"What I mean," said Old Miss with dignity, "is that the Lord, for his own good purposes,--and it is _sinful_ to question his purposes,--regulated society as it is regulated, and placed women where they are placed. No one claims--certainly I don't claim--that women as women do not see a great deal of hardship. The Bible gives us to understand that it is their punishment. Then I say take your punishment with meekness. It is possible that by doing so you may help earn remission for all." "There was always," said Maria, "something frightful to me in the old notion of whipping-boys for kings and princes. How very bad to be the whipping-boy, and how infinitely worse to be the king or prince whose whipping-boy you were!" A red came into Mrs. Ashendyne's face. "You are at times positively blasphemous!" she said. "I do not at all see of what, personally, you have to complain. If Medway is estranged from you, you have probably only yourself to thank--" "I never wish," said Maria, "to see Medway again." Medway's mother rose with stateliness from the winged chair. "When it comes to statements like that from a wife, it is time for old-fashioned people like myself to take our leave.--Phoebe shall bring you your supper. Hagar, you had better come with me." "Leave Hagar here," said the other. "The bell will ring in ten minutes. Come, child!" "Stay where you are, Hagar. When the bell rings, she shall come." The elder Mrs. Ashendyne's voice deepened. "It is hard for me to see the mind of my son's child perverted, filled with all manner of foolish queries and rebellions." "Your son's child," answered Maria from among her pillows, "happens to be also my child. His family has just had her for a solid week. Now, pray let me have her for an hour." Her eyes, dark and large in her thin, young face, narrowed until the lashes met. "I am perfectly aware of how deplorable is the whole situation. If I were wiser and stronger and more heroic, I suppose I should break through it. I suppose I should go away with Hagar. I suppose I should learn to work. I suppose I should somehow keep us both. I suppose I might live again. I suppose I might ... even ... get a divorce--" Her mother-in-law towered. "The Bishop shall talk to you the first thing in the morning--" CHAPTER III THE DESCENT OF MAN