“For anything!” she repeated dreamily—“For an End, or a new Beginning! Yes,—I quite understand. I shall be ready.”
“Without hesitation or fear?”
“Have I shown either?”
He ventured to touch the small hand that lay passively outside the folds of her cloak.
“No,—you have been brave, docile, patient, obedient,” he answered. “All four things rare qualities in a woman!—or so men say! You would have made a good wife, only your husband would have crushed you!”
She smiled.
“I quite agree. But what crowds of women have been so ‘crushed’ since the world began!”
“They have been useful as the mothers of the race,” said Dimitrius.
“The mothers of what race?” she asked.
“The human race, of course!”