“Oh, naughty!” put in Lord Denton.
“Not at all. It has to do with a theory. It is to bring out the common sense of vegetables compared to humans. Humans condemn millions of women, specially born for motherhood, to purposeless, joyless spinsterhood, all on account of a prejudice. No green, brainless, commonplace vegetable would be guilty of such unutterable folly as that.”
“Don’t be too sweeping,” quoth Quin. “In the East End women are still mothers from choice; and given decent, healthy conditions, they would proudly raise an army to protect their country from her threatening foes. It is not their fault that 50 per cent of their offspring are sickly, anaemic little weeds.”
“It sounds as if your book has a serious side in spite of its imbecility?” suggested Lorraine.
“Imbecility and madness are usually full of seriousness,” Dick told her—“far more so than commonplace rationalism.”
“And do you want to revolutionise society?”
“Oh dear no; what an alarming idea!”
“Then what do you want?”—they asked him.
“I want to see all the superfluous unemployed spinsters busy, happy mothers, patriotically contributing to raise a splendid fighting-force, for one thing, which will certainly be regarded as an utterly imbecile idea by a magnificently rational world.”
“And have you any theory about it?” asked Lord Denton.