'And who are the heroes that you've written about?' Dick asked, and fearing she would enter into too long an explanation he asked if the manuscript she held in her hand was a play.
'No, a poem,' she answered. 'I'm studying it for recitation, one I'm going to recite after my lecture at the Working Men's Club; and the subject of my lecture is the inherent nobility of man, and the necessity of man worship. Women have turned from men and are occupied now with their own aspirations, losing sight thereby of the ideal that God gave them. My poem is a sort of abstract, an epitome, a compendium of the lecture itself.'
Dick did not understand, but the fact that a lady was going in for recitation argued that she was interested in theatricals, and with his ears pricked like a hound who has got wind of something, he said with a sweet smile that showed a whole row of white teeth:
'Being an actor myself, I will take the liberty of asking you to allow me to look at your poem, and perhaps if you're studying for recitation I may be of use to you.'
'Of the very greatest use,' the lady answered, and handed him her manuscript; 'one of a set of classical cartoons,' she added.
'Humanity in large lines,' he replied.
'How quickly you understand,' she rapped out; 'removed altogether from the tea-table in subject and in metre. What have you got to say, my hero, to me about my rendering of these lines?
'"The offspring of Neptune and Terra, daughters of earth
and ocean,
Dowered with fair faces of woman, capping the bodies
of vultures;
Armed with sharp, keen talons; crushing and rending
and slaying,
Blackening and blasting, defiling, spoiling the meats
of all banquets;
Plundering, perplexing, pursuing, cursing the lives of
our heroes,
Ever the Harpyiae flourish—just as a triumph of evil."'
'Hardly anything; and yet if I may venture a criticism—would you mind passing your manuscript on to me for a moment? May I suggest an emendation that will render the recitation more easy and more effective?'
'Certainly you may.'