“No good ever came of mere revenge, however,” said Professor Theobald.
“Sometimes that is the only form of remonstrance that is listened to,” said Hadria. “When people have the law in their own hands and Society at their back, they can afford to be deaf to mere verbal protest.”
“As for the child,” said Lady Engleton, “she will be in no little danger of a fate like her mother’s.”
Hadria’s face darkened.
“At least then, she shall have some free and happy hours first; at least she shall not be driven to it by the misery of moral starvation, starvation of the affections. She shall be protected from the solemn fools—with sawdust for brains and a mechanical squeaker for heart—who, on principle, cut off from her mother all joy and all savour in life, and then punished her for falling a victim to the starved emotional condition to which they had reduced her.”
“The matter seems complex,” said Lady Engleton, “and I don’t see how revenge comes in.”
“It is a passion that has never been eradicated. Oh, if I could but find that man!”
“A man is a hard thing to punish,—unless he is in love with one.”
“Well, let him be in love!” cried Hadria fiercely.