“You attack the family!” cried the Professor.
“If the family makes itself ridiculous——?”
The Professor and Hadria laughed. Valeria was growing excited.
“The natural instinct of man to get his fun at his neighbour’s expense meets with wholesome rebuffs in the outer world,” said the Professor, “but in the family it has its chance. That’s why the family is so popular.”
Valeria, with her wonted capriciousness, veered round in defence of the institution that she had been just jeering at.
“Well, after all, it is the order of Nature to have one’s fun at the expense of someone, and I don’t believe we shall ever be able to practise any other principle, I mean on a national scale, however much we may progress.”
“Oh, but we shan’t progress unless we do,” said the Professor.
“You are always paradoxical.”
“There is no paradox here. I am just as certain as I am of my own existence, that real, solid, permanent progress is impossible to any people until they recognise, as a mere truism, that whatever is gained by cruelty, be it towards the humblest thing alive, is not gain, but the worst of loss.”
“Oh, you always go too far!” cried Valeria.