“Sprouting up for the first time perhaps,” Hadria suggested.
“They seem to be disappearing, if what you say has the slightest foundation.”
“Oh, you are speaking of only one kind of instinct. The others have all been suppressed. Perhaps women are not altogether animals after all. The thought is startling, I know. Try to face it.”
“I never supposed they were,” cried Valeria, a little annoyed.
“But you never made allowance for the suppressed instincts,” said Hadria.
“I don’t believe they can be suppressed.”
“I believe they can be not merely suppressed, but killed past hope of recovery. And I also believe that there may be, that there must be, ideas and emotions fermenting in people’s brains, quite different from those that they are supposed and ordered to cherish, and that these heresies go on working in secret for years before they become even suspected, and then suddenly the population exchange confessions.”
“After that the Deluge!” exclaimed Miss Du Prel. “You describe the features of a great revolution.”
“So much the better,” said Hadria; “and when the waters sink again, a nice fresh clean world!”