vivisectors. Don't pretend you
pursue such experiments reluctantly--you delight in them. But,
whatever the excuse for them, I am sure that the time is coming when
the vivisector will be treated like the people who prepared the dead
for embalming in ancient Egypt. You will be called in when there is no
help for it; but, your task accomplished, you will be driven out of
all decent society, to consort with the hangman--if even he will
associate with you."

"Well, well!" Dan ejaculated, gazing into the fire sorrowfully. "But I
suppose this is what we should expect. It's the way of the world. A
scientific man who devotes all his time and talents to relieving his
fellow-creatures must expect to be misunderstood and reviled by way of
reward. You send for us when you want us--there's nobody like the
doctor then; but you'll grudge every penny you've got to give us, and
you'd not pay at all if you could help it. I should know."

"I was not speaking of doctors," Beth rejoined. "I was speaking of
vivisectors. But after all, what is the great outcome of your
extraordinary science? What do you do with it? Keep multitudes alive
and suffering who would be happily dead and at rest but for you! If
you practised with the honest intention of doing as much good as you
could, you would not be content merely to treat effects as you do for
the most part; you would strike at causes also; and we should hear
more of prevention and less of wonderful cures. You dazzle the
blockhead public with a showy operation, and no one thinks of asking
why it is that the necessity for this same operation recurs so often.
You know, probably, but you disclaim responsibility in the matter. It
is not your place to teach the public, you modestly protest."

"I don't know how you can say that in the face of the effort we have
made to stamp out dise