"Do you really want the
whole Station to be taken into our confidence?"
"I am sorry!" with half-sincere, half-mocking contrition. "I am as bad as
you are. But, as I say, there are times when I should like to shriek the
truth in the world's face, and see what it would do. I don't think
anything could be worse than our present life."
"If you did anything of the sort, I should take poison," Mrs. Cary
declared.
"No, you wouldn't. We should move on to another continent, and try our
luck there, that's all. It's the very futility of truth-telling which
prevents me from experimenting in that direction. Perhaps, as you suggest,
Mr. Travers will take the task from my shoulders."
Mrs. Cary rose to her feet and came ponderously over to her daughter's
side. Her voice, when she spoke, was troubled with genuine emotion.
"Beatrice," she said, "I don't ask respect of you--I don't suppose it
would be any sort of good if I did. You haven't any respect in you. But at
any rate have some consideration for me. You needn't make my life worse
than it is. It's no use your saying to me, 'Give up the money, and hide
your head.' I can't. I never could hide my head, and at the bottom _I_
don't believe you could either. It's the way we are made. Ever since I was
a little child, and played about in my father's shop, I wanted people to
bow down to me and respect me. I meant that one day they should. When I
married they did--for a time at least.
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