Feminist fiction; Historical fiction; Southern States -- Fiction; Women -- Southern States -- Fiction; Women authors -- Fiction
"There's so much to do and so few are doing it," said Denny. His eyes
were upon the great forest bough, but he seemed to be looking beyond
it, down long, long vistas. "I don't know that I worship work. But I
want every prisoner of wrong to rebel. And there's no time to waste
when you have to pass the word along to so many cells. Sometimes I
feel, too, like sitting down and playing, but when I do, I always begin
after a little to hear the chains." He laughed. "And I like you and
Rose preaching _dolce far niente_! If ever there were two who had the
power of work--!"
"All the same," said Hagar, "go to bed before two o'clock, won't you?"
He shook hands around and was gone. "What a wonderful face!" said Lily;
and Fay nodded. "A kind of worn, warrior angel--"
Hagar took Lily's hand and kissed it. "You've defined Denny to a
nicety! 'A kind of worn, warrior angel'--I like that!... No, don't go!
It isn't late."
"We'll stay, then, just one other half-hour. And now," said Lily, "tell
me about yourself. We see your name, of course, and what the papers
think you are doing. But you yourself--"
"But I myself?" said Hagar. "Ah, if you'll tell me, I'll tell you!" The
great bough of red leaves against the wall was repeated in miniature by
a spray upon the table, resting in a piece of cloudy Venetian glass.
Hagar took it from the vase and sat studying it, colour and line. She
sat at ease in the deep chair, her long, slender limbs composed, her
head thrown back against green-bronze, an arm bent and raised, the
wine-red spray in her hand. "What," she said, "does a man or woman do
in a dusty day's march of every great transit? About that is what I and
many others have been doing, in this age as in other ages. Millions of
minds to reach with a statement that for reasons of weight the column
must surmount such a hill and again such a hill, the line of march
lying truly on higher levels. The statement did not originate with the
messengers of this or any other age; it is social, and the inner urge
would send the marchers somehow on, but there is needed interpreting,
clarifying, articulation--hence the office that we fill, though we fill
it as yet, I know, weakly enough! So it means a preoccupation with
communication--ways and means of reaching minds. And that, lacking
a developed telepathy, means the spoken and the written word. And
that means, seeing we have such great numbers to reach, a continuing
endeavour to reach people in congregation. And that means arrangement,
going from place to place, much time that you sigh for consumed, some
weariness, a great number of petty happenings--and a vast insight into
life and the way it is lived and the beings who live it! It means
contacts with reality and a feeding the springs of humour and an
acquaintance with the truly astonishing forest of human motives. And
there is organization work and correspondence, and much of what might
be called drudgery unless you can put the glow about it.... And there
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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